Illuminae

This classical song appears a few times in the novel and acts as a symbol of AIDAN’s understanding of humanity. It plays the song to comfort Torrence, Kady, and itself because it understands the emotion this song evokes and uses it to ease the mood. AIDAN demonstrates a complex understanding of feelings and art and the links between them. It is bittersweet when this song appears during Torrence’s death (304). AIDAN plays it to calm him, even though his death is brutal and caused by AIDAN’s actions.

It is a poetic symbol when AIDAN returns to this song when Kady leaves AIDAN and it believes it will die (573), especially considering that Mozart famously wrote that he felt he was composing a requiem for himself as he wrote the piece, and he died before it was finished. This song also acts as a symbol of the interactive nature of this text, which indirectly asks the reader to listen to this song to understand the mood of the scenes. The somber, dutiful dissonance of the measured melody is haunting and spiritual at once, reflecting these powerful moments of grief.