The Bone Season

Blood is a potent literary symbol. It represents both life and death, and both connotations are present in The Bone Season, for Shannon spills a good deal of blood in her tale of oppression and resistance as many characters, both central and incidental, perish in their attempts to overthrow the persecutors that have enslaved them. When a voyant tries to flee the orientation, she is shot instantly: “Blood flowered under the girl’s hair” (51). When Warden returns to his residence after battling the Emim, blood spatters the floor and rug. After Ivy is tortured for information, Paige Mahoney peeks into the room: A chair “was stained with blood, as was the floor” (333). But just as blood represents death, it can also represent life, for in order to revive Liss, Warden needs to mingle her blood with his own in order to restore her numen (her physical connection to the aether). Similarly, when Warden is severely wounded by the Emim, he drinks Paige’s blood to heal his injuries, and even the symbol of the red aster—which is the color of blood—represents both death to the Rephaim and a method of salvation for Paige in her battle with Kraz.