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Chapter 3
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Poppy War, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Dehumanization and the Horrors of War
Identity, Cultural Trauma, and Coming of Age
The Purpose of Education
Addiction, Drugs, and Control
History
Summary
Analysis
Classes get more difficult as the term progresses. Rin learns to swim and how to make missiles. Master Irjah, the Strategy master, asks students to memorize Sunzi’s Principles of War in a week, insisting that star student Altan Trengsin was able to do it. The new students roll their eyes; Trengsin seems to hold every school record and be every Master’s favorite. Jun continues to hold class outside into the fall, despite the cold. One day, as Jun prepares to teach students to wield staffs, Master Jiang appears overhead, pruning the mimosa tree. He’s singing a lewd song and refuses to leave until Jun hits the tree with his staff and causes Jiang to fall out. Enraged, Jun then tries to lead the class through a drill, which they fail miserably at. He tells them a threatening story to scare them into submission, and they then perform “flawlessly.”
Principles of War is a reference to Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, a widely influential Chinese work on military strategy. This helps Kuang introduce readers to factual Chinese history, in addition to that of fictional Nikan. While Trengsin seems almost superhuman and is obnoxiously competent, Master Jiang—the Lore master—is obnoxiously incompetent. His eccentric behavior here suggests that Rin and her classmates actually don’t have anything to learn from him, an idea that the novel will go on to question.
Themes
Jun’s classes are awful, but the nightly practice sessions, led by apprentices Kureel and Jeeha, are fun. The sessions are mostly mayhem, with little if any instruction. First-year students also begin staying after class to practice, though some—namely Nezha—take the opportunity to show off. When Rin scoffs at one of Nezha’s beautiful but pointless kicks, Kitay explains that the martial arts started as essentially dance and the moves were adapted for combat. Rin then scoffs openly at Nezha, offending him. They agree to duel, though it’s against the rules. Rin kicks Nezha in the groin, winning the fight. For this, all her classmates except for Kitay bully her when they’re not ignoring her. Niang still speaks to Rin in their dorm, and she encourages Rin to apologize. But Venka inserts herself in their conversation, insisting Rin was only admitted to Sinegard to make the Keju “seem fair.”
It's perhaps reflective of Rin’s provincial and working-class upbringing that she approaches martial arts believing that function is more important than aesthetics—the kicks are useless, in other words, if they don’t help a fighter win. Thus, her kick to Nezha’s groin, while effective, is received as an insult by her upper-class peers. This highlights how stuck Nikan’s ruling classes are in their ways. Judging by how the students treat Rin, they’re more interested in maintaining their power (and all the pomp and circumstance that goes along with it) than in entertaining the idea that maybe people who aren’t wealthy have good ideas and can be effective leaders.
Themes
About a week later, Rin, Venka, and Niang have just fallen asleep when Raban knocks on their door and tells them to get dressed and follow him. Raban leads the first-year class, boys and girls, to the training hall’s basement. There are two pits dug in the ground, and Master Sonnen stands in one to referee student fights. Altan is fighting tonight, and this will be the first time any of the first-years have seen him. He drops into the ring. He has dark skin and hair and red eyes—he’s obviously a Speerly. A bigger boy drops down and challenges Altan, and Altan wins so fast that Rin misses the fight entirely. Kureel challenges Altan next, and the fight lasts longer. Altan fights gracefully and ultimately knocks Kureel unconscious. Tobi is the next challenger, and though he performs his “inherited art” on Altan, Altan still wins.
Recall the discussion of Speer and Speerlies in Rin’s history class; the Federation massacred the Speerlies during the Second Poppy War, possibly because Nikan so fully dehumanizes the Speerlies that they saw sacrificing the island as an acceptable way to end the war on favorable terms. That Altan is seemingly the only surviving Speerly only adds to his mystique—and the sense that he isn’t fully human. Indeed, he seems to be more than human as he wins his fights against his fellow students, even against those who Rin knows are skilled fighters.
Themes
By the next day, the first-year students all talk as though they’re in love with Altan, and they can’t stop talking about him. Some of their discussion centers around Altan’s silence—Nezha suggests that the Speerlies were “primitive” and unintelligent, so maybe Altan can’t speak. Rin finds this hard to believe, especially after encountering so many classmates who think she must be dumb because her skin is darker. Perhaps Altan experiences the same thing. Raban insists that Altan is indeed smart, so Nezha proposes that Altan is addicted to opium—and Master Irjah gives it to him. Rin, who knows what opium addiction looks like (which is not what Altan looks like), insists that’s silly.
Rather than see Altan as a fellow student, Rin and her classmates instead see him as an object of fascination—as someone or something that isn’t fully human. Rin, who also comes from lower-class and less desirable circumstances, can at least acknowledge that Altan is certainly human and intelligent; she knows from experience that a person’s skin color doesn’t relate to their intelligence. Nezha’s suggestion that Altan is addicted to opium seems to betray his naivety and his sheltered upbringing, given that, as Rin notes, opium doesn’t turn people into deadly fighters. However, the question of Altan’s relationship to opium is one the novel will return to later.
Themes
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In History one day, Kitay interrupts Yim’s lecture on how the Empress (unsuccessfully) banned drugs to ask if they can talk about Speer. Exasperated—Yim gathers the students have recently met Altan—he agrees. Kitay wants to know why Speer was bombed, but Yim insists on starting with Speer’s annexation centuries ago. The Red Emperor stormed the island and turned the Speerlies into the empire’s most frightening fighting force—until the Second Poppy War, when Speer was bombed. Nezha insists that the queen at the time of Speer’s annexation, Mai’rinnen Tearza, was in love with the Emperor and sold out her people before killing herself. Yim states that they don’t know why or how Tearza died. He continues that all Speer was good for was its soldiers, as it had no exports, and its people were “primitive.” Rin asks if they were truly fire shamans, and the whole class, including Yim, laughs.
It’s brushed off in the narrative, but it’s worth giving some attention to the fact that the Empress has banned drugs. In addition to this being an important policy to keep in mind for later, it’s important to consider that the Empress bans drugs in part to try and control the population. The story of Speer’s annexation is murky, but what is clear is that nobody thinks highly of Tearza. Yim’s description of the Speerlies and the island’s usefulness to Nikan is telling. It speaks to how the Nikara have dehumanized Speerlies so fully, which seems to account for at least some of why nobody seems particularly upset that an entire island and all the people on it were murdered.
Themes
Kitay, though, notes that Speerlies had “weird abilities,” which is why Mugen targeted Speer during the Second Poppy War. Nezha argues that the Speerlies were just terrifying because they were “Primitive, drug-loving freaks.” Rin finds this crass, but to her surprise, Yim agrees, calling the Speerlies “barbaric” and explaining how they began training children as soldiers from toddlerhood. The rumors that they were fire shamans likely came from their use of flaming torches and their religion—they worshipped the Vermillion Phoenix. He also insists that the Speerly training regimen is way too cruel to subject Nikara children to. When Kitay continues to argue, Yim firmly says that Altan is human and has no divine powers.
It seems as though what made the Speerlies so frightening was the fact that, to the Nikara, they were unknowable: they had a different relationship to drugs and to religion. Readers should also keep in mind that Yim himself is biased: he’s working at a state-sponsored military academy, training the country’s future generals. That is, he might be telling a version of the truth that is less true than it is convenient and supportive of Nikan and the Empress’s aims.
Themes
Witnessing Altan fight inspires the first-years to try harder in Jun’s class. They all improve, so one day, Jun asks them to spar “responsibly.” Rin is paired with Nezha, who begins mercilessly attacking Rin before Jun even gives the word. Nezha hits Rin in the knee and then begins kicking her, telling her she’s nothing. Fearing for her life, Rin pulls him down and punches until Jun separates them. Jun suspends Nezha for a week, and then he says he’s never seen a worse fighter than Rin. He insists that “peasant trash” like her have no place at Sinegard. He kicks Rin out of his class for good and bans her from learning the material from other students or practicing in the studio.
Jun looks down on Rin for her background, stating clearly that because she isn’t wealthy, she doesn’t belong at a prestigious military academy—no matter how well she scored on the Keju. Education, in Jun’s view, is intended only for a select group of students. This treatment contributes to Rin’s trauma and her underlying sense that she’s unwanted and an outsider.
Themes
