51 pages • 1-hour read
Trial of the Sun Queen
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains descriptions of graphic violence, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and death.
Scars
The motif of scars is used as a mark of various characters’ suffering and a testament to their resilience and a reminder of the novel’s violent context and trial-jeopardy structure. The characters’ attitudes toward their scars also reveal information about their backstories and characters, especially in the case of Lor.
In the world of the Fae elite, where appearances are paramount and unblemished skin signifies privilege, scars are seen as grotesque flaws. Madame Odell voices this prejudice when she sees the mark on Lor’s face and asks, “What is that on your face? […] Is that a scar?” (62), her tone treating it as a social transgression. This reaction highlights the deep societal divide between the pristine, sheltered powerful and the marked, brutalized oppressed, for whom survival itself is an act of defiance. From the outside, Lor’s scars mark her out as different and lesser, part of her role as the “Final Tribute,” the only human competitor, taken from the “slums.” Lor’s scars parallel the cruelty and hypocrisy of this system, which only masquerades as an opportunity for the Final Tribute to gain prestige, especially as the Fae simply use magic to conceal their own flaws. In this context, hidden scars are a sign of moral decay and dishonesty.
As a sign of her honesty and moral courage, Lor calls her scars a “living map of [her] physical pain” (62) defiantly reclaiming them as symbols of her survival and courage. She considers them “badges of honor” that serve as “constant reminders of every moment I survived what so many couldn’t” (62). When Lor’s fingers brush against Aero’s scars, it is a moment of silent, mutual understanding, creating a bond of shared experience among those who have suffered. The scars are a language of endurance. Their symbolic meaning as a sign of inner as well as outer courage becomes increasingly significant as Lor resists the social pressure of the court to hide her scars. In Chapter 11, she refuses to have a facial scar covered, instead remembering that she got the injury when protecting her sister. In this way, Lor’s scars are equated with moral strength, honesty, and self-confidence.
The Hollow
The Hollow is used as a symbol of cruelty and dehumanization, representing the Aurora King’s most extreme method of psychological torment. Located in the monstrous Void just beyond the prison walls, the Hollow is a horrific reimagining of solitary confinement, an instrument of torture designed to systematically erase a prisoner’s spirit. Its name signifies its function, as it is meant to “drain you out and leaves you empty and gasping for air” (16). Warden Kelava underscores this when he sentences Lor to two weeks in the pit, sneering, “I’ll see you in two weeks, inmate, assuming there’s anything left of you” (14). He threatens complete psychological annihilation. The terror the Hollow inspires in Lor confirms its efficacy as a weapon of spiritual destruction.
As a site of profound suffering, the Hollow is paradoxically a sign of Lor’s mental and physical strength. Placed as an early test of Lor’s will, it is the episode where her resolve to survive and exact revenge is forged. It acts in the novel to prefigure Lor’s success in the trials and to encourage the reader’s sense of empathy and belief in her.
The Aurora
The Aurora kingdom functions allegorically as symbol of systemic oppression to inform the novel’s central themes of freedom and the dehumanizing effects of tyranny. In representing a world where injustice is the foundation of society, the novel asks questions about the nature of equality, opportunity, and privilege.
The kingdom’s atmosphere reflects its nature; its sky is a “monochrome rainbow that stirs from the color of cold ashes to inky black” (20), a visual representation of the bleak, hopeless existence imposed upon its ordinary people, compared to the privilege of its rulers. Within this oppressive darkness, the aurora borealis appears as a recurring image of complex, contradictory beauty. The brilliant, jewel-toned lights are a breathtaking spectacle, yet their fleeting nature only serves to accentuate the pervasive gloom of the world below. This contrast symbolizes the rare and fragile moments of hope that can exist even within a system built on despair, a beauty that offers temporary solace. When imprisoned in Aurora’s prison, Lor is afforded an “uninterrupted view” (20) of the lights. The aurora becomes a symbol of Lor’s tenacious ability to find meaning and strength in the bleakest of circumstances.
The Aurora is the primary catalyst for Lor’s quest for justice and revenge. Her motivation is born from the 12 years she spent enduring the cruelty of its prison, Nostraza. While trapped in the Hollow, she sees the Aurora Keep, the seat of the king’s power, vowing, “One day, I will storm that eyesore and tear the head off the Aurora King for leaving me to rot here” (18). This declaration make the Aurora’s symbolic function explicit as a motivation in Lor’s wider quest to find justice for herself and for others. The symbol is an important part of Lor’s moral destiny to become the Heart Queen, a ruler, the novel suggests, who will create an alternative world of equality and justice.
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