Illuminae

Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2015

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Pages 1-41

Part 2, Pages 42-133

Part 3, Pages 134-178

Part 4, Pages 179-295

Part 5, Pages 296-459

Part 6, Pages 460-599

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Mozart Requiem in D Minor

This classical song appears a few times in the novel and acts as a symbol of AIDAN’s understanding of humanity. It plays the song to comfort Torrence, Kady, and itself because it understands the emotion this song evokes and uses it to ease the mood. AIDAN demonstrates a complex understanding of feelings and art and the links between them. It is bittersweet when this song appears during Torrence’s death (304). AIDAN plays it to calm him, even though his death is brutal and caused by AIDAN’s actions.

It is a poetic symbol when AIDAN returns to this song when Kady leaves AIDAN and it believes it will die (573), especially considering that Mozart famously wrote that he felt he was composing a requiem for himself as he wrote the piece, and he died before it was finished. This song also acts as a symbol of the interactive nature of this text, which indirectly asks the reader to listen to this song to understand the mood of the scenes. The somber, dutiful dissonance of the measured melody is haunting and spiritual at once, reflecting these powerful moments of grief.

Phobos

Phobos acts as a symbol of the fragility of mental health and the internal fractures between people on the ships. Appropriately named after the Greek god of fear and panic, the virus encapsulates the notion of fear when humans no longer act human, like the way the Lincoln ruthlessly destroyed human life on Kerenza. It also adds dimension to the conversation around the nature of the truth and AIDAN’s identity, because AIDAN, in many ways, acts more human than those infected with Phobos, who seem almost consumed by psychosis and fear. Phobos as a contagious virus also mirrors the contagious nature of other things, like fear, propaganda, and misinformation. The fear of Phobos fuels the propaganda that many people who don’t know to look deeper breathe in as easily as healthy people breathe in particles of the virus.

Typography Art

Typographical art, also known as word images and word clouds, acts as a motif throughout the book. The first prominent example is the rose Ezra sends to Kady through the secure mailbox as an act of love. Ezra sends several of these word-based images to Kady as gifts since they have few ways to communicate their feelings for each other. At one point, Kady receives an image of her face in extraordinary detail. It’s not the simple kind of word art that can be created with line breaks and spaces but a portrait that relies on gradients and fine textual details to create a realistic picture of Kady. This is sent to her from “Ezra,” but it’s really AIDAN, and that’s later evident to Kady when she reflects on the art style.

The ending also wraps up with a typographical picture of Kady and Ezra embracing. In a novel without many visuals due to the nature of the documents, these word visuals act as a creative motif that gives readers insight into the characters’ appearances and feelings. Many of the visuals are created by AIDAN, which also demonstrates AIDAN’s developing psyche as it learns to express itself in poetic and artistic ways—ways that only truly sentient and emotionally expressive beings can.