107 pages • 3 hours read
Gregor the Overlander
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Symbols & Motifs
Ceremonial Bonding
Gregor’s decision to bond with Ares is the ultimate exemplar of equality in the series: “Ares the flier, I bond to you, our life and death are one. We two, in dark and flame, in war and strife, I save you as I save my life” (292). Gregor makes himself equal to one of the non-human creatures of the Underland and to the Underlanders as well.
Here, the emotional bond that formed before the ceremonial bond is paramount. Ares and Gregor’s bond is an expression of moral fiber and individual personal choice. By choosing to save Gregor over Henry, Ares shows loyalty to Regalia and the bat kingdom. Though he and Henry swore to live and die together, when Henry betrays their joint kingdoms, Ares makes a decision as an individual to save Gregor. It is this choice that changes the course of the series.
While Gregor bonds with Ares in a ceremony, on a stage, surrounded by hundreds of onlookers, Boots also is part of a meaningful ritual. The crawlers perform the sacred Ring Dance around her, which they had only before performed for Bartholomew of Sandwich. Gregor and Boots have very different arcs in Gregor the Overlander, but both forge emotional connections with non-humans and have those connections honored through ritual and ceremony.
Language
The characters speak differently in the Underland than they do in the Overland. The crawlers use broken English, and both crawlers and Underlanders, at times, speak in sentences where the conventional order of words are reversed: this is an example of anastrophe. The Underlanders speak in more of an old fashioned rhetoric, which makes sense later in the novel when the reader learns that their founder, Bartholomew of Sandwich, brought humans underground 500 years ago. Though the species of the book are differentiated by size from their Overland counterparts, they are also differentiated by speech.
Suzanne Collins also enchants her reader by giving species we know in the real world names specific to the Underland. Calling spiders “spinners” and roaches “crawlers,” makes them unique to Collins’s world and helps the reader suspend standard biases and preconceived notions so they can see the creatures through the lens Collins has created. She achieves this through the power of language.
The Sword
Over the course of the novel, Gregor makes several jokes about not having a sword. In fact, he gets through his most desperate moments through pure ingenuity—using a can of root beer as a weapon and leaping over the side of cavern without anticipating that all of King Gorger’s rats will follow him. A sword traditionally is a symbol of war. Yet, Gregor succeeds on his quest and fulfills the Prophecy of Gray without one.
At the end, however, Vikus makes note of Gregor’s joke and says the Council offers him a sword in recognition and gratitude for all he has done. Vikus tells him the sword once belonged to General Sandwich himself. Though Gregor is extremely touched, he can’t bring himself to take the weapon for his own. He tells Vikus he wants to be like him, someone who brings peace and doesn’t go looking for war or violence. He says to tell the council “thanks but no thanks.” At this moment, Gregor turns away from violence and says there are other ways to solve problems: through words, courage and kindness. Gregor’s refusal of the sword is highly symbolic considering the lessons he learns over the course of his time in The Underland. The sword, a symbol of war, becomes a symbol of peace.
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By Suzanne Collins
