Essay #1
In his 2004 novel Magic Seeds, V. S. Naipaul writes: “It is wrong to have an ideal view of the world. That’s where the mischief starts. That’s where everything starts unraveling.”
Select a novel, play, or epic poem in which a character holds an “ideal view of the world.” Then write an essay in which you analyze the character’s idealism and its positive or negative consequences. Explain how the author’s portrayal of this idealism illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole.
Children of Blood and Bone
In the book The Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, Zélie, a divÎner who lives in OrÏsha, was left without a mother in the raid that killed those with magic and took magic away forever. She was descended from maji who once ruled over the land in 10 clans and helped those around them before magic disappeared. Throughout the book, Adeyemi showed King Saran and his ideal view of a world devoid of magic alongside Zélie who risked everything to undo what the King had done in order to convey how damaging it was that the King enforced these ideals, ultimately illustrating how an ideal view of the world can cause both sides to suffer tremendously for no good reason.
Adeyemi first showed how the erasure of magic at the hands of the King caused traumatic and ongoing suffering for the divÎners, who were once maji, in order to convey the mistreatment that allowed the King’s ideal view of the world to become a reality. King Saran was paranoid and believed that the maji were plotting to overthrow the monarchy to gain rule of the land. One day, the King’s previous wife and children were killed by maji. In order to avenge them, the King sought out the three magical items that allowed the maji to do magic and attempted to destroy them. While the maji were vulnerable, he methodically murdered all of the Maji above the age of 13, only leaving behind divÎners who had never felt the touch of magic. His ideals were passed on through the stories he told his children. When they got older, Inan held a fierce hatred for maji and divÎners while Amari held a great fear of the world. Consequently, his children both reacted in wildly different ways when the magic started to come back. Through the power exacted by the King, the divÎners suffered mistreatment and legal enslavement under the disguise of working off debt in order to punish them for something they could not control. Because the King forced abuse on them, they had to learn how to defend themselves in secret. Consequently, the world was thrown into chaos because the people of OrÏsha believed that it was all the fault of the divÎners. The king’s ideal got his family killed and caused a genocide of magic bearers. Because he pushed this ideal so much, he did not realize the torment he was inflicting on his daughter. Consequently, she rebelled against him in order to avenge her chambermaid who was her only friend. Therefore, the king’s ideal once again tore his family apart as the Prince was sent to retrieve his sister.
Adeyemi then showed Zélie's retaliation when she risked her life to restore magic and fight against her oppressors. She worked together with her brother Tzain and Princess Amari to get the three items from the King in order to restore magic. Throughout the group’s journey, Adeyemi showed the continuous suffering of the divÎners and the newly gifted maji in order to promote the idea that ideals are not always ideal for everyone. They even caused the destruction of the monarchy as they knew it. Because of the King’s massacre, Zélie did not grow up with the magic that was now coursing through her veins. Consequently, her journey to restore magic was long and hard. The King’s son, Inan, went back and forth between fighting for and against his father. Ultimately, Inan betrayed the group and caused Zélie great suffering at the hands of the King. Adeyemi showed the horrible consequences of the King’s ideals that were seemingly overcome in the end through teamwork between Zélie and Princess Amari. Unfortunately, the end was nowhere in sight. The horrible ideals that set the world aflame continued to haunt them as more died even after magic was restored. In trying to achieve his ideals, the King died and forced the people of OrÏsha to flee because of the danger.
Ultimately, Adeyemi used King Saran and his ideal view of a magicless world as well as Zélie’s life risking journey to undo it in order to show how an ideal view of the world can cause so much damage to everyone, even the person who sought out that ideal.
Essay #2
Many works of literature feature characters who have been given a literal or figurative gift. The gift may be an object, or it may be a quality such as uncommon beauty, significant Social position, great mental or imaginative faculties, or extraordinary physical powers. Yet this gift is often also a burden or a handicap. Select a character from a novel, epic, or play who has been given a gift that is both an advantage and a problem. Then write a well-developed essay analyzing the complex nature of the gift and how the gift contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Children of Virtue and Vengeance
In the novel Children of Virtue and Vengeance, Tomi Adeyemi used Zélie’s natural born gift as a Reaper in order to show how her actions and leadership skills could save or destroy the maji, and now the tÎtáns, as she navigated this newly restored aspect of OrÏsha, ultimately illustrating how a gift, no matter how small or insignificant, can change the fate of the world.
Adeyemi first showed Zélie’s gift as she helped to bury her dead father, Baba. He sacrificed himself during the ritual in the previous book. She had not only given back magic to the divÎners to become maji, but now, some of the nobles have become tÎtáns. The new power of the tÎtáns was caused by Zélie’s mistake during the ritual in which she made a new connection with the gods. The tÎtáns are more powerful than the maji, and they do not need Yoruba incantations to release their magic. One of Zélie’s close friends and comrades, Amari, the Princess of OrÏsha and now a tÎtán, is shown helping Zélie restore balance by attempting to take the throne from her believed to be dead tÎtán brother Inan. Using her gift, Zélie attempted to murder Inan to save the maji and get revenge for her Mama and Baba. In failing to do so, she had doomed OrÏsha and the maji to a continued life in servitude to the corrupt government, despite the king’s death. Zélie’s gift burdened her as a reminder of who she was not able to save and how she hurt so many people with it. When she felt defeated and at her lowest, her gift disappeared, but when she was empowered and angry, her gift raged like an unstoppable fire, burning through all of the soldiers to eventually kill Inan. Using her gift, she leads a lot of the maji to help her as well as the animations she makes from her gift. Because she has this gift, she must focus on helping to save as many people as possible while sacrificing the least amount of people. These sacrifices are why she is so hesitant to use her gift sometimes. She fought using her gift as she led them to renew a world that was taken from them. Consequently, a lot of people around her are killed by her reckless nature in this raging fire she has become. Through deceit, she led many people to believe she could save them with her gift even though it had gone away. It wasn’t until Baba sacrificed himself for Zélie that she truly felt the rage and the return of her gift. She knew then that she would succeed, if not for herself, for all of those still suffering because of who they are. Therefore, her gift is shown as both a blessing and a curse as she tried to save the maji.
Adeyemi then shows Zélie using her gift to unite with the rebel group Lyika and take over as the clan leader of the Reapers in order to demonstrate how her gift has pushed her into positions of leadership once again. She must fight in order to overthrow the corrupt government still in control of OrÏsha. As she becomes one of the 10 clan leaders, she leads the group to ChÂndomblé to get the scrolls for the magic of the other 9 clans. In the process of retrieving the scrolls from the temple, ChÂndomblé was destroyed by Amari’s mother who is now leading OrÏsha. Despite being just as lost as everyone else, she was set to lead the people because of her knowledge of magic and her journey to restore magic. She is placed on a pedestal for being greater than she believes she is. This is also a curse because she has hurt the people she loves before by losing control of her gift or not knowing how to make it work to her advantage as well as Baba dying because of the magic. Consequently, her internal conflicts have again caused other peoples’ sacrifice on her behalf in order to continue fighting. She goes through all the internal conflicts on whether she can be what others need her to be, causing her to break down repeatedly. As a result, she could not perform like she should have been able to. Therefore, Zélie’s gift has both been a gift to others and the cause of their demise.
Throughout Tomi Adeyemi’s novel Children of Virtue and Vengeance, Zélie’s gift was shown as both a blessing and a curse throughout her actions in the book. She has both saved and destroyed the maji, and shown how a gift such as this cannot be taken lightly.