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84 pages 2 hours read

Avi

Crispin: The Cross of Lead

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2002

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Symbols & Motifs

The Cross of Lead

The cross of lead is an item of personal and religious significance that once belonged to Asta, which Crispin receives from Father Quinel. As Crispin leaves town, he decides to keep the cross “as the solitary connection to my past” (52). After leaving Stromford, Crispin proceeds to use the cross during his prayers, though Bear insists that the cross is a mere trinket, one of many made to comfort those afflicted by the plague. At first, Crispin resists Bear’s suggestions, and he continues to pray using the cross even after arriving in Great Wexly.

The cross gains additional significance when Crispin learns that it is the only marker of his identity as a son of Lord Furnival, placing it at the center of Avi’s exploration of The Instability of English Feudalism. When Crispin confronts Aycliffe in Furnival’s palace, the cross plays a crucial role in the bargaining between Crispin and Aycliffe. After Aycliffe’s death, Crispin fulfills his promise by leaving the cross on Aycliffe’s chest, formalizing his decision to abandon his Furnival heritage once and for all. Avi’s choice to reference the cross in the novel’s title indicates the centrality of this object as well as Crispin’s choice to leave it behind.

Performing Arts

As Bear's apprentice, Crispin learns to play recorder, sing, and juggle; Bear does all these as well as dance. Together, they travel from village to village, performing and collecting donations as they go. For Crispin, however, the significance of these acts is more than mere entertainment—it is a reminder of his identity and worth. Only after learning to play music does Crispin realize he does, in fact, have a soul, and he is not “nothing” as he previously told Bear. These performing arts therefore become a unifying human experience and an escape from the mundane, if only temporarily; their performance skills even provide a disguise as they enter Great Wexly, showing that even the soldiers are receptive to their entertainment.

One song takes on particular significance, and Bear returns to it as they triumphantly leave Great Wexly:

Lady Fortune is friend and foe.
Of poor she makes rich and rich poor also
Turns misery to prosperity
And wellness unto woe.
So let no man trust this lady
Who turns her wheel ever so! (262)

This song’s portrayal of the role of Lady Fortune in shaping outcomes complicates the novel’s broader consideration of Will Versus Fate. It also demonstrates that Bear’s artistic expressions often carry deeper meaning.

Life in the Midst of Death

Crispin opens his narrative with the observation that death can be found in the midst of life, but that life can be found in the midst of death. The original phrase, “In the midst of life comes death” (1), is a translation of a well-known Latin hymn, “Media vita in morte sumus.” Crispin’s inversion of this phrase prepares readers to look for examples throughout the story, and there are several.

First, Asta and Father Quinel’s deaths spur Crispin to seek to establish a life of his own, and his narration acknowledges the irony of that outcome. Later, Crispin’s encounter with the man on the gallows inspires him with a renewed will to live. Bear, meanwhile, first appears as the only sign of life in an otherwise deserted, decaying village, and Crispin notes, “After what I had witnessed in the village, I could not believe I was hearing a living voice” (60). Later, Bear teaches that asking questions is the key to life while “living by answers is a form of death” (97-98). Meanwhile, around the same time, the death of Lord Furnival sets the stage for Crispin to decide whether to pursue his Furnival heritage or to forge a new life under Bear’s guidance. When he confronts Aycliffe near the novel’s conclusion, Crispin recognizes his former life in Stromford as a kind of “living death” (242). As he and Bear escape from the city in the aftermath of Aycliffe’s gruesome death, however, Bear points Crispin to the “new truth we’ve made” that “[i]n the midst of death there’s life!” (261).

Broadly speaking, this motif hints at the possibility of personal change and development arising from hardship, deepening Avi’s discussion of resilience in the face of opposition. Crispin’s difficult experiences, including the deaths of some of those he encounters, enable him to move forward with new life.

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