53 pages • 1-hour read
The Serpent's Shadow
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Themes
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.
The Challenges of Being an Effective Leader
One of the main conflicts Carter and Sadie face in The Serpent’s Shadow is leading the Brooklyn magicians. Since they are both so new to their heritage, the siblings are still learning what it means to be a magician, even as they must teach others this exact concept. As a result, both Carter and Sadie find themselves questioning whether they are suited to lead. Throughout the novel, they must learn to navigate and accept the challenges of being an effective leader.
For Sadie, these questions center around maintaining morale, both for herself and for the Brooklyn magicians more broadly. Engaging in non-magician activities, such as the school dance, helps with her uncertainty, but as she learns in Chapter 5, her own morale comes second to that of her charges. When Walt backs out of the dance because he needs to preserve his strength, Sadie’s own desire to attend disappears. Still, she decides to go because the other magicians are so excited, even though it seems like she’s only “doing it out of duty, to make the others feel better” (80). Sadie recognizes that the others need this night away from the danger of their lives to bolster themselves for the fight ahead. Sadie’s ability to understand this makes her an effective leader, and her choice to attend the dance shows that she is willing to do what needs to be done, even when she doesn’t like it.
While Sadie struggles with ensuring the magicians want to stay in the fight, Carter faces his own challenges as the face of a new generation of magicians. As the heir to the pharaoh of the magicians, Carter is under a lot of pressure to fulfill what is expected of him during a time when the old ways no longer work as they once did. Carter understands that new tactics, such as allying with the gods, are needed—a difficult decision that earns disloyalty and blowback from the rebel magicians. The rebels actively work to undermine faith in Carter because they view his choice as wrong and dangerous. Their anger and uncertainty allow Apophis to control them and lead an effective resistance against Carter’s leadership. Still, Carter knows that an alliance between gods and magicians is the right decision and the only way to defeat the serpent. Carter’s belief in his choices ultimately allows him to prevail. While the rebels fall into chaos because they fear change, Carter’s certainty allows him to stay the course, even though so many disapprove of his actions.
Carter and Sadie’s bravery and commitment to their cause ensure their ultimate triumph at the novel’s end. Carter merges with Horus, accepting his role as pharaoh, while Sadie embraces her own responsibilities as a magician and the favorite of Isis. Both siblings thus prove themselves as effective leaders, allowing them to save the world from chaos while growing as individuals.
Maintaining Balance Between Order and Chaos
At first glance, The Serpent’s Shadow appears to be a story about defeating chaos so order can prevail. However, the novel reveals that order and chaos are both necessary, and that the overarching conflicts are truly about maintaining a balance between order and chaos so the characters and the world can survive.
An example of this balance comes in Chapter 6 when Sadie informs Amos and Zia that the rebels aim to attack the Cairo stronghold. Zia immediately laments that they didn’t destroy the rebels when they had the chance, for which Amos admonishes her by saying, “[W]e are servants of Ma’at—order and justice. We don’t kill our enemies for things they might do in the future” (110-11). While Zia’s idea makes sense in the moment because it’s clear the rebels have become a greater threat, Amos’s argument imposes order on her chaos. During past battles, Zia had no way of knowing the rebels would threaten them again, which means destroying them then would have been a chaotic answer to an uncertain question. Where chaos requires its followers to lash out erratically, order calls for problems to be faced as they become apparent.
The struggles of the main characters show that order and chaos must be balanced to achieve desired outcomes. Sadie and Zia struggle with balancing who they are, as Sadie cannot decide whether she is a regular girl or a magician, and Zia finds herself caught between herself and Ra’s power. Throughout much of the novel, both girls pit these different parts of themselves against one another, which only leads to further uncertainty and strife. In Chapter 2, Sadie fails to defeat Apophis by casting ma’at because her own inner state has too much chaos and not enough order. However, in the final battle, her ma’at spell is successful because she’s resolved much of her inner turmoil. Similarly, when Zia stops fighting her relationship with Ra, she is able to bond with the god so he may be reborn to fight Apophis and ultimately bring balance to the world.
Finding inner balance requires both girls to accept chaos as part of who they are, rather than a force that must be eliminated. In doing so, they show that attaining balance is not a one-and-done achievement. Instead, it is an ongoing process that requires conscious effort to be maintained. By the novel’s end, a balance between order and chaos has been struck both within the characters and in the world at large.
The Resilience of Relationships in Difficult Times
The relationships between the main characters of The Serpent’s Shadow have been forged during the threat of Apophis’s return, and the responsibility shared in those relationships—romantic, platonic, or familial—have allowed the characters to bond in ways they would not have otherwise. Throughout the novel, the characters discover the resilience of relationships in difficult times.
Prior to the events of The Red Pyramid, Carter and Sadie were estranged with a floundering sibling relationship. With the awakening of their magician heritage, they were suddenly forced to rely on one another, and throughout the series, they have grown as magicians at the same time they have relearned how to be a family. In particular, their relationships with their patron gods have played a key role in how each views the other. As a favorite of Isis, Sadie has taken on magical responsibilities and fought her social nature to be the studious member of their team. Thus, Carter has learned to trust her understanding of magic, even though internalizing information does not come naturally to her.
Similarly, Carter’s relationship with Horus has brought Carter’s status as pharaoh to the forefront of his character arc and made him question whether he is fit to lead. In his moments of doubt, Sadie offers him her unconditional support: “I trusted him to make the right decisions, even when he didn’t trust himself” (328). Fighting and growing alongside each other through world-changing difficulties has bolstered Carter and Sadie’s relationship with implicit trust, showing how their relationship has changed to survive the difficulties thrust upon them.
While Carter and Sadie’s relationship highlights how strife reshapes their existing relationship into something stronger, their individual relationships with Zia and Walt, respectively, exemplify how shared struggles inform the formation of new relationships. Zia grew up in magician culture and has always viewed bonding with a god as taboo. However, as Zia begins to share experiences with Ra, she sees how the gods are needed in the fight against Apophis. By the end of The Serpent’s Shadow, both Zia and Carter understand the strife of being bonded to a pharaoh-god, and that shared struggle means they understand each other in ways no one else can, leading to the culmination of their romantic arc. Meanwhile, Sadie’s relationship with Walt has been marked by death since it began. Walt’s acceptance of his impending death makes it difficult for Sadie to pursue a relationship with him because she cannot accept losing him. When Walt dies and combines his life force with Anubis, Sadie is initially devastated, but soon learns to accept Walt/Anubis, freeing her to pursue a bond that matters to her.
Together, Carter’s and Sadie’s relationships with Zia and Walt highlight the role acceptance plays in strong relationships, especially when that acceptance hinges on things that feel difficult. Despite the many dangers and setbacks they face throughout the novel, the resilience of their relationships with one another helps them to overcome their challenges and become closer than ever.
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