47 pages • 1 hour read
The Runaway King
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Themes
The Complexities of Trust and Loyalty
Trust and loyalty are two qualities that go hand in hand in The Runaway King and are fundamental to Jaron’s character development. To Jaron, trust and loyalty are complex concepts; he initially struggles to trust his friends with the truth, not because he doubts their loyalty but because he wants to protect them. Mott and Imogen, in particular, repeatedly end up on the receiving end of Jaron’s tricks. Jaron lies to them for their own best interest: By rejecting Imogen, pretending that he will take Mott with him to the pirates, and faking his escape from Tarblade Bay, Jaron aims to keep them from harm. Despite his good intentions, Jaron is dishonest and eventually realizes that his treatment of his friends was misguided and hurtful, noting near the story’s end, “Maybe what I’d done over the past several days had been necessary for Carthya, but there was always a price for my actions” (314).
On the other hand, Jaron’s trust is also broken by Gregor’s disloyalty. Although the latter initially seems loyal to Jaron, or at the least to the Carthyan crown, he is later revealed as a traitor. Jaron, who first saw the regents’ insurgence against him as their attempt to protect Carthya, realizes that it was in fact a deliberate sabotaging strategy. As a plot twist, Gregor’s treason adds narrative tension and sets up Jaron’s misplaced trust as his fatal mistake, making it even more of an internal struggle for Jaron to trust others.
Significantly, and ironically, Jaron realizes the error of his ways after he is confronted with the thieves’ and the pirates’ definition of trust. Indeed, the thieves and the pirates rely on violence as a means to enforce loyalty, particularly in the form of tests (e.g., robbing Harlowe and stealing a knife from the kitchen) and punishment (such as branding and whipping). However, Jaron understands that such violence is a result of anger, and he makes a conscious decision to process his own emotions through other means.
At the end of the story, Jaron offers the same redemption to both Roden and Erick, and vows to be more honest with his friends. Imogen’s question prompts Jaron to reevaluate his relationship with Amarinda, although it also applies to Mott, Tobias, and herself: “How is it that you can see your enemies so clearly and never your friends?” (315). In the end, Jaron states that being more honest and trusting feels “both wonderful and frightening” (324).
Dual Identity as a Potential Escape
Jaron’s main personal conflict throughout The Runaway King is his struggle to reconcile both sides of his identity. On the one hand, he feels trapped by his position as a king because of the high expectations that are placed on him. On the other hand, he longs for the freedom that his identity as Sage affords him. In short, Jaron takes his duty toward his people seriously, but he finds it very difficult and isolating, while his experiences as Sage promise a lifestyle free of royal responsibilities and the potential hurtful conflicts that go with them.
This theme is illustrated by the tension between his two personas, Sage and Jaron. Although Jaron becomes Sage mainly to infiltrate the pirates, he also uses that identity symbolically. Sage is both an escape for Jaron, letting him catch a glimpse of a life without responsibility, and an insight into his emotional state: “It was as if everything about Sage returned to me once I stood again in his clothing. The instinct to trick when I could and lie when I must. The feeling that […] I would never be anything better than a sewer rat” (73).
Jaron’s characteristic self-awareness enables him to grasp the tension between his two identities. Anger, a recurring motif in his character development, serves to underline his self-perception. Jaron expresses anger about the expectations placed on him as well as about himself for “[not thinking] the way others did, and that [his] solutions to any single problem always created several new ones” (101).
This tension reaches a climax when Erick asks the young king to stay with the thieves. Jaron finds the idea seductive; he is tempted by the thought of a more relaxed, more spontaneous, and more enjoyable lifestyle, considering that a home with the thieves would be “[a]way from endless duties and obligations, and even from the fear and anger that had driven me this far” (152). Eventually, however, he decides not to shirk his responsibilities in Carthya.
At the beginning of the novel, Jaron feels like his “only choice is between the unacceptable or the impossible” (40), revealing his feeling of powerlessness. However, by the end of the story, he is able to reconcile his conflicting identities by letting go of his anger. Once validated by his people’s genuine and enthusiastic welcome when he returns, Jaron feels more legitimate as a king, which enables him to apply Sage’s more honest and confident approach to leadership.
The Struggles of Leadership
Throughout The Runaway King, Jaron struggles to reconcile not only his Dual Identity as a Potential Escape but, more broadly, his personal and public responsibilities. Although he takes his duty toward his people seriously, the young protagonist resents the expectations that are placed on him. He also feels isolated and powerless at times, especially when his regents doubt the truthfulness of his claims. As a result, Jaron initially takes their reluctance as a personal failing: “For a month, I had been the king of Carthya, a role for which I had never been prepared and which most Carthyans believed was entirely unsuitable for me. Even if I wanted to disagree, I had no credibility for such an argument” (1).
Jaron longs for freedom and the ability to express himself openly. In comparison to the pressures of court, he comments: “Riding alone through the Carthyan countryside was like emerging from a deep pool of water. Each breath brought me more alive [...]” (75). In addition, Jaron also grows more and more critical of his own father’s decisions, and he realizes that he wants to take a different approach to ruling. When he learns that King Eckbert did nothing to combat the Avenian thieves’ raids, for instance, Jaron is outraged: “The more I learned of my father’s reign, the less I felt that I had ever known him” (82).
Over the course of the story, Jaron learns to balance out the two sides of his identity that are pulling him in different directions. He comes to realize that the struggles he encounters as king will serve to fulfill him in ways the “street rat” persona of Sage never will. In fact, Erick, who at the time only knows him as an orphaned thief, remarks that Jaron has “the makings of a leader” (163). This proves how clearly the young king displays innate leadership skills, despite his own self-doubt.
Jaron’s strength of will is further highlighted by his response to Erick’s offer to stay with the thieves, which is also a test of his character. Adopting the thief lifestyle represents a freedom and independence Jaron covets, and despite the moral conflicts and struggle for subsistence that would come from staying with Erick, Jaron is tempted, finding that life more honest in some way than “the politics and pretense of Drylliad” (151).
Instead, however, Jaron chooses the more difficult option, out of a sense of responsibility toward his people. This demonstrates his leadership skills and selflessness, which are eventually confirmed by the Carthyan people nicknaming him “Jaron the Ascendant.”
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