Divine Rivals

Enva’s music is symbolic of the role that journalists play in delivering the truth to the ignorant and inspiring bravery in the enlightened. By filling “their hearts with the knowledge of the war” (176) with her song, Enva inspires thousands of east Cambria citizens, including Forest, to enlist. Just as journalists like Attie and Iris attempt to show the citizens the truth of the war, Enva’s music does the same on a much larger scale. When acknowledging her own dreams, Iris concludes that she wishes not only to be a journalist but to be able to report on things that matter, especially the truth that the chancellor is so adamant about hiding from the citizens of east Cambria. The chancellor’s determination to publish one limited view of the war—his— and to shut down any other narratives ultimately leaves his citizens dangerously uninformed about the war. The effects reach catastrophic proportions, as “the people in the west were being trampled by Dacre’s wrath […] [w]ithout soldiers coming from Oath, without [the east] joining in this fight…it would already be over and Dacre would reign” (176).

With music outlawed because of the fear that Enva’s own music inspires in the ignorant people of the east, Attie asks Iris: “[W]ith music being treated like a sin in Oath, how will people learn the truth?” (176).