Inkdeath: Themes

I think that one theme in the book is to not mess with things that you are not supposed to, like death. Mo binds a book that makes The Adderhead immortal; Death was very angry, and the whole thing just did not work out. Death demanded that three lives would be taken if The Adderhead was not dead by the end of winter. Mo, who bound the book, Meggie, who helped to bind the book, and Dustfinger, who Mo brought back from the dead.

Mo ended up making the deadline with the unlikely help of Jacopo, The Adder’s grandson, who previously worshiped his grandfather. I can connect to this theme because people should not play “God” and decide who gets to live and die. I don’t think a judge should be able to decide that, and I don’t even think that the president should be able to decide that. This doesn’t remind me of something that I have read, but about something almost everyone has heard of: the touchy subject of abortion. In my opinion, mothers shouldn’t be able to decide to end the life of a child. That’s like what I said before, playing “God” again. Also, if you want to have a baby, hooray – if you don’t want a baby though, then be responsible! But again, messing with something you are not supposed to be messing with.

Another theme I think is that if you want to get something done, then you have to act. Surprisingly, Mo is not the person who needed to figure this out. Meggie and Resa wanted Mo to stay at home while villages were being burned, and the harvests taken by the tax collectors, but Mo refused to stay home. He went out every night to help as many people as he could. He wanted The Adderhead out of the throne and dead, so he acted to stop, and kill him.

I think another theme is that you always have to keep trying. You should not just give up because something is difficult. If something isn’t going the right way, then you have to keep working. Mo did not give up on his quest to kill The Adderhead, nor did he give up trying to help the children of Ombra. I can connect to this theme because if I don’t understand my homework, I keep trying, I don’t just give up. This also reminds me of a teacher, not a particular one, just how a teacher usually is. They don’t give up on students. They always make sure that the students “get” everything that is taught.