City of Ashes

Blood is an important motif, highlighting the paranormal and horror elements of the narrative. As a symbol, blood represents power and the vital life-force. Since the first Shadowhunters were created by partaking in angelic blood, blood is both sacred and filled with special powers. The reference to Shadowhunters consuming angel blood is related to the Christian rite of communion, where believers partake bread and wine as the flesh and body of Jesus. By partaking in angel blood, the Shadowhunters created a community, one with angelic forces, much as Christians become a part of the Church and Jesus through the communion rite. The symbolism of blood as a life force is also reinforced through the images of Jace feeding Simon his blood to revive him, and Simon feasting on lamb’s blood after he rises as a vampire.

As blood represents life itself, senseless blood-shedding is a repugnant act. Valentine’s draining teenagers of blood and storing their blood in vats thus represents a sacrilege, a mockery of life. Ironically, Valentine dubs vampires “revenants” because they survive on the blood of others, yet he himself commits a vampiric act by shedding blood. The text’s blood-imagery adds to the horror in the narrative, such as through the description of the bloodied slaughter in the Silent City and Clary’s dream of Simon having blood-soaked wings. The blood motif moves the plot along, as the Shadowhunters are on a quest to prevent Valentine from gathering the Downworlder blood and converting the Sword.

Valentine’s ship is an important symbol in City of Ashes, representing death, cruelty, and dark power. Longer than a football field, the ship is ramshackle and rusty, and has been painted black all over, even on its windows, so that it appears “lightless.” Jace compares its narrow hull and sleek appearance to a silent, deadly shark.

The ship is invisible to mortals because of glamours Valentine has placed around it. It floats at a particular spot on the East River, somewhere between Manhattan and Long Island, as the wards between the worlds are thin there, so Valentine can easily summon demons to the ship. The ship is a key setting in the novel, as this is where Jace refuses Valentine’s offer, where Simon and Maia are taken, and where the final battle takes place.

Since the ship is where Valentine is storing the blood of the Downworlders, it is associated with violence and depravity. The ship represents a dank, dangerous, and unhygienic space, far from the warmth of Luke’s house or the grandeur of the Institute. Hovering on water so that it is difficult to track, the ship also represents purgatory or limbo, states of stasis. When Clary dismantles the ship with her rune at the end of the novel, it signals a dismantling of Valentine’s dark power. Almost all the demons on the ship drown, while the Shadowhunters are rescued by water fairies. Thus, evil is temporarily defeated.