Graceling Themes

If you played a word association game with Katsa—our main girl in Graceling—and gave her the word marriage, she'd likely come back with something along the lines of prison. Or cage. Or maybe du...

Katsa spends a fair amount of her life isolated, partly because of her Grace—which scares the wallabies out of most people in the seven kingdoms—but also because of her choices. And toward the...

What do you think of when you hear the words strength and skill? Professional Athletes?Stunt Doubles?Shmoop Lit Guide Writers?You'd be justified on all accounts, of course. Everyone in that list is...

Graceling is full of disguises, deceptions, and lies—most of them for a good cause. Yeah, we know—it's hard to think of lies and deceit in a positive light; but more often than not in this book...

Go back fifty years in the United States and you wouldn't see many men staying home to raise their children, cooking dinner for the family, or washing the dishes. Those tasks all fell into the dome...

To be a woman in Katsa's time and place means to grow up, find a husband, and have children. It means cooking and cleaning and entertaining your husband's guests, and it also means embroidering, cr...

Eleanor Roosevelt said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent," and that's essentially what Po keeps telling Katsa about her role as Randa's enforcer: Randa can't make her hurt pe...

Who am I? Why am I here? Where do I fit in? A lot of young adult lit deals with these types of questions. Why? Because it's a pretty prominent theme in the lives of young adults as they navigate th...