Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2023

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-12

Chapters 13-18

Chapters 19-24

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Flight

Flight serves as a symbol of freedom. Thomas takes inspiration from Virginia Hamilton’s “The People Could Fly,” a retelling of an African American folktale in which a group of enslaved people “flew off like birds to freedom” using an ancient spell (47). One of the characters in this folktale, a woman named Sarah, is Nic’s ancestor and one of Uhuru’s founders. Thomas’s use of folklore and the relationship between the protagonist and Sarah contribute to The Importance of Heritage and Cultural Identity. Further underlining this importance, the spell from the folktale saves Nic’s life during the climax when Ty knocks her off of her dragon: “I’m flying. I’m freaking flying! And it feels…amazing doesn’t describe it. It’s breathtaking. It’s happiness. It’s freedom. Warmth ripples through my body, from my toes to my fingertips. I suddenly feel as if I’m power itself” (320). Flight helps Nic share in her ancestors’ freedom and reminds her that she has the power to liberate herself.

Thomas also uses the symbol of flight to depict the liberty enjoyed by Uhuru’s citizens. The people who live in the city are free to realize their remarkable potential, and they’re also free from the racism that plagues the Unremarkable world. To emphasize this atmosphere of freedom and possibility, cars, commuters, and even buildings fly: “The tech district looks more futuristic than I imagined, with glass skyscrapers and buildings that float in midair” (300). These features add elements of Afrofuturism to the fantasy story. The symbol of flight contributes to the novel’s genre, themes, and plot.

Caramel

Caramel represents familial love. The caramel cakes that Calvin purchases at the start of the novel have layers of meaning. Sharing Nic’s favorite dessert on her birthday is a tradition that illustrates the love between the father and daughter. As Nic later realizes, Calvin buys two birthday cakes because he loves and misses her twin brother, Alex. The wish that Nic makes on the cake reinforces the symbolic link between family and caramel: “I wish we had other family too. Then I imagine that I’m surrounded by a mom, grandparents, aunts, uncles, a brother” (26). Caramel cake is one of “Jackson’s culinary specialties” (13), and this is where the protagonist’s wish comes true. In Jackson, Nic meets JP, who becomes like family to her, and reunites with her mother and Alex after a decade apart.

Caramel also appears in the scene in which Nic and Alex talk out their jealousy and develop a lasting, loving bond. One of Alex’s happiest memories is visiting a sweet shop with his mother, and he looks forward to sharing this experience with his sister: “I smile a little. ‘Will there be caramel?’ ‘Trust me, Mom and I wouldn’t go if there wasn’t. We love caramel’” (218). Alex’s desire to take Nic to see the caramel fountain at his and his mother’s favorite sweet store is a sign of growth because it reveals he’s no longer afraid of sharing his mother’s love with Nic. Thomas uses the symbol of caramel to represent the sweetness of finding familial love.

Wands

The wands in this novel symbolize guns. Unlike the wands found in other fantasy stories, the wands in The Manifestor Prophecy are inherently destructive, deadly, and prone to misfiring. These traits emphasize their symbolic meaning. The first wand that Nic sees is wielded by a white sheriff who targets her, Alex, and JP when the three Black children are alone in an unfamiliar place: “He reaches for his holster, and I swear I stop breathing, but he whips out a wooden wand, a wizard’s weapon of choice” (203). The author’s word choice purposefully likens the wand to a firearm, such as its placement in a holster and Nic’s description of the object as a “weapon.” One of Thomas’s aims as a writer is to confront injustice, and this symbol helps her to continue the critique of police brutality she began with her debut novel, The Hate U Give.

In addition, Thomas depicts the wand-toting group as analogous to white supremacists. They call themselves Grand Wizards and are aware that this was a title used by the Ku Klux Klan. They try to justify owning their dangerous wands by claiming that they are for protection, which is similar to claims some groups make about firearms: “Our goal is to get wands into as many Unremarkable hands as possible, ’cause you mark my words: there’s gon’ come a day when we gon’ need magic to protect us from you Manifestors” (207). Manifestors are Black, and the wizards’ reasoning resembles racist rhetoric that threatens violence against Black people while suggesting that Black people are somehow inherently threatening. Through wands’ symbolic meaning, Thomas uses the lens of fantasy to confront real-world issues, such as gun violence and police corruption.