An Ember in the Ashes

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2015

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 1, Chapters 5-10

Parts 1-2, Chapters 11-15

Part 2, Chapters 16-20

Part 2, Chapters 21-26

Part 2, Chapters 27-30

Part 2, Chapters 31-37

Part 2, Chapters 38-40

Parts 2-3, Chapters 41-45

Part 3, Chapters 46-50

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Blackcliff

Blackcliff is the setting for most of the book and represents how the empire indoctrinates its military. Soldiers are brought to the school at age six and tossed in a pit for three days to fight over food and other resources. Those who survive become students, and this is just the first in a long line of exercises meant to teach soldiers to be ruthless tools of violence. Blackcliff drills both knowledge and combat techniques into its students. By the time they graduate, soldiers can decipher meaning from the drumbeats in a few seconds, recite the vows and histories they’ve been taught from memory without flaw, and kill a foe in any number of ways. They are also taught that Scholars, tribal people, and anyone not a Martial is inferior and that the empire is justified in destroying the lives and livelihoods of these lesser groups. As a motif, the school represents the oppression of individual thought and the perpetuation of violence, bigotry, and cruelty.

For Laia and Elias, Blackcliff is a place that offers them a chance to change. Any system dependent on brainwashing is only as strong as its most free-thinking member. Elias represents the hole in Blackcliff’s absolutism. Having been raised away from the empire, Elias knows life can be different, and his knowledge is dangerous at a place like Blackcliff because students are only supposed to learn what the school teaches them. A similar idea applies to the enslaved Scholars. Izzi grew up on Blackcliff’s grounds, and like most of the students, she believes in the infallibility of Blackcliff’s power. By contrast, Laia’s life has been one of comfort and love, despite the empire’s tyranny. Laia offers those beaten down by Blackcliff’s strength a glimpse at what life could be like, which ultimately allows Laia to conquer the school’s ways with explosions.

Weapons and Masks

Weapons and the masks soldiers wear represent the strength of the Martial Empire and the control the empire exerts over its followers. When Nightbringer recruited the Martial Empire to his cause against the Scholars, he taught them to make unbreakable blades, which allowed the Martials to easily defeat and enslave the Scholars. The unbreakable nature of the weapons symbolizes the cycle of violence and oppression the people of both sides have endured and will continue to endure if no one is brave enough to stop it.

The masks symbolize the idea that individual thought is dangerous to a martial state. As the soldiers are trained, they become further indoctrinated into the dogma of the Martial Empire, and as they conform fully, the masks eradicate any sense of self or personal identity by fusing to their flesh so their faces appear to be made of metal. This also helps to remove any concept of personal responsibility for the violence they commit since they are simply obeying orders or acting according to the rules of the empire. This lack of identity and responsibility makes these soldiers the ultimate vehicle for the continued success of the empire. Just as their metal faces make them appear as a machine, they have in fact become part of the machine that perpetuates the ideals of the Martial Empire.

Of late, Elias’s mask has started to dig tiny spikes into the back of his neck to force him to keep it on, which suggests the masks have some kind of supernatural force within them. Since magic is forbidden in the Martial Empire, the magic or sentience suggested in the masks indicates the lengths a power will go to in order to make its subjects obey, even if that means bending its own rules. The mask and the empire do not condone dissent of any kind and will resort to violent force to fully indoctrinate the unwilling.

Supernatural Creatures

At the beginning of the book, supernatural creatures are thought to be only beings of myth. As the characters learn about the past and as the trials commence, they learn that supernatural beings are both real and angry. The ghuls that follow Laia represent her fear. She sees them more in the earlier portion of the book, and as she discovers her inner bravery, she sees them less and is even able to banish them without aid. In the second trial, Elias and Helene face efrits, creatures of sand that are just one of the many foes that try to kill them. Helene’s dormant magic is awakened by contact with the efrits, which suggests a link between humans and mythical creatures. Nightbringer trains the Commandant, Marcus, and Zak to shield their thoughts from the Augurs’ gifts, and their success at covering up their deception during the first trial suggests that anyone may have access to at least some level of supernatural power.

The overarching conflict of the series is based in the supernatural history of the Scholars. Nightbringer was created after the Scholars betrayed the jinn. This shows both that losing everything can drive a creature to do unspeakable things and that evil can be a product of circumstance. Prior to being imprisoned by the Scholars, the jinn and other supernatural beings were peaceful, content to gain knowledge and leave humans to their exploits for power. In this way, the supernatural creatures represent the destructive power of desire and jealousy. Becoming entangled in the desires of humans destroyed the jinn and led the other supernatural beings to be betrayed by the humans in their quest for power. If humans had left the jinn alone and not let their jealousy that another race knew more than them drive their actions, Nightbringer would not be seeking vengeance in the story’s present and the Martials would not have attacked the Scholars.