City Of Bones Themes

The book City of Bones by Cassandra Clare follows a young girl, Clary, as she discovers that she is a shadowhunter, a dying race of half human and half angels, that hunt down demons from other dimensions when they escape into our world, they protect the human race, and keep it so that no one knows they exist. “All the stories are true” is an important line repeatedly used as Clary learns about the world she was born into, but kept from by her mother her who was trying to protect her. There are many different themes throughout the book that the author was trying to teach the reader, but the most important one is about appearances, that things may not be what they originally seemed to be. For example Clary’s mother is someone that she thought she knew all about, but really didn’t, also the demons can take the shape of anyone they want even the people you thought you could trust, and finally there was a whole world of good and bad things that was happening all around Clary that she never even saw. At first glance things may be different to what they really are.
First,
Cary had a normal life that she loved, she had a best friend since they were kids, and a loving mom that she knew so very well that was a successful woman. Clary knew her mom, knew everything about her at least she thought she did. Her mom hid a whole other world from her, ones with the things that children came up with, one with the things you had nightmares about. Clary’s mom took her away from the world she was born into before she was born, because she wanted to protect her. She would make a new life for herself and her baby, and she wanted no whisper of Clave or Covenant ever to taint her future (Clare 400). Clary had to find out the truth of her mother’s past in the worst possible way, when her mother was taken by a demon. Throughout the book Clary questions who her mom was, she is told stories of her mom in the shadowhunter world, and how her mom was married to the very man that is trying to destroy her life. Clary thought that she knew her mom, she was normal, until one day her mom ended up being a completely different person than she thought. Clary thought she knew her mom, but she really had no idea who she really was. Things may be different than what you wanted them to be. Next, the demons can shapeshift into anyone they please proving that appearances can be deceiving. When Clary is first attacked by a demon and very frightened she wants to go to the police, like any sane person would, but when she looks closely at them as told by Jace, a boy who helps her understand the new world, she realizes that the cops themselves are demons. Ten to one those aren’t real police officers. Demons have a way of hiding their tracks (Clare 54), Jace explained. Throughout the book there are many times where Clary’s human friend Simon wants to call the police, he didn’t understand that many in the police force are demon spies for the enemy. Also once Jace killed a pair of cops when they pursued them and both Simon and Clary freaked out thinking he killed cops then they disintegrate proving them to be demons (Clare 121). There is another part of the book where Clary is running for her life when she runs into Jace, a trusted friend, and he is acting odd, asking for the precious Mortal Cup then Clary realizes that it is not really Jace, it is in fact a demon. In the end Clary kills the demon who looked like Jace, it pained her to kill him, but if not it would have killed her. Furthermore Clary struggles throughout the book to understand that demons and bad things are all around her that she never even knew about. Clary learns many times that things may not really be what they seem to be.
Finally appearances can be deceiving, because there is a whole other world happening around Clary and the humans that she never could have dreamed of existing. The shadowhunter world is taking place all around, demons are being killed in plain sight, and no one even notices, there is a whole country right between Europe and France that is never known to exist, and there is a threat to the whole human race that no human would even dream of ever being able to stop. In addition there is an old abandoned hotel that vampires live out of. They found the hotel, finally, after an hour of looking, on a side street off 116th (Clare 257). Also a Chinese restaurant where werewolves like to hang out. “Actually, it looks like a Chinese restaurant from the outside, takeout only, no table service.” explained Luke (Clare 412). Again nobody even looked twice at these places to notice the odd things occurring all around. The whole shadowhunter world was all around the humans and nobody even noticed it.
In conclusion appearances can be deceiving.
First Clary’s mom lied to her her whole life, then Clary struggled to learn the demon world that she was born into, that the monsters can become whoever they want even the people you love the most, next there was a whole shadowhunter world was buzzing around all the humans and no one ever noticed it. Clary grew up with the precious Mortal Cup that the whole demon world was looking for and she never even knew it. Also her mother’s paintings weren’t just paintings there was things inside them, Clary could reach inside of a painting or sketch and pull out the object and it would be tangible. The characters in the book learn many important lessons throughout the book, but the most important one is about appearances, that things may not be what they originally were thought the be. The theme brings up the idea of to not judge a book by its
cover.