51 pages • 1 hour read
Cecelia AhernFlawed
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016A 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
Branding
Branding represents Flawed individuals’ offenses. Celestine explains that once an accused is deemed Flawed, they receive a brand on a different part of their body:
For bad decisions, it’s their temple.
For lying, it’s their tongue.
For stealing from society, it’s their right palm.
For disloyalty to the Guild, it’s their chest, over their heart.
For stepping out of line with society, it’s the sole of their right foot (4-5).
In retaliation for her defiance, Celestine receives all five brands as well as a sixth on her spine when Judge Crevan declares that she is “Flawed to [her] very backbone” (125). The use of branding as a way to signal an individual’s deviance from a social norm or ostracized status is reminiscent of historical and literary symbols of oppression.
The segregation between Flawed and other individuals echoes, for instance, the treatment of marginalized groups during World War II by the Nazi regime. Targeted populations were forced to wear color-coded symbols to visibly differentiate them from others, such as yellow stars for Jewish people or pink triangles for gay people. Auschwitz concentration camp prisoners were tattooed with numerals, stripping them of their humanity. In Flawed, the brands and armbands marked with an “F” worn by Flawed people are meant to highlight their perceived moral faults and enable discrimination against them. This also evokes symbols like the red letter “A” worn by Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850) to mark her as an adulterer.
In short, branding conveys strong historical connotations that inform the themes of Ahern’s novel. As highly visible, violent, and permanent markers of shame, brands are meant to enforce social order through fear. Celestine’s social downfall is symbolized by her being branded six times, a mechanism that reveals the governing authority’s abuse of power.
Rational Thinking
Celestine has an affinity for mathematics and rational thinking. In the first chapter, she introduces herself as “a girl of definitions, of logic, of black and white” (1), a trait that characterizes her throughout the story.
At the beginning, Celestine prides herself on being “a girl of definitions, of logic, of black and white” (1). Juniper nicknames her “Thesaurus.” Their father says that Celestine “likes things to be in their rightful place; she takes problems and, using theorems, solves them. She follows rules” (97).
When she interferes to help the Flawed man on the bus, Celestine rationalizes that “the problem was disturbing [her], and fixing it just made sense” (46). She finds people’s hostile reactions “illogical” and is shocked when the Whistleblowers arrest her, upending her entire belief system. After she is accused of being Flawed, Celestine once again tries to make sense of the situation rationally. The absurd, paradoxical nature of the Flawed court system is made evident when she is asked to lie to prove her innocence: “To gain my freedom, I must for the first time become Flawed. It doesn’t make sense. It is illogical” (56).
Celestine’s logical mindset breaks down, paralleling her identity crisis and prompting her to remark that her “black and white” view of the world has turned “fuzzy and gray” (96). In the end, she reconciles her love of logic with her new reality when Bill encourages her to take a mathematical approach to problem-solving. Celestine finally discards the fallacy of the Flawed system and starts making decisions from a more rational, well-informed stance. This is illustrated by her reclaiming her identity as “a girl of definitions, of logic, of black and white” (309), this time to stand up to an abusive police officer.
Celestine’s Anklet
During their last evening together before Celestine is accused of being Flawed, Art gives her an anklet with a symbol of Celestine’s perfection. The pendant represents four intertwined circles, prompting Celestine to comment:
Circles are regarded as a symbol of perfection. All the radii bear a ratio of one to one to each other, showing there are no partial differences between them. They are proved to be in a state of harmony. Geometric harmony (26).
The anklet embodies the main qualities of Celestine’s life prior to the trial: her relationship with Art, her love of mathematics and logic, and her perceived moral purity. She proudly displays it, highlighting the importance of visual appearances in a society where conformity is praised. Throughout her ordeals, Celestine’s anklet connects her back to her former life, which suggests that she struggles to let go of that idealized version of herself. In her most vulnerable moment, when she is abducted and undressed by Logan and the other teenagers, Celestine notes:
I’m left standing in my bra and underwear in the shed. The only other item on my body is the anklet that Art gave me. Despite our uncertain future, I don’t want to take it off. It reminds me of a time when things were perfect, that I’m not as Flawed as everyone says (219).
The guard who brands Celestine is the same man who was commissioned by Art to make the anklet. Celestine remarks that he “is the man who branded me perfect, and the same man who brands me Flawed” (119), a parallel that mirrors the reversal of her situation. In a way, the anklet acted like a “brand” of perfection in the same way the Flawed brands signal her supposed deviance. Celestine’s comment suggests that both symbols are equally arbitrary.
