The Raven Scholar
70 pages • 2-hour read
Antonia HodgsonThe Raven Scholar
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section contains discussion of death by suicide, discrimination, death, and violence.
Anniversary Pendant
The silver anniversary pendant Cain gifted to Neema on their first anniversary—depicting a Fox and Raven on opposite sides—is a symbol of selflessness and love as opposed to selfishness and ambition. The pendant is first mentioned in the scene where they argue about whether or not Neema will sacrifice morality to write the Order of Exile for innocent Yana. Cain makes her an offer: Leave the island with him and they can start fresh somewhere across the empire. Neema considers this, rubbing the locket, but then chooses her scholarly position over a content future with Cain. She later hides it in a nook and forgets about it for several long years in which they don’t see each other. This abandonment of the pendant is an abandonment of Cain and symbolizes Neema’s decision to walk a questionably moral path that’ll lead her to job promotions closer to the throne.
Years later, when Neema begins investigating Gaida’s murder with help from Cain, she seeks out and reclaims her hidden pendant. Upon finding it, she “rubbed away the tarnish, as if a genie might materialise and grant her three wishes. Take me back to that day. Let me choose again” (331). Her decision to reclaim it and her subsequent desire to turn back time and choose differently (i.e., her love for Cain over her ambition) evidences the fork in her path. The path she now takes forward will show her truths she previously ignored. Her desire for personal ambition will be eclipsed by a much more selfless goal—justice and closure for Gaida.
Neema’s Raven Name
The name “Kraa,” which Neema chooses for her Raven name after graduating from the Raven monastery, is a symbol for The Oppressive Nature of Class Hierarchies. The name Kraa is taken on to honor her old schoolteacher Madam Fessi Aark by reversing the last name.
Madam Fessi is one of the few, if not the only, Venerant with whom Neema has had positive experiences with. As Cain puts in a speech he does for a Trial, “She could have taken a court position, or taught at the Raven monastery. But she chose to build a school in a dump like Scartown. […]she didn’t act like she was better than us. She treated everyone she met the same way. With dignity and respect” (502). Not only had Madam Fessi schooled Neema and encouraged her to study at the Raven monastery, she also helped Cain escape life as a Scrapper. Fessi adopted Cain, educated him too, and ushered him into a new life as a revered Fox graduate with a chance at the throne.
Despite being wealthy, Madam Fessi devotes her life to starting a school for Commoners so that they can raise their stations and benefit from the same system that seeks to drag them down to boost Venerant families. Neema’s decision to take her name not only shows that her values match Madam Fessi’s but that continuing these reformative actions will be the driving force behind the decisions she’ll make throughout life.
The Tales of the Raven Book
When Neema, as a young girl, is locked in a crypt, she prays to the Raven for comfort. A book called Tales of the Raven appears, “warm to the touch, emanating comfort” (126). She spends the night clutching it to her chest. When she has nightmares or feels alone, afraid, or abandoned, “the book became her solace, carrying her away into its stories” until it became something like “a companion. A friend in the dark” (126). The book has magic powers, writing new stories for Neema that often reveal key information, such as its tale of Yasila’s background that it shows Neema during Neema’s investigation of Gaida’s murder. The book thus becomes an important symbol of knowledge and The Inevitable Uncovering of Deception as it helps Neema piece together key information about her world.
Tales of the Raven also symbolizes the connection between Neema and the Raven Guardian even before Neema becomes fully aware of their bond. The fact that it is a book speaks to Neema’s scholarly nature, one of the key character traits that binds her to the Raven. Neema also demonstrates a marked fondness for the book even during the narrative’s early sections when she still considers herself an unbeliever. Her attachment to the text and its utility thus foreshadow how she and the Raven will become more closely intertwined as the narrative proceeds.
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