Graceling Kristin Cashore Summary

I am reading Graceling by Kristin Cashore and I am on page 204. This book is about Katsa, a Graceling in the land of the seven kingdoms. The Gracelings are a category of people who are graced with the ability to be extremely skilled at one activity. Katsa’s grace is killing, which places her under the rule and directory of her uncle Randa, the King of Middluns. He is a tyrant ruler, who sends Katsa on missions to torture wrongdoers by cutting off limbs or even killing. In defiance to Randa, Katsa started a secret council that protects innocent civilians throughout the entire seven kingdoms from their corrupt leaders. She befriends prince Po of Lienid, the island kingdom, who is at the court of Randa in hopes of discovering whereabouts
of his grandfather, a subject that Katsa saved during one of her protection missions. Po partakes in Katsa’s council meetings and brings up the issue of the princess of Monsea, his cousin Bitterblue. He insists her to be a hostage of her father, whom he believes captured Bitterblue and her mother despite the pretense of him being a good man. Katsa and Po have now set off on a journey to Monsea to save Bitterblue and his aunt from. In this paper I will be evaluating and evaluating. When Kristin Cashore characterized Katsa, she depicted her as an aggressive yet loyal character. Katsa is aggressive because she grew up around people afraid of her. The court only remembers when she accidently killed her cousin in self-defence, and now acts as if she is a time bomb that could explode at any second. Also, Randa treats Katsa like a disposable pawn. She does all of his biddings to instill fear into the common people if they defy their king, and receives no gratitude from Randa. An effect of these mistreatments has caused Katsa to believe that fighting is the only way to take out her anger. Katsa also shows her aggression in the ways that she is stubborn. She is very defiant when told what to do, no matter if it is her uncle, whom she extremely dislikes or Po, her friend giving the orders. Katsa also believes that her way is always the best way. In addition, she is unwilling to change her mind once she has made assertions about a topic. Although Katsa does have a very aggressive temperament, she also is loyal to the people she loves. She is protective of her friends, and would gladly die to save them. She refuses to release any secrets that are not hers to reveal, whether or not they would be detrimental if publicized. Trust is also one of the most important aspects that Katsa values about a person, and cannot fathom betrayal by one of her loved ones. Another tendency that makes Katsa loyal is that she is forgiving. She has the ability to understand and pardon opposers of Randa, and will not carry out his orders of torture to the full extent. She also forgave Giddon when he pressured his proposal upon her; he knew the awkward position it put her in to have everyone around. Katsa’s largest act of forgiveness is when she accepts Po’s deception of letting her believe that his Grace is combat when it is actually being able to sense one’s thoughts when they pertain him. She finds it within herself to accept his apology, although “She trusted him. She trusted him and she should not have. He misrepresented himself, misrepresented his Grace. That was the same as if he had lied” (Cashore 143). Overall, Kristin Cashore thoroughly represents Katsa as a contentious yet passionate being. In the novel Graceling, I have two predictions about how the plot will end.
The first prediction is that Po was right and Bitterblue’s father is not who everyone believes him to be. The king of Monsea is known as a just ruler who cares for children and is kind to small animals. Even all of Katsa’s contacts throughout all of the kingdoms, not one person believes the Monsean king capable of harmful actions. Po even thinks the king might be behind the kidnapping of his grandfather, but counter claim is why would a king kidnap his wife’s aging father? One reason why Po has doubts about his uncle is that his aunt did not originally like him. She had hesitations about him while he was courting her, and was going to deny his request for marriage. Po learns that now she will not even let him into her and her daughter’s chambers, only a handmaid is allowed. Another reason is that everyone who praises the king says the same exact words, that he is “a respectable king with kindness to injured animals and lost children” (Cashore 112). It seems quite strange for the exact words to be repeated. My second prediction is that Randa will send people after Katsa and Po to bring Katsa back to the kingdom. Randa would do this because his is very angry at her defiance to him. Katsa has not openly opposed her uncle’s orders since the first time she refused to torture a subject when she was younger. He also still thought that she was afraid of him. At the beginning of the novel Katsa explained
that “He would send her to hurt some poor petty criminal, some fool who deserved to keep his fingers even if he was dishonorable. He would send her and she must go, for the power sat with him” (Cashore 119). She broke through this fear by standing up to Randa, and even threatened him that she would come after him if he hurt any of her friends who remained at court. Another reason Randa wants to regain Katsa is that she is a very valuable asset. He uses her as a pawn to instill fear into his subjects so they will think twice about ignoring his laws. She also brings him popularity among the kingdoms; he owns a killing machine that responds to his every beck and call. These reasons are why I predict that Po was right in his disbelief and why Randa will try to capture Katsa after she leaves. I would have to give myself 14.5/15 because I believe I understand the concept and purpose to writing journals. This shows that I can thoroughly summarize and make conclusions about how the author intends to portray a character, and even predict what will happen next based on the foreshadowing I pick up on. In all, I perceive this to be a prosperous journal.