Equilibrium in Naomi Novik's A Deadly Education-Ella

 

    How is order maintained in a magic-filled world? This is a question that Naomi Novik's A Deadly Education explores through its themes of order and balance woven into its unclichéd take on a magical school for young wizards. The story is seen from the perspective of 16-year-old Galadriel "El" Higgins. El is a student at the Scholomance, a school for teenage wizards filled with monsters and mistrust. Students at the school rely on "Nothing for Nothing" or not helping someone unless it benefits them, to survive this dangerous school. This term applies to all except for Orion Lake, who saves people for nothing, much to El's dissatisfaction. The motto that the students live by, the characters themselves and the world around them emphasize the importance of equilibrium and cause and effect in the world of A Deadly Education.

    The first instance of equilibrium is in how the Scholomance functions, which is described by El in the first chapter. In order to cast magic, one must gather mana, which can be obtained in many ways. One such way is by the death or negative feelings of a wizard. When explaining how the school gets the power to protect students she states, "But we have to pay for that protection. We pay with our work, and we pay with our misery and our terror, which all build the mana that fuels the school. And we pay, most of all, with. the ones who don't make it, so what good exactly does Orion think he's doing, what does anyone think he's doing, saving people? The bill has to come due eventually." In this passage, El is basically saying to receive protection against monsters, the students of the school pay with their fear and deaths which contribute to the magic that fuels the school. In other words, for good to happen, some evil must be there too. By being too good and saving everyone, Orion is disrupting the balance and endangering the lives of the students even more so. In this instance and in this world, no good deed goes unpunished because of the principles of balance between good and evil.

    Unlike the way the Scholomance works enforced by the actual laws of magic, balance between students is entirely social. Because they are always in danger from threats of monsters, or other students, the teenagers must take full advantage of all opportunities, including, their talents, possessions, and even relationships with others. They never do favors unless they are getting something out of it, and ally with people based on what they can do for them. This is exemplified by the many students who try to get in the good graces of enclavers, who are wizards with powerful families backing them. These types of people are shown throughout the book doing chores for the enclavers like getting their lunches, protecting them against monster threats, and constantly giving them words of support, even if they don't mean it. This example goes to show how relationships are give-and-take, which indicates a balance between students that is based solely on what one can provide for the other instead of being of mutual friendship. Another way that balance is shown socially is the trading that goes on between students. They are shown throughout the book to trade objects or spells for other objects or mana and will never give gifts unless it is to get in the good graces of enclavers. All in all, the balance inside of the Scholomance is kept socially as well as functionally.

    This steady balance of the Scholomance is interrupted by the good deeds of Orion saving the students. The number of students in the junior class that El is in and the lack of humans that the monsters had been eating lead to the monsters retaliating. El intercepts one such monster that is notorious for being almost impossible to kill. When describing the terror she says, "It was going the other way, straight for the stairway at the end of the aisle, the one that went down from the library to the freshman dorms.  The maw-mouth would stretch itself out along the hall, blocking as many doors as it could reach, and then it would start poking tendrils inside to pull the tender oysters out of their shells." As a result of Orion saving so many, a hungry monster crawled into the school, making up for all the junior lives that were saved for the freshmens'. Luckily, El didn't let this happen and miraculously killed the maw-mouth, but not without receiving heavy losses to her built-up mana along with a life-long trauma from defeating the monster. This event shows what happens when the balance is interrupted: Payment will come but it may be even worse than what was to be saved. Even though the payment of the freshmens' lives was diverted to El's misery, payment will always come due because of the way cause and effect is present in this magical world.

    In conclusion, A Deadly Education provides insight into how everything is balanced, even within a magical world and all things come with a price. Equilibrium is present not only in the way the world functions on a fundamental level but also on a social level. This story shows how equilibrium is important to maintain, even in a magical world, and someone always has to pay the price when it is disrupted.