50 pages • 1 hour read
A. F. SteadmanSkandar and the Unicorn Thief
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Wild Unicorns
Wild unicorns are the unicorns from the Hatchery whose destined rider never comes to claim them for one reason or another—in some cases because their destined rider is a spirit wielder that society’s leadership refuses to allow the opportunity to take the Hatchery exam. When Skandar first meets a wild unicorn, he sees that the creature’s aggression is accompanied by sadness. These unicorns are lonely, which makes them angry because they want to be united with people; they take their anger out on the people who successfully accomplished what they wished they were able to do themselves.
Wild unicorns therefore become representations of the complex nature of animals. Just like people, animals have their own unique personalities and cannot be judged easily based on the most common personality traits of the whole. However, this is what the citizens of the Island do for unicorns—create a divide that marks one as “good” and the other as “bad.” They consider unicorns with rider bonds to be “good” simply because there is a human overseeing the behavior of the animal in question. Wild unicorns are free spirits who do not have the same restrictions on them. This causes fear because people fear what they don’t understand.
As the plot develops, the author reveals the complex nature of wild unicorns and their contentious relationships with the human community. The Weaver, who ostensibly has the best interests of the animals at heart, actually causes the most harm to them, for she forces bonds upon them; meanwhile, Skandar sees their individuality and welcomes it. He sees their pain and acknowledges it, wanting to allow them their uniqueness. Instead of forcing bonds on them, he lets them be themselves without fearing them. This approach earns him their respect and saves his friends many times, presenting a call to action to respect and protect wild animals the same way people protect domestic animals.
The Divide
The Divide is a location at the heart of the Eyrie. All new unicorn riders must go here on their first day as riders to determine their primary affinity element. While any unicorn rider can use all four elements, their affinity element will be where their magic is strongest. The affinity element becomes a label applied to each student; rather than seeing them as a whole unicorn rider, they become an elemental unicorn rider. The head instructors for each element take pride in the strength and integrity of their chosen elements and only accept the best from their students.
The significant part of the Divide is the unified circle at its center where all riders start before their element reacts to their presence. As the riders start unified and then divide into their factions, the Divide comes to stand for the arbitrary divisions that people rely on to identify groupings. Nothing stops the riders from remaining a single, united front. However, their training places considerable importance on their element. While leadership compels them to live in treehouses with one person from each elemental affinity, this is done only to create the illusion of unity. Society thus becomes dependent on labels and divisions, just like the unicorn riders depend on the division of elemental affinities to understand each other without fully knowing each other. Earth, air, water, and fire are only small parts of each rider, yet the Divide forces them to make it their most important attribute. Likewise, the author uses this aspect of the story to imply that society often forces people to reforge their own identities by focusing on key traits and ignoring others, thus creating a skewed version of themselves to better fit society’s expectations.
The Prison
In the novel, the Prison is the place where the Silver Circle locks up all spirit wielders: standard policy after the first of the Weaver’s attacks. The Prison’s purpose is to protect society from the people whom it considers to be the biggest threat. As a result, society puts the blame on a specific segment of the population (the spirit wielders), and that population becomes the scapegoat for the real problems that society refuses to acknowledge (the Weaver’s repeated attacks). This dynamic leads the Prison to function as a symbol of society’s mistreatment of marginalized groups. Instead of taking the time to learn and consider the nuances within a larger group of people, society too often takes the easy route and applies the most prominent traits of the loudest members of a group to the entire population. Instead of listening to the group, society can and will shun those whom it considers to be dangerous or irrelevant.
The Prison also symbolizes the many real-life prisons that have served (and continue to serve) the same functions. From the extreme prisons during World War II to contemporary prisons of the 21st century, Steadman uses the spirit wielders’ prison as a call for action. She asks that society learn from the mistakes of the past rather than continue to repeat them. By showing how improperly the wardens treat the prisoners—locking large numbers in a single cell and isolating the “most dangerous” ones so a revolution cannot begin—Steadman challenges readers to look at the current prison conditions in their area and push for better.
