In the thirteenth and final chapter of\u00c2\u00a0Tris<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Book<\/i>, Tris seeks out Enahar at great risk to her friends and herself. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Circle of Magic<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For talk of death and slavery<\/b><\/p>\n
I think you could call this a happy ending because Winding Circle is saved, but Pierce deliberately makes this a complicated one. The mages here are victorious, but it comes at a high cost for Tris. Throughout this book, Tris has struggled with so many things relating to her sense of self-worth and her role within the world. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not been easy for her. Initially, she couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t trust the people at Discipline because she believed they were just like everyone else. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d treat her like a freak, and then they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d pass her on to someone else. But even as she grew close to them \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and began to view Discipline as her first\u00c2\u00a0permanent<\/i> home \u00e2\u20ac\u201c she still couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let go of her sense of rage and suspicion. And I do believe that was both a coping mechanism\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i> a form of protection for Tris, one that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think she\u00c2\u00a0should<\/i> have given up without careful consideration.<\/p>\n
So I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m pleased that her growth over this book has been a slow burn of sorts. Hell, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s definitely not over, either! She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still got so much left to learn. But in the final battle, she must face her current biggest problem: her inability to control herself. I now know that the scene with her pointing at Briar was foreshadowing for\u00c2\u00a0this<\/i>. Tris possesses the kind of power that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s violent by its very nature. While I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to acknowledge that all four kids were responsible for killing people during this fight (and ostensibly killed slaves unknowingly), I get why this focuses on Tris alone. Her story is so important to the book as whole and not just because her cousin was part of this plot against Winding Circle.<\/p>\n
Which means that Enahar is not so much a foil as he is a glimpse of a possible future for Tris. As Tris and her friends try to locate the mage (who has built a complicated web of magic between the various mages), Sandry takes a moment to gently remind Tris that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another option besides violent revenge:<\/p>\n
On the wall, Sandry took her arm away.\u00c2\u00a0Try a little mercy?\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>she asked, looking at the pirates and slaves who struggled in the water of the cove.<\/p>\n
Tris raced away.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Without a word, Tris more or less confirms that she has no interest in mercy, not at this time. Enahar enslaved her cousin, turned him into a power-hungry fool, killed him, and is now dead-set on murdering most of Winding Circle. The concept of mercy means nothing to Tris in this moment. This certainly becomes the case once the other three Discipline children are captured by Enahar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s magic-draining threads\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i> when Enahar begins to goad her into attacking him. Actually, can we talk about how utterly hypocritical he is?<\/p>\n
You owe me a considerable debt, my girl<\/i>. The voice went colder, if that was possible.\u00c2\u00a0You killed my sister Pauha, when you turned lightning on her ship.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Oh, but killing Aymery? Totally fine. No debt there!<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s at this point that the CIRCLE OF FRIENDSHIP is activated IN DUAL FORM. Look, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just something deeply meaningful about all of the teachers joining with their students to give them the power to break free of Enahar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trap. Tris uses this to strike Enahar with a particularly brutal bolt of lightning that is also a manifestation of the Circle of Friendship:<\/p>\n
The lightning bolt had stayed nearby while Enahar taunted her. Now it settled into her grip. To it Sandry fed the power of the spindle that had made the four into one. Briar added the green strength of stickers and thorns. From Daja came the white blaze of the harbor chain.<\/p>\n
F R I E N D S H I P.<\/p>\n
But in this act, Tris loses some of herself. Aymery\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s earring is destroyed in order to completely break her connection to Enahar, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not as bad as Tris\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s complete loss of innocence. For when she finally breaks from Enahar and her magical self drifts through the ocean, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s forced to stare into the face of her actions. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s horribly upsetting, but Tris has to accept that when she destroyed Enahar, she also took out an unknowable number of innocent people. There was collateral damage that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never be able to take back. Did she know about the slaves? It looks like she did, but she merely forgot to consider them when she destroyed Enahar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ship. That carelessness \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and her lack of control \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is not ignored by the text at all.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll save some of my thoughts on this for predictions BECAUSE IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S CLEAR THIS STORY IS NOT OVER. This kind of trauma is going to have lasting affects on her, and we get to see one immediate ramification of that. I suppose it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a form of repentance for Tris. She spends eight days treating many of the slaves and pirates who were captured, despite how uncomfortable it is, despite that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gross, and despite that none of these people will ever thank her. And god, THAT PART IS SO IMPORTANT. Tris cannot work through her control issues and her own guilt expecting to be thanked.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The first time in my life anybody thanked me for anything was after I came here. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not so used to it that I expect it from people.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Well, thanks for smashing my heart to pieces again, Tamora Pierce.<\/p>\n
Look, this is actually an important little issue to me because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been doing activist work for ages. Like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 shit, 17 years now? And one of the things I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve personally come up against and\u00c2\u00a0constantly<\/i> see in people involved in anti-racist work or anti-homophobia work, etc., is this idea of working through guilt by still centering one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s self throughout it. Activist work cannot truly change the world if the activist is still believing that they deserve part of the pie as well. It is uncomfortable, unsettling, and dirty fucking work to do, particularly if you are working with issues that concern privilege and complicity in dominant structures. Like, this example with Tris is such a good one! She meant absolutely well here, and she was absolutely justified in seeking her revenge on Enahar. This does not and can not negate what she did to those slaves. That reality exists at the same time. So Tris has to work through guilt and the ramifications of her actions without ever expecting anything in return. Why?\u00c2\u00a0Because this is not about her<\/i>. Will her guilt be alleviated some day? Perhaps, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the point, at least not when she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the hospital.<\/p>\n
It\u00c2\u00a0is<\/i> about her when she asks Niko for help with control. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important, too, because Tris is aware of her power and aware of how horrible it can be,\u00c2\u00a0and she wants to change<\/i>. Recognizing that is an important first step for her, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also only a step. \u00c2\u00a0At the end of\u00c2\u00a0Tris<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Book<\/i>, we see her accepting her responsibility for Shriek, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also clear that the fledgling is ready to move to the next part of his life. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a neat parallel to Tris, since she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also preparing to do the same thing. But, again, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the start of something much bigger, and I love that this book ends by hinting at further development for her.<\/p>\n
THIS WAS SO GOOD, AND NOW I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M ABOUT TO READ ABOUT MY FAVORITE OF THE FOUR AND\u00c2\u00a0I<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M SO EXCITED<\/i>.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=O0U7QHLtad0<\/p>\n
Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n
-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is now on Facebook<\/a>! Feel free to Like the page, which I’m running myself, for updates and SILLINESS.
\n– If you would like to support this website and keep Mark Does Stuff running,\u00c2\u00a0I’ve put up a detailed post explaining how you can!<\/a>
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\n– I will be at quite a few conventions and will be hosting events throughout 2015, so check\u00c2\u00a0my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0often to see if I’m coming to your city!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the thirteenth and final chapter of\u00c2\u00a0Tris\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Book, Tris seeks out Enahar at great risk to her friends and herself. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Circle of Magic.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[478,477,483],"tags":[482,250],"class_list":["post-3072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-circle-of-magic","category-emelan","category-triss-book","tag-mark-reads-emelan","tag-tamora-pierce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}