46 pages • 1 hour read
Kami Garcia, Margaret StohlBeautiful Creatures
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Prejudice and Social Exclusion
The novel explores discrimination and ostracization through a supernatural lens. As a magical being, Lena epitomizes what it means to be “other.” Gatlin, fearing her power and how that makes her different from them, harass and exclude her. Lena desperately wants to feel included and achieve normalcy in the chaos of her life. However, Gatlin forces her out of their community because they fear what they cannot understand. In Beautiful Creatures, Lena really does possess the ability to use magic, but magic is also a metaphor for being different.
The novel illustrates how bullying can tear a person down. Lena tells Ethan that she “just want[s] to know what it feels like to be normal” (488). However, Gatlin continues to push her out. Beautiful Creatures echoes elements of Stephen King’s novel Carrie (1974), where a teenaged girl with otherworldly powers is ridiculed at school. Lena, like Carrie White of Carrie, is tormented by the popular girls. Like Carrie, Lena’s anger is reflected by the eruption of her powers, such as when she shatters the windows in her class. Also like in Carrie, the mean kids bully Lena at a dance. In Carrie, a bucket covers Carrie in pig’s blood. In Beautiful Creatures, the cheerleaders douse Lena in water and soap, ruining her dress.
The height of Lena’s social exclusion comes when the disciplinary committee threatens to expel her, despite not having any real proof against her. Macon’s threat to expose their secrets stops them. They know that the town will turn on anyone at a moment’s notice, even themselves, for acting outside of prescribed notions of normalcy. Although Mrs. Lincoln “had put the fear of God in them, Macon Ravenwood had given people in Gatlin a reason to fear something even worse. The truth” (408).
Lena tries to protect Ethan from social exclusion. Although Ethan would do anything for Lena, she fears that he does not understand the full burden that comes with ostracization, which is why she tries to break up with him. She understands how constant dehumanization impacts a person. Ultimately, she and Ethan decide that it is easier to retreat from society than face more discrimination.
Fate Versus Free Will
The novel explores the tension between free will and destiny through the different perspectives of Mortals and Casters. Lena, a Caster, believes that she has no control over her fate. She resigns herself to this belief until she meets Ethan, a Mortal who chooses to fight against her curse and find a way for them to stay together.
The Casters see Ethan’s hope as immature. However, Ethan refuses to let Lena be Claimed without fighting for her right to choose. He emphasizes his belief in agency when telling Lena that he does not believe in “[a]ll that destiny garbage. Nobody can decide what happens to you. Nobody but you” (191). In contrast, Lena holds firm to the belief that “there’s no gray in [her] family. [She] can’t choose” (189).
Garcia and Stohl highlight how agency—and its absence—impact the development of individuality. Lena, knowing that she cannot choose her fate, has difficulty developing a sense of identity. She even struggles to learn how to use her powers, as she feels frozen by fear of the unknown. She counts down to her 16th birthday on her hand, illustrating how her fate consumes her. For Lena, Ridley exemplifies the power of destiny. Even though Ridley used to be her best friend, Lena hardly recognizes her after she is Claimed. The threat of losing control is so great that it changes Lena’s personality and makes her gravitate toward isolation. Lena wants to remove herself from the world until she is Claimed.
Both Ridley and Macon show that nuance exists and that good and evil are not necessarily binary. Although Macon is a Dark creature, he chooses to protect Light Casters and fights for Lena’s right to be Light, even if it means his own death. Although Ridley is Dark, she frees Ethan’s father from her spell. This shows that she is “not all bad” and that a part of her still remembers how much she loves Lena (509).
In this way, the novel shows how love can conquer fate. Lena also chooses to love Ethan, despite the possibility that they may not be able to remain together in the future. Her power saves his life and also postpones her Claiming.
Southern Traditions and Supernatural Folklore
The novel draws on elements of the Southern Gothic tradition. Through this lens, Garcia and Stohl reveal the underlying bitterness, prejudice, and secrets of Gatlin that subvert the appearance of Southern hospitality.
The novel uses magic to show how the townspeople are hypocrites. It does this mainly through the character of Amma. Although the citizens of Gatlin pretend to adhere strictly to Christianity, none of them can “resist the lure of the cards, the possibility of changing the course of their own destiny” (26). For this reason, they come to Amma, “the most respected tarot card reader within a hundred miles of Gatlin” (26). Amma uses her power to give the people of Gatlin a sense of control in their lives. Although Lena and Macon also possess power, the familiarity of Amma’s abilities, such as tarot reading, grounds her in Southern tradition. This allows her a place in the Gatlin community that does not extend to those at Ravenwood Manor.
Like other Southern Gothic novels, Beautiful Creatures examines the impact of family secrets. Both Ethan’s and Lena’s families keep secrets about their family history. Ethan learns that his ancestor Ethan Carter Wate was a deserter of the Confederate Army. Although many of the racist members of Gatlin would find this information shameful, Ethan takes pride in the knowledge. Macon keeps the most secrets from Lena, especially when he does not tell her that she can Claim herself. Macon, Amma, and Sarafine’s lies make Lena and Ethan question everything they know. Although Ethan trusts that there are reasons outside of his knowledge for them, Lena has difficulty accepting that Macon would choose to hide information from her.
The novel shows how awareness can heal. As mysteries and secrets come to light, Lena and Ethan use knowledge of the past trauma of their families to mend and grow in their love for each other. The couple sees the ways that the secrets of the past hurt people in the present. They choose to be honest with each other, hoping to break the generational cycle of suppressed bitterness and pain.
