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Chapter 23
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Poppy War, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Dehumanization and the Horrors of War
Identity, Cultural Trauma, and Coming of Age
The Purpose of Education
Addiction, Drugs, and Control
History
Summary
Analysis
Rin wakes up in the dark, bound and in pain. She realizes she’s in a moving wagon and wiggles to the edge to peek outside. There are household items littered along the road—the residents of this town have clearly abandoned their belongings as they fled. Rin doesn’t know if Feylen did this, or if the Federation did. She’s horrified when they pass a man selling two toddler girls. Just then, Rin realizes Altan is in the wagon with her. Altan begins to call fire to burn the ropes and the wagon—but Federation soldiers pull the cover off the wagon, douse Altan with fire, and inject Rin with something.
With a rogue god on the loose, Rin understands that she and Altan now have one more enemy to worry about. And just like the Federation, Feylen won’t stop at just hurting Altan and Rin: the gods seem to care little for humanity anymore, so they’d have no qualms about destroying a town just because they can. This similarity between the Federation and the gods points to the Federation’s power. It also implies that Nikan doesn’t have great chances in this war.
Themes
Rin wakes up again strapped to a bed with lights overhead. Altan is strapped down nearby—and in jars around the room, there are preserved organs from Nikara men, women, and children. Altan says he “never thought [he’d] be back,” and Rin remembers that the Federation experimented on Speerlies between the Poppy Wars. They’re in the research facility where Altan grew up and where they got him addicted to opium. Rin realizes Snake Province, where the facility is located, has fallen. Altan begins to talk. He notes that Speer isn’t far away, and as a child, he thought he could swim home. He kept waiting for a family member to come and rescue him, but when the Hesperians liberated the facility, they said everyone was dead.
Once again, what Rin and Altan wake up to is chilling. But this is another place where Kuang has pulled from the historical record, this time referencing the Japanese Unit 731, which conducted horrific human experiments on prisoners. In the novel, the Federation scientists seemingly used opium to control Altan and keep him dependent on them for his next fix—and less willing to fight back.
Themes
A moment later, a small man with a bright, chipper voice steps out and introduces himself as Dr. Shiro, the “chief medical officer” here. He cheerfully greets Altan, whom he’s glad to see again, and injects something into Altan’s wrist. Altan shrieks, and Rin screams for Dr. Shiro to stop—he’s killing Altan. Dr. Shiro explains that Altan is very addicted and will be fine. He then explains that he wants “knowledge” and that his research will further medical knowledge and technology immensely. He praises Speerly bodies for being “fascinating” and “composed of such lovely material,” unlike the “pathetic Nikara.” He asks Rin to call the Phoenix and show him the fire. When she refuses, he says he’ll give Altan another injection each time she refuses. This goes on for hours.
Dr. Shiro injects Altan with heroin, a more concentrated form of opium. His explanation of what he wants from Altan and Rin exposes his bigotry and confirms that he sees the Speerlies as both somehow human and less than human. Additionally, the fact that he wants to advance medical knowledge is another nod to the historical record. The scientists who performed experiments with Unit 731 were ultimately able to publish some of their findings in established medical journals.
Themes
Hours later, Dr. Shiro remarks on Altan’s tolerance to opium. Rin insists that’s Dr. Shiro’s fault, but Dr. Shiro laments that the masters continued to give it to Altan. He also suggests that there’s precedent for “us[ing] opium to control a population,” and the Nikara did it first: the Red Emperor sent opium to Speer and almost instantly got the Speerlies addicted. That’s how Nikan kept control of the Speerlies. Rin wants to deny this, but it makes sense. Dr. Shiro promises Rin freedom if she cooperates, but she threatens to burn him if he lets her call the Phoenix. Finally, Dr. Shiro leaves, and guards carry Rin and Altan to a cell.
Rin doesn’t necessarily want to learn that Nikan, the country she’s spent years now trying to serve well, is explicitly responsible for harming Speerlies. Similarly, she doesn’t want to know that her masters, people she admired, continued to drug Altan. But in part due to centuries of dehumanization and their desire to control him just as the Red Emperor controlled the Speerlies, the masters were able to justify facilitating Altan’s addiction.
Themes
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Rin holds Altan. Finally, he comes to. When he says that he’s only in pain when the drug wears off, Rin suddenly realizes that opium is how Altan and the Speerlies keep any of their sanity: between the painful desire for the drug when they’re sober, and the Phoenix “screaming for destruction” in their heads, opium is an attractive option. Rin realizes she’s known this for some time, but she wanted to “trust that her commander was sane.” She also has tied her identity to Altan’s—she doesn’t know who she is without him. Altan comes down off the drug over the next few hours. It’s a painful process, and he begs for death. Rin considers killing him to save him more pain, like when she killed the chimei, but she realizes that right now, Altan is “the tragic, glaring proof that her heroes inevitably let her down.”
What Altan says about feeling terrible only when the opium wears off can be read as a nod more broadly to the woes of drug addiction. Someone addicted is going to spend time sober trying to get their next fix, as Rin saw Tutor Feyrik doing in the first chapter. This is a huge blow to Rin, as she wanted to believe that Altan was in control of his own thoughts and actions. But now, even if she can empathize with what he’s going through, Rin still feels like Altan’s loss of control over his life and his goals means that he’s let her down.
Themes
Dr. Shiro approaches Rin and Altan’s cell with round containers containing the plague virus. Though Nikan has been free of the plague for a while, releasing it will help the Federation win faster. If Rin and Altan cooperate, they’ll be spared. Rin, though, stands and says she’ll be loyal to the Empress till the end. Dr. Shiro, though, reveals that the Empress sold Rin and Altan out to the Federation. Altan throws himself at the bars and calls the fire. A guard subdues him and another injects him with heroin—and before Dr. Shiro can protest, the guard injects Rin, too. Heroin forces her out of her body and into the spirit world. Finally, she feels free. She finds Altan in the spirit realm, which is easy to do now that she knows how much he hurts.
Again, this passage pulls from history: Unit 731 conducted experiments using the plague and venereal diseases (among others) on their human prisoners. Rin’s naivety is on full display here as she professes her loyalty to the Empress, and Shiro then confirms what readers have been led to suspect for a while: the Empress doesn’t have her country’s best interests at heart. This also forcefully confirms Rin’s earlier lamentation that all her heroes let her down. Now, all she has left is herself.
Themes
In the spirit realm, Rin takes in Altan’s pain and misery. He wants to die, but Rin is too angry to let him die—or let herself die—without seeking vengeance first. She asks Altan to give her “the anger of all of Speer” so she can use it, even if it will ultimately kill her. Rin insists that they aren’t cowardly like Jiang or Tearza. They can’t abandon the Speerlies’ memory, and they can’t let the Cike end up in Dr. Shiro’s lab as experiments. This perks Altan up. He says that the Phoenix is the god of revenge, and the Speerlies gain power from suffering years of “festering hatred.” To access it, they need to visit the Speerlies. Altan takes Rin back centuries to a campfire, to a shared memory of a Speerly celebration.
Rin sees the abuse she and Altan are currently suffering, and the Empress’s betrayal, as just more data points in the long history of Nikan abusing and otherwise destroying the Speerlies (and other shamans, hence the concern for the Cikes’ safety). The narrative then explicitly links the Speerlies’ power to their hatred and their desire for revenge. And while the novel doesn’t excuse the way Nikan has treated the Speerlies or suggest they don’t deserve justice of some sort, it also heavily implies that there will be consequences for calling the Phoenix simply to carry out revenge.
Themes
Rin realizes that Jiang was wrong that all spirits return to the void when people die: the Speerlies don’t, as they need vengeance before their spirits can find peace. Rin and Altan discuss staying here in the spirit realm and letting their bodies die, but they note the spirit Speerlies’ rage and sadness. The Speerlies, Altan explains, have suffered for centuries, and he and Rin must “make those deaths mean something.” The ghosts tell Rin everything about Speer and that she must go to the temple on Speer, find the Pantheon, and call the Phoenix. The ghosts bless Rin, and she and Altan return to the real world. They come to on operating tables, and their flames immediately burn the assistant leaning over them. The flames spread, burning Rin and Altan’s restraints. Dr. Shiro points a crossbow at them, but Altan approaches and burns the doctor.
The abuse perpetuated against the Speerlies has not just ruined their lives; it’s also caused them to suffer eternally, in the afterlife. This makes Rin feel even more obligated to do something to right the wrongs the Speerlies have suffered. But while Rin seems to have fully rejected Jiang’s warnings and advice at this point, readers shouldn’t forget his warnings that calling gods the way that Rin and Altan immediately begin to when they return to their bodies will inevitably cause a person to go mad—or cause other damage.
Themes
Rin and Altan run through the research facility, looking for a way out. They find a door, shoot a few approaching Federation soldiers with a crossbow, and then fight together to take out more approaching soldiers. As more soldiers chase them down to the sea, it seems as though they’re suddenly surrounded by Federation soldiers on land and ships at sea. Altan points Rin in the direction of Speer and says he’s going to do his best to do the right thing. He grasps Rin’s face for a moment, says she’s strong, and runs away toward the research facility. He calls the Phoenix. Rin hears it laugh. Tearza weeps and cries out that “the fire takes, and takes, and takes.” Altan sends fire in all directions, destroying the facility and throwing Rin into the water.
There are two ways to read what happens here. First, Altan sacrifices himself so Rin can go on to do as the Speerlies told her in the previous passage. In this reading, Altan is heroic, and Rin is righteous. Tearza’s words, however, suggest a different reading: Altan’s connection to the Phoenix amounts to the Phoenix “tak[ing], and tak[ing],” culminating in it “tak[ing] one of the last living Speerlies. It takes from Rin, too—and it stands to take much more from her if she follows the Speerlies’ instructions.
Themes
