Caraval

“Sometimes Scarlett felt all of Trisda was under a dome, a large piece of glass that trapped everyone inside while her father looked down, moving—or removing—people if they weren’t in the right places. Her world was a grand game board, and her father believed this marriage would be his penultimate move, putting all that he wanted within his grasp.”

Scarlett’s metaphor for her father’s action conveys how much she feels like a pawn in his political maneuvers. This metaphor parallels the larger game of Caraval and foreshadows that her father will play a role in that game as well. 

“She should have been the one to drown that night. She should have been the one whose head her father held under the water. Held until her limbs stopped thrashing and her body went as still and lifeless as the seaweed that washed onto the shore. Later people believed Felipe had drowned accidentally; only Scarlett knew the truth.’”

Witnessing Felipe’s death has a traumatic impact on Scarlett that causes her to internalize everything. She carries the guilt and burden of her father’s secret misdeeds, and that secret haunts her every day as she worries for Tella’s safety. This quote characterizes Scarlett’s father as a cruel antagonist while simultaneously posing Scarlett as an innocent victim. Her meekness here develops into strength near the end of the novel.

“The isle on the horizon looked nothing like her familiar Trisda. Where Trisda was black sand, rocky coves, and sickly looking shrubs, this bit of earth was lush and alive. Glittering mist swirled around vibrant green mountains—all covered in trees—that rose toward the sky as if they were massive emeralds. From the top of the largest peak an iridescent blue waterfall streamed down like melted peacock feathers, disappearing into the ring of sunrise-tinted clouds that pirouetted around the surreal isle.”

Garber contrasts Scarlett’s oppressive home in Trisda and the magic of Legend’s private island, Isla de los Sueños, by using imagery, metaphors, similes, and personification. This quick succession of figurative language allows Garber to depict a fantastical world through vivid sensory descriptions.

“There was a scent in the air Scarlett had never experienced. Trisda always stank of fish, but the air here was mostly sweet with a bit of tangy citrus. She wondered if it was drugged, for although she knew what she needed to do—get to the isle, find Tella, and then return home as soon as possible—she was having a difficult time telling Julian this. Suddenly she was nine years old again, naive and hopeful enough to believe a letter could make her wishes come true.”

Scarlett has repressed her desires for so long that when they involuntarily reemerge, she assumes it must be due to the influence of drugs. The magic of Caraval is present here, even though she hasn’t entered the game, because the promise of the isle reawakens a dream she thought had died a long ago.

“Welcome, welcome to Caraval! […] What happens beyond this gate may frighten or excite you, but don’t let any of it trick you. We will try to convince you it’s real, but all of it is a performance. A world built of make-believe. So while we want you to get swept away, be careful of being swept too far away. Dreams that come true can be beautiful, but they can also turn into nightmares when people won’t wake up.”

Jovan’s warning to Scarlett before she enters Caraval establishes a key theme throughout the novel: discerning fantasy from reality. Scarlett struggles to separate illusions from the truth. Even in the world outside of Caraval, she has convinced herself of so many illusions to protect herself from the truth, namely regarding her fiancé.

“Mustering courage she mostly reserved to protect her sister, Scarlett stood a little straighter. ‘I think you’re making a mistake. My name is Scarlett Dragna, and we’re special guests of Caraval Master Legend.’”

Julian awakens Scarlett’s confidence and ability to advocate for others. She projects confidence, despite how afraid she is. This small act of helping Julian by being assertive with the innkeeper foreshadows Scarlett’s character growth later in the novel.

“After that, whenever they fought, or Tella teased Scarlett, Scarlett was tempted to taunt her about being a mermaid. […] But Scarlett never said a word. Not when Tella teased her about her castles, or about her growing fixation with Caraval. Because Tella’s fantasy of being a mermaid gave Scarlett hope—that despite their mother’s abandonment, and their father’s lack of love, her sister could still dream, and that was something Scarlett never wanted to destroy.”

Through this small snapshot of Scarlett’s treatment of Tella, Garber demonstrates the extent of Scarlett’s love for Tella. She doesn’t just protect her sister from her father’s wrath. She also puts her own pride aside in the hopes of keeping her sister’s dreams alive.

“When a cat sees a mouse, it will always chase, unless, perhaps, the cat is pursued by something larger, like a dog. We are much the same. The future knows what things we desire, unless there is something greater in our path that chases us away.”

The fortune teller’s wisdom foreshadows the theme of running away from versus running toward something. For Scarlett’s whole life, she has been running away from her father’s abuse rather than letting her true desires guide her.

“He’d never stared at her like this before. Sometimes he gazed at her as if he wanted to be her undoing, but just then it was as if he wanted her to undo him. It was probably just the fever and the head wound. But for a moment, she swore he wanted to kiss her. Really kiss her, not like when he’d been teasing in the Castillo.”

Though Scarlett and Julian have engaged in a good deal of playful banter and flirting, this is the first moment that signals their relationship may be something deeper than two attractive young people teamed up together due to fate. Julian isn’t joking around and trying to get the better of Scarlett’s conservative nature. Scarlett isn’t shoving her feelings aside. In this moment, they are vulnerable, and Garber uses this inverted phrasing to show the reversal of power.

“The mention of Tella’s scavenged room set something ablaze inside of Scarlett, yet the couple looked so sincere. They didn’t seem to be mercenaries who would sell things to the highest bidder. Their threadbare clothes were in worse shape than Scarlett’s blackened dress, yet their clasped hands and hopeful expressions reminded her of what the game was meant to be. Or what she thought it was meant to be. Joy. Magic. Wonder.”

This quote reveals Scarlett’s ever-shifting opinion on the game. While she at first saw the game as a symbol of hope, she’s beginning to see that it also presents danger and trauma. The game mirrors the changing nature of its creator—at once a villainous and a god-like figure.

“Scarlett had always seen her own emotions in color, but she’d never seen another person’s. She didn’t know what shocked her more, that she could now see the color of Julian’s feelings, or that those feelings were so wounded. She tried to imagine how Julian would be feeling if he weren’t Legend. Before she’d died, they’d shared something extraordinarily special. She remembered how gently he’d carried her up to their room. How he’d given up a day of his life for her. How strong and safe his arms had felt as he’d cradled her on the bed. She could even see the evidence of his sacrifice; in the midst of the dark stubble lining his jaw, there was a thin silver streak—matching the new stripe in her hair. And now Scarlett wouldn’t even touch him.”

Scarlett and Julian have forged a connection that Scarlett doesn’t even have with her sister, and this is evidenced by Scarlett’s ability to see the color of his emotions. Even though she is afraid of him due to her dream, she can still empathize with him. They are bound by their shared sacrifice.

“As a girl, Scarlett had been drawn to the idea of Legend’s magic. But Tella always wanted to hear about the master of Caraval’s darker side. A part of Scarlett couldn’t deny there was something seductive about winning the heart of someone who’d vowed to never love again.”

The contrast in the girls’ reactions to their Nana’s stories about Master Legend and Caraval highlights their differences. However, Scarlett does enjoy some of the darkness Tella does, though she won’t fully admit it to herself. Tella’s reaction to these stories as a child foreshadows her eventual desire to join leagues with Legend and mastermind her own game.

“‘You only believe that because you’re so good. Decent people like you always believe other people can be virtuous, but I’m not.’ He cut off. Something painful crossed his face. ‘I knew what would happen when I brought you and your sister here. I didn’t know Legend would kidnap Tella, but I knew he would take one of you.’”

Throughout the game, there are conversations of what it means to be good and how moral compasses can vary. Julian repeatedly tries to warn Scarlett that he isn’t good because he can’t be truthful with her due to his magical oath to not reveal he’s an actor. This statement is truthful and prepares Scarlett to understand that Julian isn’t all good, even if she wants to believe he is.

“Her father looked afraid. Raindrops ran down his cheeks like tears. She was sure it was just a trick of the light, but for a moment she imagined her father actually loved her, that maybe deep down he really cared. Beside him, the count’s expression was concealed by the dark, but while they’d run, Scarlett would have sworn he’d appeared excited by the challenge she’d presented.”

Garber’s use of a simile comparing the raindrops to tears demonstrates the illusions present at every turn in Caraval, which mirror the illusions Scarlett uses to trick herself and survive. No longer blinded by the lies that used to shelter her, Scarlett is able to more clearly see the count’s motivation for his interest in her: Her resistance thrills him, and that disgusts her.

“Scarlett didn’t know if Count d’Arcy was actually worse than her father, but in that moment, he felt just as vile. He no longer held her hand softly as he had in the haberdashery; his grip was firm, assured. The count had more strength than he let on. He had the power to stop this if he desired.”

Scarlett’s illusions of her fiancé protecting her from her father are shattered, and though this is painful for Scarlett to witness, it is a necessary step in her character development. In the haberdashery, she senses running from one bad man to another might not be the answer, but here, she realizes that her engagement will never be a viable option to save her and Tella.

“This was wrong too. When she’d kissed Julian, it had felt right. Two people choosing to give tiny vulnerable parts of themselves to each other. That’s what Scarlett wanted. That’s what she deserved. No one else had the right to decide this for her. Yes, her father had always treated her like a possession, but she was not a thing to be bought or sold.”

Scarlett’s revelation highlights the feminist themes in this novel. She recognizes her worth and that she is not an object. If she chooses to be involved with someone, it will be her choice. Her body and mind are hers, despite her father’s attempt to control her and Tella.

“But Scarlett had already been broken. For years her father tore her down. Over and over, she had let him. She’d allowed him to make her feel worthless and powerless. But she was neither of those things. She was done allowing her fear to make her weaker, to eat away at the meat on her bones until she could do nothing but whimper and watch.’”

Scarlett is a tricky protagonist because at the beginning of the story, she doesn’t see herself as having agency. However, Scarlett’s trauma and her fear drive her to make decisions. She does, in fact, have agency, and only now is she claiming it. While the events in her life have been tragic, she has control over her reaction to them, and she decides to be resilient and take control of her life, even when it feels like everything is going wrong. This change in Scarlett’s perception gives her the strength to save herself and her sister.

“Scarlett had never wanted time to stop before, to slip into a crawl so slow that one heartbeat would take a year, a breath would take a lifetime, and a touch could last an eternity. Usually she wanted the opposite, for time to speed up, race ahead, so that she could escape any current pain and move forward into a new, unblemished moment. But Scarlett knew that when this instant ended the next would not feel fresh or thick with promise of the future. It would be incomplete, lacking, void, because Julian would not be in it.”

Garber describes Scarlett’s desperation to hold onto Julian’s last moments with a series of hyperboles that addresses the theme of time’s movement. Scarlett’s ability to recognize how she was always rushing to escape to the next moment underscores her change as she finally wants something badly enough to linger in a moment.

“‘After tonight I don’t think Father’s hands will be a problem anymore, at least not for us.’ Tella’s eyes twinkled with the dangerous glint as her smile. ‘I haven’t been up here alone this whole time. I’ve met someone. He knows all about our father and he’s promised to take care of us. Both of us.’”

Tella attempts to soothe Scarlett’s fears of their father by imitating Scarlett’s exact plan: marrying someone she barely knows to escape the evil they do know. It’s a terrible plan, and Scarlett can easily see that now that she’s not the one caught up in the middle of it.

“With no wings to fly her down, she fell to her death.”

Tella dies by suicide by jumping off the balcony, which mirrors Rosa’s death. The mention of “wings” references the earlier conversation Scarlett and Tella had about praying for an angel to solve the situation with their abusive father. Scarlett thinks Tella means an actual angel, but in this moment, Tella becomes the angel. Her death frees Scarlett from her father by bringing her worst fear to light and giving her the courage to stand up to him at last.

“Even then Scarlett couldn’t look away from her sister’s lifeless body. She just kept wishing. Wishing Tella would move. Wishing Tella would get up and walk. Wishing for a clock that could turn back time and give Scarlett one last chance to save her.”

The repetition of the word “wishing” sounds almost like an incantation and emphasizes how much Scarlett wants her sister to be alive. Even though wishes are not tangible prizes that can be given, they are real in Garber’s world. Though she doesn’t realize it, Scarlett creates her own magic in this moment.

“‘Why don’t you just tell me what’s going on?’ Scarlett asked.

‘Because that’s not my role.’ Legend rose from his chair, moving so close to Scarlett he might have touched her. He was back in his velvet top hat and tailcoat. But he didn’t grin, or laugh, or do any of the mad things she’d begun to associate with him. He looked at her not as if he was trying to see her, but as if he was trying to show her something about himself.”

Scarlett has gotten so immersed in the game that she has forgotten the warnings that everything is not what it seems. Caraval is theater, and Legend is an actor, and Scarlett is looking right past the answers. She’s on the precipice of discovery.

“Scarlett took a shaky breath as she pictured Tella sneaking into their father’s study. Scarlett was still tempted to scold her sister for devising such a dangerous and horrible plot, but for the first time Scarlett could see how much she’d always underestimated Tella. Her younger sister was brighter, smarter, and braver than Scarlett ever gave her credit for.”

Though Scarlett wants to be angry with Tella and initially thinks her actions are foolish, she realizes that her sister is much more capable than she thought. This moment signals a shift in Scarlett’s perception: She always thought of herself as the smart, responsible one and that she had to compensate for Tella’s recklessness, but all along, they both were more similar than she thought and worked equally hard to protect each other.