Children of Blood and Bone Essay

The Children of Blood and Bone

Introduction

Is it fair to take away someone's religion, freedom, and rights to retain power? In Tomi Adeyemi’s novel, The Children of Blood and Bone, a challenging setting is dealing with loss. The challenge of loss helps the reader to understand how it affects people, how guilt consumes a person, how people feel like their worthless, how they feel like they have been abandoned, or being hated for something you had no control over.

Body 1

In chapter seventy-eight, we observe a character suffer from guilt. This is when Inan and Zelie are in the dreamscape, Zelie talks to Inan about why she moved from Ilorin after the raid, Inan instantly feels guilty because of the loss and death that his father caused, “A pit of guilt opens in my chest, tainted with the smell of burning flesh. The fires I watched from the royal palace resurface, the innocent lives burned before my young eyes. A memory I’ve pushed down like my magic, a day I longed to forget. But staring at Zelie now brings it all back: the pain. The tears. The death.” King Saran (Inan’s father) has convinced Inan since he was a child that Maji was evil and that what he was doing was right. It was only until Inan understood Zelie’s perspective that he realised his father's doings were wrong. He feels guilty because he once believed the stories, as well as doing his father's dirty work thinking he was doing the right thing. This could be compared to Captain Marvel. Carol was taken and brainwashed into believing that the Skrulls was to blame for the destruction and slaughter of other alien races. What she didn't know was that the people who she was working with (the Kree) were actually the ones to blame for invading other planets. Carol didn't realise this until she actually had a conversation with one of the Skrulls and understood their background and perspective. Both stories are connected because of the influence these both characters had from the people around them. I think it's important to not push your memories down. I believe that you should not feel guilty for someone else's doings.

Body 2

In chapter seventy-eight where we are shown what it's like to feel useless. When Rehema and two other men and women were asked to make a distraction on the beach of the sacred temple, Zelie and her friends were forced to wait for the distraction to take place, Zelie says “Minutes stretch into hours, an eternity that drags like death. Each second that passes is another second my mind tumbles in guilt. What if they’re captured? What If they die? I can’t have more people perish for this. I can’t have more blood stain my hands.” Zelie is forced to wait until the guards have fled from the temple to the distraction on the beach. Zelie fears that Rehema and her team may die. Zelie feels as if too many lives had been lost for her. She fears that they may die for something she could’ve done herself, or helped with. She wants to help but is forced to stick to her task. This could link to when I was sick. I was forced to stay home and get better while my Dad delivered my papers for the paper route I have. I felt like I should’ve been there to help since it was my job and responsibility, not his. Guilt is something that eats at you for over a long time. It's tragic that we have to make choices that could lead to guilt. If only they didn't need to be put in danger to save people. If only the Kingdom could only observe and listen.

People should not be put in a position where someone could be put in danger. If only the kingdom of Orisha could understand why they must restore magic, instead of risking their lives to save many more.

Body 3

In chapter four another challenging setting is being hated because of your culture. When Zelie thinks about how lucky Zain is, “He doesn't understand what it’s like to be me, to walk around in a diviner’s skin. To jump every time a guard appears, never knowing how a confrontation will end.” Since King Saran doesn’t care about the Maji the guards could get away with anything they do to them. Guards use this advantage to rape, abuse, pick on, bully, torture, blackmail, and harass the Maji. The Maji are hated because they are different and once had gifts. King Saran sees magic as a threat to his kingdom. The King has the most powerful title which means he has control, whereas the Maji threaten that control and power. Which is why he doesn't care about them. Although someone may be different doesn't mean that they should be treated as an outcast.

Conclusion

In the Children of Blood and Bone, we see that the Orisha is full of hate, loss, and power (literally). We see how loss and hatred affected the world of Orisha. From feeling guilty for someone else's doings to being outcasted because of your religion, or even being forced to put into a position where you feel helpless and useless. The setting of loss helped me understand the effect it has on people. “Shame ripples through me as I stare at the tarnished metal. The only gift he’s ever given me, and at its core is hate.”