Morning Star

Throughout Morning Star, Brown discusses the ethical ramifications of revolution, highlighting the need to fight back against oppressive regimes while arguing that this does not give complete moral license to revolutionaries. Brown emphasizes above all that the purpose of a revolution must be to build a better society than the one that came before it.

Brown stresses the necessity of using violence to overthrow the oppressive society of the Golds. In Darrow’s address at Phobos, he tells the lowColors that “[s]lavery is not peace. Freedom is peace. And until we have that, it is our duty to make war” (181). Eo’s wish to break the chains of Gold rule, underlined by this central principle that Gold rule must be confronted with force, are parts of the defining ideology of the Rising. Brown extends his criticism of the oppressive Gold government in Morning Star through the conversation between Darrow and Romulus au Raa. Romulus differentiates his rule from that of Octavia because of his restraint. That Darrow (who is often the moral center of the novel) rejects this is important. Tyranny, no matter how it frames itself, is shown to be a non- “civilized” form of rule.

However, Brown also shows the potential pitfalls of a revolution through the Sons of Ares’s struggle to maintain its morality. This is addressed most clearly in Sevro’s early arc and the riots Sefi leads following Narol’s execution. First Sevro, and then Sefi, lead the Sons of Ares to respond to Gold rule through retributive violence. This approach may damage the Gold system, but Brown suggests that it is not productive. Through Dancer, it is described as “pouring gasoline on the fire” (117). These actions are shown to perpetuate a cycle of violence that Brown characterizes with the mantra, “[d]eath begets death begets death” (422). The clearest example of this cycle is the Jackal killing Narol, Sefi killing captive Golds, and the Telemanuses attempting to attack the mob of lowColors, which would only provoke further violent action. This negative cycle of violent actions is something Brown focuses on extensively, using his novels as a warning against them.

Brown also shows how a revolution can avoid this. Brown argues that a revolution must be focused on building a better society after it succeeds and take active steps to ensure that this happens. The Golds who join Darrow’s side, especially Mustang, are concerned with this, wondering if the Rising will be able to successfully build upon what came before. Darrow shows that it is also a primary concern of his; his view that Sevro is failing to build an alternative to the Society is a main reason why they come into conflict early in the book, and in the Phobos Address he tells the crowd that they “are on the side of good and that carries a heavy burden” (181). Darrow’s belief in building a new world motivates Golds to join his cause, and eventually Sevro comes to believe this too, as made clear by him stopping Sefi from killing Cassius. His statement that the dream of Eo and Fitchner was of a world “[n]ot built on corpses, but on hope” exemplifies the central ideology of the text (428).

Brown uses the traditional dystopian plot of a revolution against an oppressive government to analyze the complexities of revolution. He ends up proposing that if one can remove the oppressive government, a slow change is better than a rapid change that causes anarchy.