44 pages • 1 hour read
Becky ChambersA Prayer for the Crown-Shy
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A 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
Road Signs
As Dex and Mosscap leave the wild and begin walking on the highway, Dex reflects how glad they are to be back on a smooth surfaced road where they can pedal the caravan more easily. Dex is particularly grateful for “signs people made to let other people know which way to go if they wanted to rest and eat and not be alone” (4). In this case, the sign tells them that they are 20 miles from the village of Stump. When Mosscap suggests that the sign to Stump is “prescriptive,” Dex counters that when one travels one needs signs: “You need to know there’s food and shelter where you’re headed. Which is why we make signs” (6). In addition to the physical reality of the sign, symbolically Dex hopes for a spiritual sign that will tell them where they are headed in life.
Throughout the journey, Dex has been seeking their existential purpose in life, but without a clear spiritual sign, they are not sure what to do next. Essentially, Dex wants to know where they are headed in life. Mosscap, on the other hand, tells Dex that it had “rarely had clear destination in mind before now. In the wilds, I simply go places” (5). For Mosscap, the physical journey is not about the destination. Likewise, on a symbolic level, as Mosscap journeys toward self-awareness, it does not expect to arrive anywhere in particular and therefore is not looking for signs to indicate that it has arrived. Rather, the experiences it encounters is reason enough for the journey.
Prayer
Both the title and epigraph of A Prayer for the Crown-Shy emphasize the importance of prayer as a motif throughout the entire book. A prayer traditionally is supplication, praise, or gratitude addressed to a god or object of worship. The Epigraph is a poem of praise to the gods of Panga and sets the tone for a book encouraging mindfulness, reciprocity, and gratitude.
Likewise, in Chapter 2, as Dex and Mosscap approach Stump, Dex offers a prayer at a shrine dedicated to Bosh, the God of the Cycle. Dex explains “The shrine’s not for Bosh […]. It’s for us. People, I mean. Bosh exists and does their work regardless of whether we pay attention. But if we do pay attention, we can connect to them” (14). Dex goes on to say that when people pay attention, they feel “whole.” That is, praying not only provides focus and mindfulness for humans, but also connects them to something larger than themselves, whether that be the entire community, the environment, or the gods. This connection serves as an underpinning for the values and central idea of the novel.
Finally, in the closing pages of the book, Mosscap and Dex experience the ocean. The robot calls the phytoplankton “beautiful” and reaches “out its hand, making contact with things too small to be seen alone” (148). This is a kind of prayer, a connection with both the micro of the “tiny little not-quite-plants” (148) and the macro of the ocean. In the last lines, Dex and Mosscap play in the waves with abandon, grateful for each other, the water, the sun, and the world. At this moment, their harmonious laughter becomes a prayer of praise.
Crown-Shy
In addition to serving as the part of title for this book, the term “crown-shy” also functions symbolically throughout the novel. Crown shyness, also known as inter-crown spacing, refers to the tendency for very tall trees to keep their top branches and leaves (their “crown”) separated from the branches of neighboring trees. Together, crown-shy trees form a canopy over the forest floor, allowing dappled sun to peek through the channels between branches and leaves. The tree crowns in this way do not become entangled in each other.
During the Factory Age, humans became entangled with technology and substituted robots and other technology for human effort. Individual humans were only interested in their own wealth and gains rather than in the common good. When the robots left civilization to be on their own, humans had to learn again the importance of connection without entanglement. Thus, the symbolically “crown-shy” characters in A Prayer for the Crown-Shy work together cooperatively for the benefit of the society while retaining their individuality and independence. They are able to use technology to provide comfort but also to make better lives for all.
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By Becky Chambers
