61 pages • 2 hours read
Terry PratchettThe Color of Magic
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1983A 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
Altruism vs. Cowardice
The motif of altruism vs cowardice appears, on the surface, to say that Rincewind’s abject self-interest is the only rational way to behave. This is typical of a picaresque narrative where the protagonist is a rogue and an outsider who doesn’t conform to the usual rules of society. Nothing Rincewind does is motivated by bravery or altruism. He has to be threatened with death (or worse) by others, like the Patrician or the Luggage. Of all the characters in the story, only Twoflower is shown to have any altruistic motives, and he is innocent to the point of naivety, oblivious to the evil around him.
The logical conclusion ought to be, then, that Rincewind is the most admirable character in the book. He is the only one using good sense; in real life, many people would try their best to avoid trouble, just like Rincewind does. However, because Twoflower is a “good” person, and because Rincewind is the protagonist of a fantasy novel (whether he likes it or not), readers enter the story with preexisting expectations of him. Readers expect him to be a hero, but he must be forced to do the “right” thing, and he is often punished for his self-interest (typically in absurd and humorous ways).
By laughing at Rincewind when he is cornered into heroism, we reinforce the communal ideal of altruism. Ankh-Morpork, with its Thieves’ and Assassins’ Guilds and its inhabitants motivated by greed, shows what society might look like without such values. In the end, the city is destroyed by greed.
Self-Interest
The motif of self-interest relates to both the theme of The Magic of Economics and the motif of cowardice. It is the underlying force that drives Rincewind and his strongest motive. In part 1, Pratchett explores the idea that self-interest is one of the key drivers of economic activity. The Patrician in Ankh-Morpork mostly allows people to compete for resources without laws to prevent them from taking advantage of each other. The Patrician is one of the only characters in Ankh-Morpork who seems to understand economics and the broader workings of societal order; he is a stark contrast to Rincewind, who looks out only for himself and whose understanding of money does not extend past “if everyone has gold, then everyone will be rich.”
Individuals in Ankh-Morpork are expected to look out for themselves. The system works to the extent it does because self-interested individuals can hire trolls or assassins to resolve disputes. Although the city technically has law enforcement, the narrator explains that “The Watch [are] always careful not to intervene too soon in any brawl where the odds [are] not heavily stacked in their favor. The job [… attracts] a cautious, thoughtful kind of man” (36).
But self-interest, of course, can have devastating consequences—for individuals, communities, and in the case of The Color of Magic, for an entire city. Twoflower sells an insurance policy to Broadman, the innkeeper at the Broken Drum. Broadman, who has no concept of insurance whatsoever, only hears that he gets money if he destroys his inn; in the process of cashing in on his funds, he ends up burning down the city.
Ultimately, the survival of society depends on the balance between the needs of the individual and those of the collective, which requires some agreed-upon controls.
Imagination
Imagination as a symbol in The Color of Magic occupies a different role than the theme of The Role of Imaginative Fiction, although the two are directly intertwined. Symbolically, imagination represents freedom. This symbol is most strongly seen in Twoflower, who possesses an extremely powerful imagination—both in the figurative sense, as the reader understands it, and in the literal sense, which manifests in Part 3.
Fantasy is considered a form of “escapism.” Literature in all forms allows the reader to make use of imagination, but fantasy is most well-known for pushing the boundaries of human creativity. Pratchett is extremely vocal about his reverence for the power of imagination. Dragons, for instance, are often extremely powerful and majestic fantasy creatures. In The Color of Magic, “[t]he true dragon […] is a creature of such refinement of spirit that they can only take on form […] if they are conceived by the most skilled imagination” (155). By tying a generally awe-inspiring, strictly fantasy creature to the power of imagination, Pratchett elevates imaginative strength to a significant degree.
Thus, Twoflower, who has a powerful imagination, is able to “escape” his stifling, uncreative life in the Empire (a life reflective of real-world monotony) and travel to Ankh-Morpork, which is mired in the fantasy he’d dreamed of. Though it leads to harrowing adventures, Twoflower is driven by the desire to see everything he once imagined, and finds his freedom. Additionally, Pratchett, who makes heavy use of satire and delights in subverting standard fantasy tropes, adds literal power to imagination in the form of the aforementioned dragons. At the beginning of the book, Twoflower symbolically escapes his life; in Part 3, he literally escapes the prison of the Wyrmberg, riding on a dragon he creates with the “Power” of his imagination.
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