64 pages • 2 hours read
Carissa BroadbentThe Serpent and the Wings of Night
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A 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
Oraya as a Serpent
Oraya is often referred to as a serpent, an analogy that symbolizes aspects of her character and moments of growth. Through shedding their skin, snakes have come to symbolize rebirth, transformation, and immortality. Vincent’s nickname for Oraya is little serpent, and it is his plan for her to “slough” her humanity and embrace immortal life as a vampire. He emphasizes this objective by introducing the idea of Oraya entering the Kejari in order to secure a wish from Nyaxia and bond with him spiritually as his Coriatae. Though Oraya finds vampire bloodlust repulsive, she views it as a “small price to pay, to shed [her] humanity like the discarded skin of a snake” (174). A snake sheds its skin when it grows—because its skin does not continue to grow with it, and because shedding removes harmful parasites that have attached to the old skin. Just as a snake sheds, Oraya plans to shed the skin of her humanity after winning the Kejari in order to “grow” into the power and strength that the wish granted by Nyaxia will give her.
While the term begins through Vincent deeming Oraya his “little serpent,” it takes on a different meaning when Ilana is murdered and when Oraya grows closer to Raihn. Oraya’s newfound relationships help her grow a new layer of skin. Just like a snake, this new layer is roomier, allowing for more growth. This process symbolizes Oraya’s relationships and shows her a way of life outside the confines of Vincent’s aspirations for her. The ease of these relationships also gives Oraya the room to shake the harmful, parasitic expectations and beliefs that Vincent has sown in her from childhood—such as the belief that her humanity is nothing more than weakness.
Ilana’s Purple Silk Scarf
Ilana’s purple silk scarf survives the story past her death, serving as a motif for everything Ilana stood for in Oraya’s life: a reminder to put herself above her loyalties to Vincent. Ilana’s rebellious, do-whatever-she-wants nature is a source of inspiration and admiration for Oraya. Oraya recognizes how “Ilana had never done what she was supposed to. Had never done what this world told her she needed to” (53). These qualities are what draw Oraya to Ilana in the first place, and her relationship with Ilana then becomes a new form of rebellion against Vincent, for it is a loving relationship that he doesn’t know about. Oraya sees the ways Ilana is like her even as she wishes to be more like her friend.
After the Halfmoon trial, the Moon Palace supplies a purple dress for Oraya. The dress “was the kind of thing [she]’d dreamed of wearing when [she] was too young to understand that doing so would be a poor survival choice” (276). Oraya wears Ilana’s matching scarf, determined to bring meaning to the spectacle. At the time, she’s angry with Vincent for breaking his promise to her about not harming Raihn. The scarf shows the deepening chasm between her loyalty to Vincent and her own desires, which are growing more for Raihn every day despite all her father’s warnings about the dangers of love and trust.
While Oraya hides all the colorful items that she is too afraid to wear or display, Ilana embraces color and flashiness, with her apartment a proud mess of colorful objects. When Ilana gifts Oraya the scarf, she says, “You’d never guess you were pretty under all of that, Oraya, […] Dead set on making yourself look as unappealing as possible” (12). The comment, in addition to the obvious distaste Ilana has for Vincent’s controlling nature, illustrates How Intense Loyalty Erodes Identity, for Oraya’s need to please Vincent prevents her from seeking the life she desires. Because Vincent has said that colorful clothing attracts the attention of predators, and nice garments are unwise because they hinder movement needed to defend oneself, Oraya spends her entire life believing that while “[she] admired pretty things just as much as any other […] Vanity came second to survival” (12). While the plain, black attire that Oraya wears does keep her safe from the attention of predators, her loyalty to Vincent’s rules—despite genuinely yearning to wear beautiful, colorful things—highlights her own lack of meaningful identity.
The Voice in Oraya’s Head
The inner voice that speaks in Oraya’s mind symbolizes the struggle she feels to dissociate from Vincent’s influence and the control he retains over her, even when he’s not physically present. In moments of doubt or panic, when she must turn to herself for guidance, it is not her own mind that answers—it’s Vincent’s. When Raihn provokes her to interact with him, Oraya hears Vincent’s voice in her head again, saying, “Think about what you have to gain from an interaction. The answer is usually nothing” (73). He has trained her to work alone and not to trust anyone, and this instruction stunts her relationships. For this reason, she avoids physical touch with others and never explicitly states her love for those closest to her.
It is not until Vincent decimates Salinae, Oraya’s hometown where she someday hopes to find her remaining family, that her own inner voice speaks up: “And when a voice in my head whispered, He’s right. Isn’t that enough? It wasn’t Vincent’s voice. It was mine” (371). The appearance of her inner voice, in direct defiance of Vincent, signifies the first significant crack in the mold that Vincent has tried to force Oraya to fit. However, Oraya’s struggle for identity and separation is far from over, for just moments after this breakthrough, she attempts to justify his actions.
Even when Oraya goes hunting for vampires in the human districts—an activity her father knows nothing about, because she knows he’ll disapprove—his voice remains prevalent. The memory of him instructing her to kill the vampire she loved as a teen still guides her actions now: “The moment my blade punctured their chest, I always heard my father’s voice. Don’t look away, little serpent” (9). For every contestant she kills throughout the Kejari, she makes sure to look them in the eyes, including Ibrihim and Angelika. Only when she kills Raihn does she disobey Vincent’s “voice,” squeezing her own eyes shut as the blade slides home. The refusal is fitting, as Raihn is her biggest rebellion; he’s the only person who has pushed Oraya to break out of the strictures of her life as defined by Vincent.
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By Carissa Broadbent
