100 pages • 3 hours read
Rick RiordanThe Red Pyramid
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
People Fear Things That Are Different
Throughout The Red Pyramid, characters are judged based on how they look and act. Human stereotyping leads to fear of anything different or not understood. Through the various views of the characters, The Red Pyramid explores the consequences of being different and how those differences affect us.
Carter and Sadie are stereotyped by characters throughout the book, including one another. Carter presents Black, and Sadie presents white, which causes mortals to look at them strangely when they introduce themselves as family. As a young Black man, Carter faces microaggressions and discrimination. People assume his different appearance means he will break the rules, such as the airport security guard in Chapter 21, who only leaves Carter alone when Bast arrives to vouch for him. As a result, Carter works to present himself in a way he believes people will find acceptable—dressing professionally and being polite—things that do not keep others from fixating on his differences.
Sadie’s differences have also led people to make assumptions about her. As an American living in Britain and an orphan, Sadie stands out. People assume she will be a troublemaker because her family life is different from the norm of being raised by two parents, and their fear of what she might do leads them to treat her differently. In contrast to Carter, Sadie doesn’t try to make herself presentable to allay fears. She realizes nothing she does will change minds, so instead wears combat boots and dyes streaks of her hair red to align with what people expect, figuring if people are going to stare, she “might as well give them something to stare at” (170).
Carter and Sadie’s parents are also shunned for their differences. The backstory of The Red Pyramid details how Carter and Sadie’s parents broke with the way of the magicians to free the gods in advance of the battle against chaos. Though they presented evidence that gods and magicians need to work together, the magicians of the House of Life feared the change. For centuries, allying with the gods has ended poorly, and even though the current situation suggests something different must be done, the magicians are too afraid to consider an alternative approach. Their fear of change ultimately leads to Set’s rise, the return of Apophis, and the death of Carter and Sadie’s parents. Their fear also extends to Carter and Sadie (children of those who promoted change), showing how fear hurts anyone near those who suggest change.
For the characters of The Red Pyramid, fear of difference or the unknown leads to pain and suffering. Carter, Sadie, and their parents are shunned for being different, which brings greater strife upon those who dismiss them. As Sadie and Carter come to accept one another, they grow and change, showing the positive effect differences have when they aren’t fought. By the end of the book, the House of Life has still not accepted the path of the gods, and the House likely will face even greater adversity in the next installment of the series.
People Are More Than One Thing
At first glance, The Red Pyramid follows a standard hero’s journey structure with Carter and Sadie as the heroes fighting against Set and the forces of chaos. As the story unfolds, the lines of “good” and “evil” are less defined, and lines are drawn between various groups, even ones on the same side. Through the various characters’ arcs and Set’s overall role in the story, The Red Pyramid shows how people play more than one role in any situation.
Carter and Sadie take on several roles throughout the story. In the beginning, both are unaware of their origins and the power they hold as descendants of the pharaohs. When they learn of their powers and the recurring battle of order and chaos, they reluctantly step into their hero roles, believing they are the “good” that must vanquish evil. As events progress, the siblings find themselves siding with different forces in different battles, and the lines of good and evil blur, changing their role in the overarching conflict. By the end of the book, Carter and Sadie are still heroes, but their enemies have changed, which sets the siblings up to play even different roles in the rest of the series.
Zia’s character arc shows her playing very different parts throughout the book. At the beginning, she is firmly on the side of the House of Life, even prepared to kill Carter and Sadie when she knows nothing about them. As she comes to know the siblings and realizes they know little of the gods, magicians, and conflict between the groups, she sees the worth of their fresh perspective and begins to question the House of Life. While she still believes in what the House does, she takes steps to help Carter and Sadie by standing between them and the House and offering them information, such as Set’s secret name. At the end of the book, the truth of Zia’s shabti is revealed, which means the real Zia has been playing a different part than the one seen throughout most of the book.
Set is the primary antagonist of The Red Pyramid for most of the book. From the beginning, Set seeks to unleash chaos on the world and is branded as the embodiment of evil. Carter and Sadie believe stopping Set will solve everything and allow goodness and order to prevail. Through discussions with many of the Egyptian gods, they come to understand that Set is not inherently evil. When the gods were young, Set fought alongside the gods against Apophis and was an ally to Ra. When Sadie asks Nut how Set became evil in Chapter 20, Nut responds that “Set has always been Set, for better or worse” (252), meaning that Set is neither good nor evil and is simply a product of his nature. At the end of the book, Apophis’s reemergence shows the true difference between chaos and evil, and Sadie’s decision to preserve Set shows how he is more than an antagonist. He may be the god of chaos, but he is still a god and will play a role in opposition to Apophis.
The characters of The Red Pyramid are multifaceted. The various sides they take in the conflicts show how they support different causes at different times based on what is best for themselves and the world. Their ability to understand when they need to realign their beliefs shows how doing so can lead to more favorable outcomes and that shifting their role based on a given situation allows them to be versatile.
The Flexibility of Family Structure
The various family dynamics in The Red Pyramid show how no single-family structure is the “right” one. Mortals and gods alike shift their roles in their families, and those shifting roles allow for character growth. Through the relationships between Carter and Sadie with various parental figures and the shifting family roles of the gods, the Red Pyramid shows the benefits and downsides of different family structures.
Carter and Sadie’s family begins the story broken. Their mother’s death led to the siblings being split up and becoming more like strangers than family. Carter’s travels with their dad allow the men to cultivate a traditional parent-child relationship, while Sadie’s separation makes her yearn for the same relationship with her dad that Carter has. Though Sadie’s family life is stable in her grandparents’ home, she feels less certain about her family than Carter does, even though he and his dad are constantly moving. With the loss of their dad, Carter and Sadie learn the importance of family, even if their family doesn’t look like a traditional one anymore.
Bast becomes like a parent to the kids as the book progresses. Since the death of Sadie’s mother, Bast has stayed at Sadie’s side as a protector, which lays the groundwork for the role model Bast becomes. More than once, Bast depletes her power to save the kids, showing how she takes on a parental role for both of them. Though Bast is not related to Carter and Sadie, the relationship between the three is healthy, and the three learn to care for one another like a family. Their family structure is not the norm, but Carter and Sadie grow and mature under Bast’s guidance, showing that a different family structure does not keep children from having positive experiences or learning things like responsibility.
The family structure of the gods suggests that a confusing family environment can lead to strife. Throughout the centuries, the gods relive the same conflicts from Egypt’s dawning. Osiris, Isis, Horus, Set, and Nephthys are siblings, children of Nut and Geb, but their upbringing was chaotic due to their parents being eternally separated. In addition, the gods take on different family roles in different incarnations. At various points, Osiris is the father of Isis and Horus. Other times, Isis and Set are Horus’s parents, and sometimes Isis is wed to Horus while Set and Nephthys are a couple. These shifting dynamics mean the gods never have a stable identity within their family structure. While Carter and Sadie had instability, they always knew who they were in relation to those around them. While the gods are immortal beings who follow different rules than humans, it may be implied that their ever-changing places in their family led them to argue and fight one another, which shows the importance of at least some stability within any family structure.
Both Carter and Sadie, as well as the five godly siblings, originated from two loving parents. Identity within the family and the presence of role models lead to them growing into very different individuals. These differences suggest the structure of a family has less to do with how children grow than whether children are given a sense of stability. The family dynamics of The Red Pyramid show that “typical” family structures have less to do with a healthy upbringing than stability, regardless of where that stability comes from.
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