62 pages • 2 hours read
Brandon SandersonTress of the Emerald Sea
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.
Symbols & Motifs
Tress’s Cups
While content with her life on the Rock, Tress collects cups that sailors bring from around her world. Although Tress asserts that she would be content living on the Rock, the cups represent a fascination with the outside world. Tress loves finding out more about the cups’ origins, and her love for the cups and their stories symbolizes the love of adventure and travel that Tress realizes only through her reluctant adventuring.
The cups play multiple roles in the narrative. Charlie sends them to Tress as signs that he is successful in driving away each princess he meets; in this role, the cups represent the couple’s love and their determination not to let the world pull them apart. By the end of the novel, the cups also come to represent the couple’s growth and change through their journeys. Tress tells Charlie of the two cups she had with her when seeing the Sorceress: “I love them. Particularly the one with the butterfly on the sea. Like us, Charlie. Soaring over places we never thought to go. And the one made of pewter. Like us, Charlie. Stronger and more straight-forward than we have a right to be” (445). The cups, as part of Tress’s beloved collection, represent adventure, love, and change.
Spores and the Spore Seas
The spores and the seas created by them represent fear, danger, and the deep complexity that might lay beneath the surface appearance of something. The inhabitants of Tress’s world live a life in constant defense from the spores, protecting themselves from these natural elements that easily and often kill. From a narrative standpoint, they symbolize Tress’s journey to self-confidence. By learning about spores and experimenting with them, Tress develops a respect for them rather than outright terror. While the spores are dangerous, their danger is exacerbated by a refusal to examine further.
The way the spore work also illustrates Sanderson’s “hard magic,” which unlike “soft magic” is completely logical within the context of the fantasy universe. Rather than magic serving as a tool to quickly create or solve plot holes, magic here functions systematically, even if it is complex. In this way, the spores represent the need for humans to develop a deep awareness of their environment in order to work with that environment rather than simply defend against it.
Ships
A common object in the adventure story, the ship has come to symbolize all adventure. Ships connote an unknown world as they travel the oceans which are themselves unpredictable and vast. The symbol of the ship in this novel plays off of that symbolism of adventure and explores both the romantic and unpleasant realities of a journey into the unknown.
In order to escape Rock, Tress pretends to be an inspector and boards the first ship in order to travel to the king. But like most adventures, what is anticipated is rarely what is actually experienced, as Tress realizes that the ship is actually composed of pirates. Later, when attacked by the Crow’s Song, the ships are shown in their vulnerability. The spore-laced cannons easily damage the hull, and the spore seas freeze the ships’ movements when they solidify. The ships also contain a hodgepodge of people, aliens, and animals, each with their own agendas and secrets. As much as ships convey the excitement of a hero’s journey, no one really understands adventure until one is actually on the ship. In this way, Tress’s decision to live a life as a sailor at the end of the novel points to the satisfaction of not just imagining the unknown, but the actual experiencing of it.
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By Brandon Sanderson
