58 pages • 1 hour read
Brandon SandersonMistborn: The Final Empire
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Ashfalls and Mist
The frequent ashfalls and nightly mists that characterize Scadrial’s atmosphere after the Ascension of the Lord Ruler are symbols of the resilience of the skaa people and their unclear knowledge of their history and Allomancy, respectively. Both the ashfalls and mists began when Rashek stole the power of the Well of Ascension for himself and became the Lord Ruler; thus, both are associated with the oppression of the skaa and the coming of Allomancy.
The skaa people are ordered by the nobility to continually sweep up the ash that falls at frequent intervals. Thus, the skaa are often covered in soot or ash and their lower social class is immediately visible. The mists often obscure the nighttime adventures of the Mistborn, but in relation to the skaa, the mists are frightening and associated with various threatening myths that keep the skaa from going out with them. This acts as a symbol of their oppression, as the skaa generally stay inside once the mists come, while the nobility move freely about at balls.
The mist also represents the lack of knowledge and historical uncertainty carried by the skaa people because of their persecution by the Lord Ruler. Each night, the narrator says, the “mists came to blur and obscure” (87). As the skaa people have little knowledge of what Allomancy is, they do not know that the mists relate to this magic. Thus, the mists symbolize the intentional obfuscation the Lord Ruler imposes on the skaa.
Mistborn Cloak
A Mistborn’s tattered, gray cloak is a symbol of their identity and Allomantic power. If a Luthadel guard were to see an individual in a Mistborn cloak, that guard would pretend not to notice anything the Mistborn is involved with. The Mistborn cloak symbolizes the power and privilege of both Allomancy and the nobility, as skaa Allomancers are summarily hunted by the Steel Ministry. The cloak’s “hundreds of ribbonlike strips” (89) imitates the mist itself and allows the Mistborn to blend into their nighttime surrounding. It frees a Mistborn from having to reveal their identity any further, as a Mistborn’s name and societal position are never questioned. In this way, the Mistborn cloak also symbolizes the novel’s themes of trust and betrayal, particularly in relation to the noble houses and pre-House War politics.
Kandra
One of the novel’s main themes of trust—and, further, Vin’s struggle to understand her identity—is explored in the motif of the kandra, beings related to mistwraiths and with the ability to steal another person’s physical appearance by ingesting their corpse. Kandra are indentured servants with a contract assigned to a specific person and quest; they are extremely adept at impersonation. Vin’s proximity to Lord Renoux, who is a kandra during the novel, allows Sanderson to explore Vin’s struggle for her identity. As she pretends to be Valette, Vin wonders how Lord Renoux could be so skilled at impersonation, not knowing what a kandra is. When the kandra’s contract with Kelsier terminates with Kelsier’s death, the contract passes on to Vin—at this point in the narrative, Vin has fully accepted her identity as that of a Mistborn. The kandra motif concludes with Vin realizing her own identity, and essentially becoming the master of a being with endless possible identities.
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By Brandon Sanderson
