Themes

The thematic ideas of trickery, desire, secrets, and sacrifice all played large roles in the novel, The Sweet Far Thing. They all applied to each character and pushed the plot to the climax.

True desire enveloped each of the characters drastically. Felicity was willing to risk her life to save her beloved Pippa from the Winterland creatures. Ann changed her character and personality simply to impress the music director and gave up her lifestyle to sing professionally. Gemma risked being expelled from Spence Academy for sneaking off with Kartik and trying to save the Realms from corruption.

Secrets both severed relationships and strengthened their core. The secret love affairs actually strengthened the girls' friendships because they came to understand each other better. But as of Gemma's sneaking off and meeting with Circe, that caused distrust amongst the girls because they weren't sure of each other's whereabouts anymore.

Sacrifice showed true love. The sacrifices of Pippa, Miss McCleethy, Kartik, and countless others served to show that if people were madly in love they would do anything for their loved ones. This pushed the plot and made the characters more realistic because real people could relate to their devastation and depression.

Trickery both fooled and matured Gemma throughout the course of the novel. At first it weakened her but without the plots and tricks, she wouldn't have been ready for the final battle. She also used trickery when she turned her army all into Gemma so the Winterland creatures would not recognize which one to sacrifice.