61 pages • 2-hour read
The Jasad Heir
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.
Symbols & Motifs
Essam Woods
Essam Woods, the forested area that runs along the borders of all five kingdoms, serves as a symbol of control. The novel begins with Sylvia searching for frogs in Essam Woods, the same place where she spent five years of torment with Hanim. The people of Mahair hold superstitious beliefs about the woods, as demonstrated by Marek and Sefa “avert[ing] their gaze from the woods” when they sit on the roof of the keep (14). Nizahl carves ravens into the trees of the woods as a way of banning the citizens of Omal from the area, despite the woods running into Omal’s territory. Nizahl uses the woods to control the citizens of the other kingdoms under the guise of protecting them from danger, even though the magical monsters within the woods no longer exist. The only monster in the woods was Hanim, who kept Sylvia in the woods to control her.
Hanim herself did not choose the woods; the Malik and Malika chose for her when they sent her into exile. When Rory tells Sylvia the truth about Hanim’s exile, Sylvia thinks, “The irony, oh, delicious irony! All along, Hanim’s hatred for Nizahl was personal. She wanted a pawn in her fight to reclaim a land she considered rightfully hers. How it must have burned to watch Rawain rise over Jasad while she rotted in the woods!” (235). Hanim lived in the woods because she was unwelcomed in the five kingdoms, and Rawain took control of Hanim’s fate and robbed her of any remaining political power.
The Jasadis in Dar al Mansi, facing conquest by Nizahl, also took control of the Essam Woods to claim agency over their fate. When Nizahl and Omal sought to invade, the Jasadis used magic to draw Essam Woods into the village. Though Nizahl historians assumed they did not mean to wreck Dar al Mansi, Sylvia knows the truth: “I had studied the sketches Arin gave me for hours; the Jasadis knew their fate when they spent their magic. It was acceptable to them. Allowing Nizahl and Omal to destroy a second home was not” (400). Though the Jasadis could not prevent the destruction of their home, they could take charge of the narrative and decide how it happened, using the woods as a tool of control.
Sylvia’s Cuffs
Sylvia’s cuffs serve as a motif representing The Tension Between Personal Desire and Communal Obligation. Malik Niyar and Malika Palia put Sylvia in the cuffs, which are invisible to everyone but her, when she was a young child. Sylvia laments the cuffs’ constricting power, thinking, “I had spent most of my life resenting my cuffs. How was it fair that Jasadis were condemned because of their magic but I couldn’t even access the thing that doomed me?” (13). Sylvia’s feelings about her cuffs are complex; she wants to use her magic, but magic use can lead to her downfall. She feels empathy for the condemned Jasadis who face oppression, violence, and death because of their magic, but without her own power she cannot fulfill her duty to protect them. Sylvia’s frustration foreshadows magic’s role in Arin’s discovery of her Jasadi identity. Sylvia’s cuffs stay on her wrists until Chapter 32, when she reveals herself as Essiya and risks her own survival for the freedom of Sefa and Marek. The removal of the cuffs signifies a shift in Sylvia’s priorities; she no longer places her own life above the lives of others, and she’s ready to carry out her duty of restoring Jasad.
Supreme Rawain’s Scepter
Supreme Rawain’s scepter is a symbol of oppressive power. Rawain always carries his scepter with him, and Sylvia associates the object with his colonialist brutality. When she fantasizes about taking revenge on Nizahl and those who destroyed Jasad, she thinks, “I imagined meeting Supreme Rawain in the kingdom he’d laid waste to. I would drive his scepter through the softest part of his stomach, watch the cruelty drain from his blue eyes. Plant him on the steps of the fallen palace for the spirits of Jasad’s dead to feast upon” (18). Sylvia yearns to kill Rawain with the very symbol of his power, to reclaim the power Jasad lost. Sylvia remembers seeing the scepter for the first time at the Blood Summit. In her memory, she recalls, “I go back to staring at the raven headed stick. I wonder if I would be allowed to hold it” (360). Child Sylvia fixates on the scepter, correctly identifying Rawain as the most powerful politician in the room. When Sylvia sees Rawain again for the first time since the Blood Summit, she sees the ghosts of her past swirling around him: “Thousands of Jasadis shadowed the Supreme. Their murky outlines warped, mournful, and folded into the scepter at his side” (361). Sylvia concentrates again on the scepter, associating it with the deaths of countless Jasadis, further illustrating the symbolic connection between the scepter and Rawain’s tyrannical power.
Unlock the meaning behind every key symbol & motif
See how recurring imagery, objects, and ideas shape the narrative.
- Explore how the author builds meaning through symbolism
- Understand what symbols & motifs represent in the text
- Connect recurring ideas to themes, characters, and events