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reallifewylan · 2 years

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Breaking down Six of Crows: Matthias Helvar, sexism, genocide, and ideology

Matthias might just be the most misinterpreted crow, and I'm here to talk about this.

**SPOILER ALERT **

TW: death of parents & siblings, harmful ideologies, religion gone wrong, genocide

The Drüskelle

Matthias Helvar is a Drüskelle. Drüskelle are known to be more than critical of the Grisha's abilities, they believe that Grisha represent a kind of human mutation, that they shouldn't exist and even rank them as something far inferior to humans and even animals. They think of Grisha as something so dishonorable that they aren't even worthy of a fight. Important to mention here is that the Drüskelle are people whose morality is based on religious structures. The Drüskelle train their soldiers under the protection of the god Djel, who is said to approve of their doings. They train hunting down Grisha and claim to give them a fair trial, but as both Matthias and the readers realize in the course of Six of Crows, this is rarely the occasion: The Drüskelle burn the Grisha on pyres. There's nothing fair about that. Also, the parallels to problems that are indeed very real and rooted in our own world get even more clear, for don't we live in a world where people were burned on pyres by religious people?

Matthias, a "brave, miserable boy, fed on hate"

So I suppose we can all agree: Drüskelle = bad. Does that equal Matthias = bad? Let's see.

We get to know Matthias as a Fjerdan, a Drüskelle, trained by and for Drüskelle to further their cause. At the beginning of his story, we get to know him as one of the front-runners of the Drüskelle, one of their best soldiers. At the end of Crooked Kingdom however, we see a completely different picture of the young man who might be the one who went through the most significant character development. He goes from being an ideologically influenced misogynist to a man who wants to destroy this very ideology and eventually falls vicitim to it himself. For people forget that Matthias might be a Drüskelle, but he hasn't always been.

Matthias grew up with his family, his mother, father and little sister. One day, however, when Grisha burned down Matthias' home village to the ground and only Matthias remained, he joined the Drüskelle. Let this sink in: A young boy didn't just witness his home burning down, but also the brutal murder of his own family. There is – there has to be – a deep-seated trauma of the loss of father, mother, and sister as well as the fire itself. Matthias is an orphan, all possible caregivers or confidants are dead, he lost them at an extremely young age. Instead, a man named Brum takes their place. A man who takes Matthias in with the Drüskelle and exploits his young naivety and his hurt, his mourning, and anger at Grisha, who murdered his family. Matthias is particularly vulnerable to the disgraceful ideology of the Drüskelle, which Brum shamelessly exploits, especially due to his extremely young age and the enormous trauma of the loss of his family.

In the claws of ideology

Matthias' tragic backstory can't and won't be the excuse for his actions, for he has done great harm, there is no question. But the point of this post is not to paint a picture of a saint, nor is the point of Matthias' character (development) to excuse that very behavior. I strongly believe that the point of Matthias is an even bigger ambition: Matthias is an example for how social ideologies work and that there is no need for an active decision to be or become discriminatory. Without being aware of this, Matthias has dedicated his entire life's work to a cause whose goals lie in genocide.

Even after he started questioning the ideology that raised him – mainly influenced by his complicated relationship with Nina Zenik - and even after turning against Brum, his mentor and the person who took him in with the Drüskelle, the thought patterns that were anchored in his brain for a long time don't disappear all of a sudden:

"They're the enemy, said a voice in his head, and he wasn't sure if it was Commander Brum's or his own."

It takes work and empathy and understanding to slowly get rid of these influences that were part of Matthias for the majority of his life. Sometimes these thought arise, but Mattias becomes self-critical and he learns to understand the life of Grisha and the limitations and fear under which they live. As the Crows help Nina's Grisha friends safely leave Ketterdam without getting caught by Drüskelle, Matthias is held up a mirror:

“It seemed an extreme precaution in what was supposed to be a neutral city, but perhaps the Ravkans had been forced to take extreme measures to protect their citizens. 'Because of people like me.' Matthias had been a hunter, a killer, and proud to do his job well.”

Matthias feels shame, but while he must and should be held accountable for his past actions, the reason for this lies much deeper than with this eighteen-year-old young man: it lies in societal ideology and long-term nurturing of institutional hatred against a specific group of people.

The books also criticize those justifications for discrimination that have their roots in religion, as well as the charismatic leaders of such ideologies, which exploit the naivety of (young) people instead of promoting independent and critical thinking:

“[Brum had] taken a brave, miserable boy and fed him on hate. He'd silenced Matthias' conscience with prejudice and the promise of a divine calling that was probably nothing more than the wind moving through the branches of an ancient tree.”

However, the entire belief system is not condemned or rejected, but a change of perspective is offered: instead of regarding the Grisha as unwanted, as something that should not exist in Djel's eyes, Matthias begins to see these magical people as a gift from a divine power. In addition, he learns that the motivation of Brum, his leader, lies less in a selfless approach to protecting his people and more in a thirst for power and jealousy of the Grisha's supernatural powers.

The odd one out: Matthias' story as counterweight to the crows

Why all of this, though? Why am I so insistent on understanding Matthias' story and interpreting his character in regard to societal structures? It is because Six of Crows offers great representation of those exact structures. Leigh Bardugo has been praised a lot for the diversity in her novels and even though both me and her agree that her books cannot be the pinnacle of diverse YA literature, it is indeed a start.

What makes Matthias important, both as a standalone character but also in regard to his colleagues, is the following:

In contrast to all the other crows, Matthias initially takes on the role of the oppressor instead of being oppressed himself. With this character and his role – especially in a group of teenagers who are all affected in some way by social discrimination – Leigh Bardugo creates a perspective that delves deeper into the underlying causes of discrimination. Bardugo doesn't just show diversity and representation in her books, she is offering an actual explanation for it. Using the character of Matthias, she is explaining how ideologies get formed and especially – and this is the important part – that those who fall for it can indeed change. It is also worth mentioning here that Matthias is the only one of the six main characters to find himself in a position of absolute privilege: he is a white, able-bodied male who can be assumed to be both straight and cisgender. As the only character whose tragic story serves to illustrate discrimination and ideologies, he is in no way influenced by social oppression himself. And that makes him a valuable character, for he doesn't represent marginalized groups, but the very reason for why there are groups that are marginalized.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk, this has been on my mind ever since I started writing my thesis about exactly this.

#soc #six of crows #crooked kingdom #matthias helvar #leigh bardugo #shadow and bone #representation #social issues #political ideologies #religious ideologies #grishaverse

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