Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes mentions of physical and sexual violence and child abuse.
The Carp
Carp symbolize the humanity and kindness that Terren is innately capable of, reflecting the theme of Nature Versus Nurture. In childhood, his love for carp was fierce and finding a dead carp one day was the moment that incited Terren’s literomancy. To save a carp’s life, Terren wrote a complex and difficult healing spell that positioned him as a child prodigy, while also rendering him a severe threat to Maro’s claim to the throne.
While recounting this memory to Wei, Hesin remembers the sentiment behind the power, full of empathy and love: “Although to an onlooker, the poem argues, a fish might seem trapped in its pond […] A fish can still admire the reflection of spring clouds on the water. It can still taste the blossoms that dapple its surface and imagine itself swimming among the trees” (127). Though Terren is only a young child at the time and not even the expected heir to the throne, the poem describes in metaphor the ruler that he might someday become. Though he would be confined to his position as emperor and those outside the palace might believe he knows nothing of what goes on beyond it, he would have had the empathy and curiosity to make sure he did.
Later in the novel, Wei remembers to spare the carp during a particularly brutal storm because of this poem recounted by Hesin. She remembers one sentiment in particular, “My life might be smaller than yours, but it is full of joy and worth living” (225). She explains to Terren later that she believed if the fish had not been trapped in the decorative pond due to humans like them, they likely would have gone somewhere safer and warmer to wait out the storm. Thus, when the storm hit, she “felt it was only our duty to bring them somewhere safe” (225). Terren’s poem inspires a feeling of obligation in Wei to those “beneath” her, even if those beings are simply fish. This feeling comes from the author of the poem, who felt these same things as he wrote it.
Peaches
Peaches are a key motif, invoking The Use and Misuse of Power in the novel. Wei first interacts with peaches in the novel when Isan visits Guishan and uses his magic to summon bushes and trees bearing fruit. As she eats a peach from one of the trees, Wei “wanted to keep hating the Azalea House for the years that they never came to give their Blessings […] But I found […] myself unable to feel anything at all, except for the taste of peach juice in my mouth” (6). While there are many valid reasons for Wei to hate Isan and his family, she sees the opportunity he presents with his magic; with it, he can end a famine. When she learns of the opportunity to become one of Prince Terren’s concubines, she “let [her]self imagine a future as sweet as the peach juice lingering on [her] tongue” (8). She imagines becoming a concubine and having the means to send Bao to school where he’d learn to read and build a better life for himself.
When Wei is named Empress-in-Waiting and later officially wed to Terren, she gets her first tastes of power and authority: “Now I had tasted [power] for myself, and it was as sweet as peaches, as wine” (292). Every time Wei feels power or senses opportunity, it is likened back to the taste of peaches. This pattern is repeated once again in Chapter 62 when she admits aloud for the first time that she wants to become empress. Afterward, she thinks, “I had tasted power now—albeit because it was shoved into my mouth—and I had found that its taste was sweet” (343).
Terren’s Ghost
Terren’s ghost symbolizes the boy he used to be and his metaphorical death in the place where he was transformed into the abuser and political weapon that he is throughout the novel. When Wei sees Terren’s ghost, she is not angry at him but rather angry at “Lady Autumn, and at the real Terren, who had tortured [her] and slaughtered [her] friends” (301). For childhood Terren himself, she casts no blame.
Wei sits among ghost-Terren and his toys and tells him that she understands his origin story now. He was “frightened, and hurting, and nobody had ever shown you a different way to be. So, you began hurting others.[…] You had learned that suffering was normal, a part of life, and so it hardly seemed remarkable to do it to others” (302). The suffering, both physical and sexual, that Terren endured in Tezia killed the young, optimistic, gentle boy he’d been and forged him into something as hardened and sharp as the blades he wields through magic.
The abuse was not the only thing that kills young Terren’s gentleness, though. They sent him to a war zone as a child, when he was so young that he was “still learning what the world was like” but “the world they showed [him] was full of bloodshed and pain” (302). Through visiting with Terren’s ghost, Wei learns of the boy he had been. Learning allows her to sympathize with him, even when she doesn’t allow herself to forgive him.
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