50 pages • 1 hour read
Emma TörzsInk Blood Sister Scribe
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Sky
Törzs includes imagery of the sky frequently throughout Ink Blood Sister Scribe, including its opening line: “Abe Kalotay died in his front yard in late February, beneath a sky so pale it seemed infected” (1), and the passage that immediately precedes its conclusion: “The thrum of magic filled the air: the endless sugar of a hot blue sky, the beat of a thousand gossamer wings, a wind that moved everything on earth that could be moved, which was everything” (403). Vivid descriptions of the color of the sky recur often, from different characters’ perspectives. Esther notes it changing “from robin’s egg to cerulean to a calm, luminous azure” (5), and Nicholas sees it as “a luminous mother-of-pearl” (96).
The sky motif has several functions throughout the novel. First, it serves to connect the protagonists before they are in the same location, as Esther, Joanna, and Nicholas’s perspectives each include such depictions. The sky is also associated with transition, since Esther notices the sky while she sits on the plane waiting to depart Antarctica, when the sky glows “pink with incipient sun” as dawn breaks (220). Similarly, when Esther and Joanna are on the plane to London near the conclusion of the novel, the “Clouds looked different from above. They peaked and valleyed like a landscape, their hollows purple with unshed water, summits blazing white and pink in the last flares of the evening sun” (385). Sky imagery therefore relates to the experience of flying, and to the implicit sense of transition it entails.
Blood
As the necessary material for writing and enacting spells in the novel’s magical books, blood is pervasive. Blood functions as a symbol of characters’ intimate connections to magic and of the sacrifice required by Scribes. In Joanna’s experiments with writing, she tries numerous ways to write magic, including when she “managed to gather a whole half cup of menstrual blood […] According to her admittedly surface-level research, peripheral blood was nearly indistinguishable from menstrual blood, forensically speaking” (20). While Joanna later learns that she is not a Scribe, the reference to menstrual blood indicates intimacy and her commitment to magic. Nicholas also experiences an intimate relationship to blood that suggests how crucial magic is to his existence: “Nicholas forgot sometimes that not everyone was as intimately familiar with blood in all its many forms as he was” (131). Nicholas’s anemia, which occurs due to blood loss, is referenced frequently throughout the novel, indicating the cost of magic and the extent to which Richard exploits him. Nicholas’s experience of indoctrination is epitomized by his cavalier statement regarding how blood must be collected for spells that involve heat or fire: “[Y]ou’ve got to burn yourself open. Which is difficult, since burned flesh tends to want to meld, not part” (293). Seeing the Scribe-seeking spell in Richard’s office, Nicholas notes that “A rechargeable book needed more blood than was usual; it needed all the blood a person could give” (138), and that someone had thus died to write it. Blood thus emphasizes the sacrifice required to write magic, particularly for Nicholas, and the lack of value Richard places on Scribes’ lives.
Animals
Animals appear as a motif throughout the novel, emphasizing themes of loneliness and the drive to seek connection for both Nicholas and Joanna. Joanna becomes preoccupied with getting a stray cat comfortable enough to come inside, which she thinks will be a turning point in moving past her father’s death, as he was allergic and couldn’t have cats in the house. The cat also suggests the possibility of connection. She uses a spell to make animals gather calmly in one attempt to connect with the cat, and Törzs provides vivid detail about her experience connecting with a bear: “the fur so thick and soft it was almost sticky. She peeled back one lip and ran her fingers over the exposed yellow teeth, smelling musk and sour apples” (47-48). When the cat ultimately does come inside, Joanna thinks, “This had to be a sign, didn’t it? A sign that everything would be all right?” (377), indicating its importance to her.
Similarly, Nicholas relates to an animal as a means of connection despite loneliness. He has a close connection with his dog, Sir Kiwi, whom he describes as “a creature par excellence. Not dangerous, perhaps, but fierce and devoted and clever and an endless source of good cheer. She was the best friend Nicholas had ever had. His only friend, really” (96). In addition to representing a version of connection that can counter isolation, Törzs’s inclusion of animals as a motif is a subversion of the trope of magical beings, usually witches, having “familiars,” which are small animals that serve as attendants. Sir Kiwi is a comedic twist on the ominous animal sidekick, given that she is a fluffy Pomeranian with an amusing name.
