Summary Of The Palace Thieves By Ethan Cain

In “The Palace Thief,” by Ethan Cain, Cain conducted a thesis of morals versus pragmatic. By having his main character as the narrator, Cain introduces a character called Hundert, a history teacher who claims he wanted to teach good virtues to his pupils so that they could become great leaders. However, this was then challenged by one student, Sedgewick Bell. The relationship between Hundert and Sedgewick challenged Hundert’s convictions and principles. Cain develops a central idea that morals and virtues are irrelevant to gaining power. He demonstrated this central idea by using several literary elements such as narration, conflict, and symbolism. Throughout the story, the narrator, Hundert, is shown to be unreliable when describing certain

During the Mr. Julius Caesar competition, Hundert knew that Sedgewick was cheating but he became irresolute to what he should do. Evidence of this can be found on page 168, which states, “What kind of desperation would lead a boy to cheat on a public stage? His father and mother were well back ...my eyes went instantly to them, as though they were indeed my own parents, out from Kansas City,” This shows that Hundert has a certain sympathy to Sedgewick; he wants to help Sedgewick. He thinks that he could relate to him and sees him as an innocent child. However, he later discovers that Sedgewick is far from innocent years after in the reenactment. Evidence could be found on page 196, which states, “Virtue had no place in the places he had known…he enjoyed the presumption of his family name; he was blindly ignorant of history and therefore did not fear his role in it,” Hundert realizes that Sedgewick never cared for virtues; despite not winning in the reenactment competition, he was not a loser. His true reason for the event was so he could announce his running for the senate. Hundert had made a case that history is important for boys to learn moral values but because Sedgewick did not care for it, he is able to become a potentate-like leader. He is not bound by morals or principles of laws. More evidence can be found on page 202, during Sedgewick’s campaign, “ ‘Mr

Throughout the story, Cain used several ideas and characters as symbols for morals. On page 163, Hundert said, “…when they see the effect of scientific progress…how these advances led mankind away from the brutish rivalries of potentates into...then they understand the importance of character and high ideals,” This is saying that people can learn from the past; they can learn what is right and wrong for society from past kings and leaders. History provides the ideal guidelines and moral disciplines; however, he then suggested the idea that perhaps history is not so important. “…the outside candidates felt that, because of the advances in our society, history had become little more than a relic,” (page 177). Some people believe that history is insignificant since society is clearly advancing into the future; the past becomes irrelevant. Hundert, as a history teacher, could also be said to be irrelevant like history. Evidence of this can be found on page 179, which states, “…and spoke accusations against me. He said that I was too old, that I failed to change with the times, that my method…might have been relevant forty years ago but that it was not today,” This compares Hundert as a relic of the past like history; he is old and lack the charisma of modern leaders. Furthermore, the author also used Deepak as another part of the comparison. Deepak always knew that Sedgewick was cheating however, he never said anything.