70 pages • 2 hours read
James IslingtonThe Will of the Many
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaSymbols & Motifs
Scars
Scars are a prominent and recurrent symbol, indicating physical frailty, endurance, trauma, and the long-term consequences related to trauma.
Vis is scarred from the whippings he received from the orphanage Matron, “the deep, layered scars on [his] back” (37) reflecting the Matron’s embarrassment and anger over his refusal to cede Will at the Aurora Columnae. Vis thinks of his scars often, and later, other characters view them with varying degrees of shock, horror, and understanding.
These whip scars symbolize several things: first, they symbolize Vis’s resistance, not only to the system of Will but to the Republic as a whole. Second, in the eyes of others, they symbolize Vis’s hatred for the Catenan populace. For instance, after Vis kills Estevan to save the crowds at the naumachia, Lanistia is surprised that he would risk his life for Caten, stating that “[they] both know those scars on [his] back mean [he has] no real love for Caten” (208). Third, the scars serve as a reminder of the parts of himself he will not compromise for anyone, such as when he feels his scars “pull on [his] back” (407) when he assures Eidhin he knows what is and is not willing to do for survival.
The mysterious Anguis man who speaks with Vis on the island, during the Iudicium, warns him that “none of us get out without scars” (592). He is talking about Vis’s left arm, which will soon be amputated due to the bite wound. However, the man may also be speaking of the metaphorical scars inflicted by their various struggles against the Republic. His words draw attention to the symbolic and metaphorical significance of Vis’s literal scars.
Dead Languages
The motif of dead languages runs through the novel, from the ancient form of Vetusian Vis reads in the ruins, to the Cymrian language Eidhin speaks. These dead languages explicate the cultural context of the imagined world, aid in characterization, and indicate winners and losers in the hierarchy.
Vis demonstrates his intelligence and advanced education through the number of languages he can speak or read. Significantly, Vis’s ability to understand several dead languages is the catalyst that drags him into the plot. This is apparent in Chapter 1 when Vis understands the Vetusian language Ulciscor uses when speaking with the prisoner. He should not understand the language but has gained the ability from his mother who was a scholar fluent in three languages, which brings him to Ulciscor’s notice. Vis’s knowledge of dead languages allows him to gather information he would not be privy to otherwise, and also facilitates his eventual friendship with Eidhin.
The dead languages themselves function as lingering evidence of the Republic’s violent, colonialist expansion. These languages are dead because they have been suppressed by the Republic’s history of conquering and colonizing nearby regions, destroying native cultures and languages and imposing their own social structures. Vis and Eidhin speak Cymrian, directly defying Praeceptor Dultatis. Thus, this motif contributes to the themes of Resistance and Complicity and Greed and the Corruptibility of Governance. The dead languages are symbolic of the Catenan regime’s oppression and are an allegorical symbol of the real-world suppression of diverse cultures by historical and present-day regimes.
Will
The system of Will is a symbol of the novel’s focus on power, resistance, resilience, and personal determinism, as well as being a literal plot point. Will, described as “all your drive, your focus, your mental and physical energy” (9), is shared between people in a strict hierarchy from lowest to highest rank, giving those at the top increasing mental and physical power, as well as magical abilities, and draining those at the bottom of their vitality and energy to do more than drearily trudge through life.
The presentation of Will as a form of magic symbolizes the contrast between class privilege and the power of one’s personal will or driving force. The Academy students are forbidden from using Will in the belief that this will place them on equal footing, allowing them to succeed and advance based on their own hard work and drive instead. However, as Callidus argues and Aequa tacitly believes, hard work alone is rarely enough and the privileges of class (in the form of wealth, political power, but also access to Will) tip the balance. For instance, Aequa does not believe that Vis could succeed and rise through the ranks as quickly as he does without cheating, using the strength of Will taken from others rather than his own internal will.
Furthermore, the Will system concretely symbolizes Estevan’s thematic argument that the population is complicit in, and responsible for, the oppression and atrocities of the Republic because they literally give power to the ruling class. This ties directly with the themes of Resistance and Complicity and Greed and the Corruptibility of Governance.
