I’ve been pondering for awhile
about what the theme or themes of Warrior
Heir could be. I’ve come up with quite a few; I think I’ll follow Mr.
Sato’s steps to begin with.
The
first step is to watch the main character for important changes. Jack Swift,
the sixteen-year-old main character of Warrior
Heir, goes through a lot of changing during the course of the book. When we
first meet him at the beginning of the book, he’s a tall, slender young man who
hopes to make the soccer team, and who, for the first time ever, has just
forgotten to take the medicine he has taken every day of his life for a heart
condition. By the end of the book, Jack is a tall, muscular warrior, skilled with
a sword, with a few wizard spells up his sleeve. He has a very strong and
well-developed moral code. He is willing to give his life to stop evil from
having its way; he refuses to kill the ghost warriors who come to help him
train to be a warrior, even though the ghosts are already dead; and he refuses
to kill the warrior he meets in tournament, even though it’s supposed to be a
fight to the death. Jack demonstrates a
high level of integrity that any reader could learn from. I think the best
statement of theme for Jack would be: Sometimes an ordinary young man turns out
to be the greatest hero.
The
second step is watch for statements of theme. The best one I found was indeed
in the last chapter of the book. The ghost warrior, Carrie, tells her
still-living wizard brother, Leander: “You’ll never find happiness if you live
in the past.”
The
third step is to look at the title of the book for a clue about theme. With a
title like Warrior Heir, you can tell
that one of the main themes is going to be about being the heir of a warrior.
The
fourth step is to look at the main conflict for clues to the theme. This story
is a classic “fight between Good and Evil” tale, so I think another theme would
be: Even when all seems lost, even when it seems impossible, Good will triumph
over Evil.
Now
that I’ve followed Mr. Sato’s steps, I want to share a few other themes I found
in Warrior Heir: There’s no such thing as a boring ancestor. Don’t bend the
rules to suit yourself. Have integrity in your dealings with others. Slavery of
any kind is wrong. Pride comes before a fall...I could go on, but I’ll restrain
myself.
I’ve
enjoyed taking some time to ponder on the themes and / or morals this story
contains. It has some good ones. Have you found some good ones in your favorite
books? Until next time,
Happy Reading !
Tru
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