Kiera Cass's The Heir

It may seem that the story of a princess choosing between suitors is the perfect formula for a romance novel. However, this isn’t the case because not every princess thinks she needs a prince. While The Heir is a story centered around the love-life, family, and country of an eighteen year old princess, there are deep themes embedded within the text that relate to today’s world. The fictional novel The Heir by Kiera Cass is about self-improvement and it reveals that when people are willing to work to improve themselves, they will be more compassionate and understanding of other people and the world around them. In her fictional novel, The Heir, Cass appeals to the reader’s sense of self through character development and seeing princess Eadlyn

As the book progresses, readers see princess Eadlyn mature as she goes through with the selection process. She only agreed to do the Selection in the first place in order to help her family by creating a diversion from the protests. She eventually ends up learning valuable life lessons through the experience. In the beginning, she feels as though she knows herself very well and has little to no need for improvement. Later on, she realizes that there are always ways she can improve herself. An example of her realizing how she can improve is as follows,“Was my mother right? Was I not as observant or as caring as I thought? Miss Lucy was one of my favorite people in the world. Shouldn’t I have been able to see how sad she was” (Cass 47)? This quote shows how Eadlyn realized how she was not being as compassionate and observant as she could be. After years of spending time with Miss Lucy, she was still unable to sense her deep feelings. This allows for Eadlyn to realize that she should improve herself. Her self-improvement thus lets her understand the world and people (in this case Miss Lucy) around her much better. Proof of her closed mindset is, “I was going to be queen, and a queen could be many things … but vulnerable wasn’t one of them. Last night’s interlude with Hale made me sure of several things. First, I was right about the Selection. There was no way I could possibly find a companion under these circumstances, and I considered it miraculous that anyone had in the past. Forced openness with scores of strangers could not be good for one’s soul” (Cass 135). This shows her want to be disconnected from her suitors and her closed-mindedness toward the selection. She does not want to develop an emotional connection to her suitors because she feels as though she is fine by herself and she thinks that she