Children of blood and bone essay -
Power, culture, Loss, Love, Magic, Family. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi is rich with it. Hidden in plain sight or hidden away in the sentences on the pages, strong messages are revealed as you read along. The destruction of culture, Discrimination, Racism, individuality, Two sides to every story, Is it right to judge people by the person they were born to be or the person that they have become?
For years people have been disrespectful and unappreciative of others' cultures, beliefs, heritage, and identity. It disgusts me that people discriminated against others because of the colour of their skin or their beliefs, it disgusts me even more that this is still occurring to date, all around the world. This is just one of the powerful messages that are displayed throughout the text, for example in chapters 1 and 2 we get to see from Zelies point of view, giving us a preview of what it's like to live in their lives. We see that Zelie is one of the few young diviners who have had their culture and heritage ripped away from them, as proof of that in the text it states “The Maji tongue outlawed after the raid. “I haven't heard our language in so long it takes me a few moments to remember what the word even means.” This is an excellent example of a piece of her culture and heritage that was taken away after the raid where she lost her magic, another piece of her culture. This can be compared to significant events all around the world from the BLM movement to the Mosque attack, and just general racism that is exhibited in day-to-day life where people are being disrespected because of their culture and heritage. I think that as a society we should stand up and fight against discrimination together, because it should not be accepted throughout our community, and instead we should be spreading kindness and acceptance for other people's culture rather than Judgement and hate.
There are always two sides to every story, this is actively demonstrated throughout the book as some of the strong perspectives we get to see from are from both Zelie and Inan. Both of them have very strong opinions on what is right and wrong and both fight for what they think would benefit the people of Orisha. We can learn a lot from this duo as both of them had valid reasons to fight for what they believe. “We will never have peace. As long as we don't have magic, they will never treat us with respect.” “They need to know we can hit them back. If they burn our homes, we burn theirs, too.” In this chapter Zelie sees the horrors of the invasion of the royal guards at the maji camp, she watches in shock as everyone around her is slaughtered by the guards, all of them helpless without their magic to protect them. She then finalizes which side she is on realizing that if she wants to save the maji in orisha they need their magic so they can fight back against the corrupt horrors of the royals.“No matter what I desire, if magic returns, this is how my kingdom will burn.” During this same fight Inan had a very different perspective on what was happening, he watched as Kwame one of the few maji that had gotten their magic back from the scroll, slaughtered hundreds of guards with his uncontrollable flames using blood magic, this is the moment in the book where he realizes even though he loves Zelie, he decides to put duty before self and declare that bringing magic back will only cause harm for orisha. This is interchangeable with Recent events the world live in, Last year on the 3rd of November people around the world voted for a president who would have authority over the United States, this is similar to the book as both parties had different policies of what they believed in, and what they thought best for their country, just like how Zelie and Inan had different beliefs on what they thought would be best for orisha.
Of course, there are things we can control, but is it fair to judge someone based on something they have no control over, such as their family's mistakes or missteps, or even the colour of their skin or in this case the colour of their hair? Tomi Adeyemi made this a very visible message for the duration of the entire book, the key characters linked to this message is the relationship between Zelie and Amari. “ “Don’t!”Amari screams as I drag her to the flames, but I can barely hear her over the blood pounding in my ears. When I look at her, I see her father’s face. Everything inside me twists with hate.” Zelie does not appreciate, trust, or respect Amari at this point in the story because she was born into the royal family that slaughtered her people and took away their magic. Zelie is blinded by the fact that Amari is a royal and fails to recognize who Amari truly is and what she has given up to help the Maji. Another example is how the diviners are treated From start to end of the book, everywhere they go diviners who are less fortunate than Zelie are being treated terribly by the kosidan (Non-Maji). “I jump as a stockers cane strikes down in front of me, it cuts through the flesh of a young diviner.” “the vicious sight makes my fingers numb reminding me of my own potential fate in the slums.” In this chapter, Zelie ventures to the market in the hopes of selling their sailfish and keeping her out of the stocks, where young diviners were sent to be slaves if they didn't pay the ever-increasing taxes. While exploring the city, she walks through the slums, the occupants being diviners, and the conditions imposed by the royal family on families with diviner members are described as absolutely horrifying, but the most heinous aspect was how the guards treated the diviners, as shown in the quote diviners were being beaten and there was nothing Zelie could do about it as a diviner herself. This can be compared to events in the real world, where people judge you based on everything from the colour of your skin to what you have done in the past. This is common in the POC (People of colour) community, particularly in the Black community. Protests for equality and the abolition of racism are currently taking place in response to recent events that occurred not only within the black community but also within the POC (People of Color) community. I believe that POC should not have to fight for equality and justice, they are not distinguishable from others simply because they have a different skin color than others.
The destruction of culture, Discrimination, Racism, individuality, Two sides to every story, Is it right to judge people by the person they were born to be or the person that they have become? All of these are powerful messages, and Tomi Adeyemi did an excellent job of bringing them to light. There are still problems to solve and things to fix all around the world, this book helps change your perspective on people not only in the book but in your life as well, and as Tomi Adeyemi said, "And just like Zélie and Amari, we have the power to change the evils in the world."
