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Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
The Personal Cost of Leadership
The novel tracks Alina’s growth as a leader, a role she takes on at great personal cost. Alina believes that her deepest struggle is with her growing power, which she begins to desire more fervently the more of it she has. Her interactions with Nikolai help open her eyes to another struggle she faces in her role as a leader. To free her people from the Darkling and the Fold, she will have to make sacrifices. One of these sacrifices is her personal liberty. She is the commander of the Second Army, and as such, she’s no longer free to consort with whomever she pleases, for reasons of politics and personal safety. She also loses the freedom of time, since a leader’s schedule is tightly regulated and the needs of the people take priority. Finally, leadership requires compromise, which entails both self-denial and the sacrifice of others’ goals. In the book’s early chapters, Alina is vexed by the constraints placed on her time and choice of companions. Throughout the novel, this struggle manifests in her personal relationships, as Alina endures the pain of delaying or suppressing her friends’ and followers’ hopes and dreams for the greater good. Even though this struggle is continual, it’s only toward the novel’s close that Alina realizes the toll that leadership has taken on her personally.
The Seductive Lure of Power
The characters in Siege and Storm are defined by struggles for power, and the divide between those who have it and those who do not is particularly stark. In this context, the lure of power is highly seductive. During the time she spends with the Darkling, Alina sees how he wields and depends upon power. For him, power is sustenance. Alina initially believes that her power is simply a part of who she is, and that she diminishes herself by hiding it. However, immediately after she attains the second amplifier, she longs for a third. She is oblivious to Mal’s distress at her transformation and is hungry for more power, behavior that resembles what she abhorred about the Darkling. Once in Ravka, Alina guiltily seeks out Baghra, but she also wants Baghra’s help finding the firebird from whom she can get a new amplifier. When Baghra refuses, Alina threatens her, appalling even herself. But as Alina’s power grows, she finds that she enjoys wielding it over other people. Mal catches the delight on her face as she grills Zoya about her past. Learning the sordid details about her rival gives Alina a thrill. So, while Alina protests that she needs the third amplifier to save Ravka, she is also motivated by her thirst for power. The quest for power aligns her with the Darkling, which could explain his apparitions. It is also possible that his haunting of her is simply a manifestation of her longing to use her power for darker ends.
The Failings of Aristocracy
Ravkan society puts into stark relief the difference between an aristocratic and a meritocratic society, clearly demonstrating the superiority of a meritocracy. As a young person in Ravka, Alina suffers as an otkazat’sya, a commoner or outsider, in an aristocratic culture in which some people are born to rule and others are born to serve. As an orphan, she comes from an uncertain lineage, so Ravkan society does not know what to do with her. As her power grows, Ravkan society hesitantly welcomes her because of what she can do for it, although her status remains suspect among both the Grisha and the nobility. Meanwhile, despite being the best tracker in the world, which earns him some grudging respect among Vasily’s guard, Mal continues to be shunned by the Grisha as an otkazat’sya.
As a final example, Nikolai labors alongside Ravkan farmers and workers, and he mingles with its nobleman while under the constant threat of being disinherited because he might be illegitimate. Thus, Alina, Mal, and Nikolai, Ravka’s best hope for survival in the face of the Darkling’s looming threat, are needlessly ostracized or viewed with suspicion. Simultaneously, men like Vasily and the King allow the country to rot from within, draining its resources, weakening its infrastructure, and disheartening its people, simply because they were born to power. If Ravka wishes to win its battle against the Darkling, it must realize that leadership is not a birthright but a responsibility earned through hard work, dedication, and skill.
