45 pages • 1-hour read
Midnight for Charlie Bone: The Children of the Red King #1
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Struggle Between Good and Evil
Midnight for Charlie Bone explores the dichotomy of good versus evil that is common to the genre of children’s fantasy, such as J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, and Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. The Children of the Red King series’s good-and-evil conflict stems from the original 10 children of the Red King, all of whom inherited aspects of his power and split into two groups: “Five of his children turned to wickedness and the other five, seeking to escape the corruption that surrounded their evil siblings, left their father’s castle forever” (viii). While the conflict began centuries ago, the same conflict continues in the present with the Red King’s living descendants. However, the critical point here is that while half of the children weren’t malicious, they decided to leave rather than fight back against their family’s evil actions. This is still the case in the current version of the “war,” as the Bloors and Yewbeams are allowed to pursue their schemes, such as the kidnapping of Emma Tolly, mostly unchecked. A few people stood up to them, such as Lyell Bone, when he tried to intervene at the cathedral, but they were isolated and unsuccessful. The remaining “good” characters, like Uncle Paton, keep their heads down.
What Charlie brings to the war is the cascading inspiration for the others to have the courage to finally act. He is unable to sit by when he learns what happened to Emma and successfully rallies a group to save her from her state of hypnosis. However, his actions ripple beyond just the immediate group in the book. For example, when Charlie is trapped in the ruins during the ruin game, Gabriel Silk gathers two other endowed children, Lysander and Tancred, to outright fight the evil endowed children keeping Charlie trapped. Likewise, Paton takes a stand at Bloor’s Academy not long after. He finally asserts himself to save Emma using the same power he previously tried to hide. His explosive confrontation at the school is not only a literal victory for the characters, as he is able to secure Emma’s legal papers, but a symbolic one for the side of good. In deciding to act, he finally took back some measure of their power. Good and evil in the book are not inherited traits, but the products of the characters’ actions and what they are willing to allow to happen. When Charlie’s mother suggests he not return to the school after the break, he says, “I know there are some really bad things going on at Bloor’s, but there are good things, too. And I think I might be needed, to kind of help out” (395). Emma makes a similar sentiment in her final speech at Miss Ingledew’s party. While those in previous generations who weren’t outright malicious were content to run or hide, it is no longer the case. One by one, the good descendants of the Red King are beginning to act.
The Power of Friendship
Like many works in the genre of children’s fantasy literature, the theme at the heart of Midnight for Charlie Bone is the power of friendship. Even before he is made to attend Bloor’s Academy by Grandma Bone and her sisters, Charlie’s friendship with Benjamin Brown forms the backbone of his everyday life, and it later provides Charlie with a safe place to retreat when things become overwhelming. He is the first person Charlie turns to when he starts hearing the photographs, and they hide the case containing Tolly Twelve Bells together.
Once at Bloor’s Academy, the new friendships Charlie forms there are critical not only to navigating the school but also to surviving it. Despite the ostensibly artistic focus of its curricula, Bloor’s Academy is cold, rigid, and isolating. The school’s emphasis on individual talent and supernatural power, while valuable, risks creating rivalry and self-centeredness among students. Charlie’s friendships offer an alternative to the competitive spirit, illustrating that the true value of their abilities lies in how they can be used to help others. Friendship becomes a power in its own right, letting the characters stand up to the unjust authority figures in their lives. As a result, the bonds formed among the children become an act of defiance against the Bloors and the Yewbeams.
When Charlie is trapped in the ruin during the book’s climax, none of the adults at the school move to act. It isn’t the first time a child has gone missing during the ruin game, and they are unbothered, including Aunt Lucretia. It is only the children who act. Fidelio gets Gabriel Silk’s attention, and he, in turn, takes several of the other endowed students on a rescue mission. Despite only being students, the children are determined: “Shoulder to shoulder they walked past Dr. Bloor locking his office, past Dr. Saltweather carrying a music stand, and past Mr. Paltry tidying up the lanterns. None of the teachers could stop the three boys” (373-74). The united front they make is a threat to the academy’s control. Children, when they have friendship and a shared goal, can become a formidable force in their own right. It’s also friendship that leads to Emma’s enchantment being broken. Olivia succeeds in connecting with Emma despite the attempts by the Bloors and the Moons to keep her under their strict control, and the others give Emma support once Tolly Twelve Bells frees her. Again and again, the bonds the children form with each other provide them with the courage to defend each other and fight back against the adults who want to exploit and isolate them. Friendship means they are there for each other in times of need and that none of them faces their respective challenges alone.
The Weight of Family Legacy
The title of the series, the Children of the Red King, hints at the theme underlying not only the external conflict of the war between the endowed but the individual characters: the impact the legacy of their shared family has on their identities, choices, and relationships. Most of the cast are descendants of the Red King. While some of them inherited his magical abilities, plenty of them didn’t. However, it doesn’t exempt them from the centuries-long fight between them. While the “good” five of the Red King’s children tried to leave to avoid their siblings, as Paton says, “they couldn’t escape, Charlie, because some of their children became wicked too, and often the children of the bad were born good. In this way, the families were bound together, forever, never able to break free from their past” (350). In their world, family bonds are not just ties of kinship but ties of long-standing rivalries and ambitions. Charlie is an immediate example, as he is unambiguously good yet is descended from the conniving and manipulative Yewbeam family. The Yewbeam sisters, especially Grandma Bone, are proud of the legacy and delighted by Charlie’s becoming “a proper Yewbeam” (6) when his endowment manifests itself. They see Charlie as a continuation of the family’s legacy and expect him to follow a path they’ve laid out, regardless of his wishes. This includes forcing him to attend Bloor’s Academy and using the threat of pulling their financial support from the family to coerce him and his mother. Their pride becomes a burden for Charlie as their expectations conflict with his natural curiosity, kindness, and desire for justice. The issue of legacy becomes more pronounced when Charlie begins attending Bloor’s Academy. The school itself is a place where the Bloors and Yewbeams gather the endowed to develop their abilities and reinforce the power of their family lines.
When Charlie learns about their family’s past from Paton, it also shows the readers how power and conflict can be inherited in a brutal cycle. The Red King’s own legacy was complicated by his descendants’ choices, as some used their abilities for good while others pursued domination and power. By learning about the history, Charlie can see his place in the cycle, and therefore, he can either perpetuate or alter it. In choosing to help his friends and protect those who cannot defend themselves, Charlie distances himself from the darker aspects of his inheritance.
Unlock every key theme and why it matters
Get in-depth breakdowns of the book’s main ideas and how they connect and evolve.
- Explore how themes develop throughout the text
- Connect themes to characters, events, and symbols
- Support essays and discussions with thematic evidence