The Hero and the Crown

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1984

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-7

Part 1, Chapter 8-Part 2, Chapter 13

Part 2, Chapters 14-18

Part 2, Chapters 19-25

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Asserting Identity Within Complex Family Dynamics

Throughout the novel, Aerin struggles to find belonging in her family, whether because of her heritage, her skills, or other traits that she cannot change. The complex demands and dynamics of the royal household create an environment in which Aerin constantly feels devalued or worthless. The central role of Aerin’s complex family dynamics is emphasized by the fact that McKinley deliberately sidelines the main plot to provide in-depth exposition that establishes Aerin’s unique dynamics with each major sol and sola. Tor adores her, her father loves her distantly and officially, Galanna openly hates her, and Perlith tricks and mocks her. Aerin must overcome these internal and external dynamics by finding value in herself elsewhere, thereby stabilizing the royal household and establishing her place in it. However, this process ultimately occurs only through tragedy and destruction.

Much of Aerin’s struggle comes from her own household’s refusal to discuss her fabled, infamous mother. Her father refuses to talk about his late wife, and others, like Galanna, openly defame her as a witch, leaving Aerin to try and build her own identity from the tragedy of her mother’s death. Additionally, since Aerin’s mother is rumored to have died of sheer disappointment at having a daughter, Aerin’s sense of self-worth is automatically damaged. She tries to replace this loss of value by fitting herself to her father’s expectations, but she continually fails. Eventually, Aerin finds belonging in her family by accepting her difference from the rest of them. Her first—and boldest—attempt to establish her own identity comes when she begins slaying dragons and mingling with the common people, and through this choice, she develops her reputation. Even though her actions divide her from others in the court, she cannot find value and belonging with her family by trying to resemble them and must ultimately find her independence before she can claim the court as her home.

Despite her eventual status as queen and savior of her country, Aerin’s process of self-actualization comes with a heavy price. Because of Maur’s death and her time away, she returns to find the kingdom nearly destroyed, and her father and Perlith die to protect Damar in her absence. This event ultimately represents the impossibility of perfect belonging, for even though Aerin has finally grown into the person that her family must accept, she returns to a vastly changed physical and political landscape and must carve out her place all over again. In the end, Aerin returns as a full-fledged adult, and this growth is thematically represented by tragedy and deep change, for she loses her father even as her friendship with Tor transforms into romance.

Building Strength and Courage Through Disability

After nearly every key battle in the novel, the threat to Aerin’s life results in her becoming medically, if not socially, disabled for a significant period. Eating the surka weakens her sight and legs, and fighting Maur devastates her mind, body, and appearance. While Aerin largely overcomes these experiences, her struggles against her own body form a significant thematic arc in the novel, emphasizing her strength and determination to survive. Significantly, Aerin’s body is never devalued in the novel, and even though she experiences internal frustrations, these moments highlight her power and adaptability.

While she does experience extreme isolation, Aerin finds that her experiences with disability also connect her to other key characters. Perhaps most important is her relationship with the retired warhorse, Talat, who is disabled. Her refusal to see the warhorse as worthless despite his damaged leg helps her to recover her strength. Aerin and Talat learn to cooperate through their mutual need in the face of disability. Talat supports Aerin as she regains her ability to walk, and Aerin encourages Talat to gallop again. Despite this, neither of them makes a fully miraculous recovery; Talat’s leg continues to impede his movement at times, and Aerin struggles with the effects of the surka for many years. Similarly, after the fight with Maur, Aerin’s recovery leaves her permanently changed. Her physical appearance changes, her health changes, and she takes on a version of immortality to survive the experience. The narrative therefore implies that although powerful experiences create physical and psychological changes, these painful shifts serve as catalysts for transformation, allowing people to become new versions of themselves.

As with many other themes in the novel, Aerin’s experiences with disability reflect her complex relationship with the lingering memory of her mother that haunts the palace and the country. Early in the novel, Teka says that Aerin is “much like what [her] mother might have been had she been well and strong and without hurt” (17). Luthe later reveals that Aerin’s mother believed that she could not defeat Agsded because her weakness came from being a woman; thus, she grieved the birth of her daughter because she believed that nobody would be able to defeat Agsded. Aerin’s defeat of Agsded therefore proves her mother wrong on two counts, for Aerin defeats Agsded both as a woman and as a person who has struggled significantly with her health and her physical capabilities. While Aerin’s mother devalues herself and Aerin, Aerin uses her unique attributes and even her perceived flaws to empower herself. She incorporates the changes to her body that occur due to her sicknesses and adapts, becoming a stronger version of herself because of her disabilities.

Feminism, Gender Roles, and the Multiplicity of Romantic Love

Aerin has two love interests in the novel—Luthe and Tor—and neither is shown to be more important than the other. Instead, both occupy equally vital places in Aerin’s life and feelings; at no point does either man eclipse the status of the other and become her one “true” love. With this dynamic, McKinley thematically demonstrates that Aerin is not reduceable to a single desire or character trait, and the author also creates a world in which romantic love is free to take many forms. In this way, McKinley showcases the feminist themes at the novel’s heart; if a male fantasy protagonist can have two love interests (as many do), so can a female protagonist, and McKinley therefore creates a world in which Aerin’s romantic relationships and choices do not lose value or meaning.

Aerin’s relationships with Luthe and Tor also represent her gendered multiplicity. She can occupy masculine and feminine roles with equal skill even as she transcends both to define her place in the world. Her relationship with Luthe reverses gender roles, with Aerin occupying a more knightly, “masculine” role and Luthe performing more stereotypically “feminine” actions like cooking and healing. Aerin also initiates their relationship by kissing him first. With Tor, however, Aerin forces him into a more stereotypically “traditional” dynamic, encouraging him to be king and having him propose to her at the novel’s end. Despite Aerin’s clear leading influence, they still fight together as equals on the battlefield and rule together as a unified pair, and this arrangement represents Aerin’s ultimate destruction of traditional gender roles in Damar. Of Aerin’s two romances, it is vital that neither relationship is shown to be superior to the other, for they both suit Aerin’s dual needs, desires, and identity.

Ultimately, Aerin’s love interests are not her defining characteristic. While it is thematically important that she has two love interests—and is not demonized for doing so—her prioritization of her battle skills and her duties to the kingdom prove far more relevant to the feminist themes of the novel. Aerin is a feminist heroine because she can want many things at once. She can have Tor and Luthe without causing too much harm to either one, and she can both rule as a queen and fight as a warrior. In the end, Aerin’s relationships help her to transcend traditional stereotypes and gender roles and thematically define her as limitless, for the author implicitly argues that women are capable of anything, from loving more than one man to slaying more than one dragon.