The Pomegranate Symbol in The Familiar: Temptation, Transformation, and Choice
What Is the Pomegranate in The Familiar?
In Leigh Bardugo’s The Familiar, the pomegranate appears as a literal fruit that Guillén Santángel brings to Luzia Cotado in Chapter 19. It is a fresh, ripe pomegranate that Luzia eats during a private moment after deciding to enter the torneo rather than flee Spain. The fruit functions as a concrete prop that carries layered symbolic weight, drawing on biblical, classical, and heraldic associations while remaining firmly tied to Luzia’s personal transformation.
Santángel himself recites a brief history of the pomegranate’s meanings: the Qur’an calls it a gift from Allah; the Bible associates it with the serpent’s temptation of Eve; it appears in King Solomon’s temple and in the coat of arms of Ferdinand and Isabella after the conquest of Granada. He concludes that the pomegranate “belongs to no one, except the woman who holds it in her hand.” This statement frames the fruit as an object of individual choice rather than a fixed symbol.
Where the Pomegranate Recurs
The pomegranate first appears in Chapter 19 (the chapter numbering in the evidence labels it as Chapter 20, but the narrative text identifies it as Chapter 19). Santángel brings one to Luzia’s room, cuts it open, and offers it to her. He eats a segment himself, demonstrating his own casual relationship to the fruit. Luzia initially hesitates, feeling that to eat it would “compound her sin” after she has killed Álvaro. She eventually asks for three things: details about the trials, permission to eat the pomegranate, and privacy while eating. Santángel grants all three and turns his back.
The pomegranate then recurs as a remembered taste in later chapters. In Chapter 22, when Luzia enters the La Casilla ballroom for the first trial, she can “taste the pomegranate in her mouth, the flavor of her own ambition, her appetite for more.” In Chapter 25, after her confrontation with Santángel about her literacy, she declares, “I am the woman who has eaten the pomegranate,” using it as a personal motto that affirms her new identity. In the final execution scene (Chapter 54), though the pomegranate does not appear physically, Luzia’s choice to eat it underpins her willingness to use destructive magic against Fortún Donadei.
How the Pomegranate’s Meaning Changes
The pomegranate begins as an object of temptation. Santángel presents it after Luzia has killed a man and feels guilt. She worries it is “the kind that the devil might play.” This echoes the biblical narrative of Eve and the fruit in Eden, but Luzia’s situation is reversed: she already knows sin and the fruit offers not knowledge but a new direction.
As Luzia eats the pomegranate, it becomes a symbol of transformation. The act of eating is private and defiant—she insists on Santángel turning his back so she can enjoy it “without worrying what I look like with juice streaming down my chin.” This small rebellion marks her shift from a servant who hides her abilities to a contender who will claim power publicly.
In Chapter 22, the pomegranate morphs into a symbol of ambition and appetite. Luzia tastes it again as she faces Fortún Donadei, Gracia de Valera, and Teoda Halcón. It no longer represents guilt but hunger for victory. By Chapter 25, it serves as a declaration of identity. Luzia repeats the phrase to reaffirm her resolve after Santángel challenges her about her lies. The pomegranate has become a personal talisman, replacing the need for a physical object with a mental anchor.
The fruit also carries a darker undercurrent. In Chapter 19, Santángel mentions that pomegranates appear in stories of “girls stolen from meadows, who had escape within their grasp but whose hunger bested them in the end.” Luzia knows these stories—myths of Persephone, perhaps, or other warning tales—yet she chooses to eat anyway. This foreshadows the novel’s ambiguous ending, where Luzia and Santángel achieve a kind of immortality but at the cost of the life they left behind.
Connections to Themes and Characters
Hidden Identity and Heritage
Luzia is a conversa secretly practicing Jewish magic. The pomegranate, which Santángel notes appears in Islamic, Christian, and Jewish traditions, mirrors Luzia’s own hybrid heritage. She takes words from Spanish, Hebrew, Turkish, and Greek to form her refranes. The fruit’s multiple ownerships echo her refusal to belong to a single culture or faith. When she eats the pomegranate, she is claiming all its histories as her own.
Ambition Versus Safety
Throughout the novel, Luzia must choose between hiding (safety) and performing (ambition). The pomegranate represents the ambition path. She explicitly rejects her aunt Hualit’s plan to escape to Salonika and instead chooses to compete. The fruit tastes of “ambition” and “appetite,” words that link hunger for power to physical hunger. Santángel warns her that if she becomes the king’s champion she will be responsible for many deaths, but Luzia accepts the risk.
The Cost of Power and Magic
Luzia’s magic grows more destructive as she embraces the pomegranate’s meaning. In Chapter 19 she admits she “liked being frightening.” The fruit does not cause her power but rather sanctions her willingness to use it ruthlessly. By the final execution scene, she channels her magic into tearing open the world, destroying Fortún Donadei’s emerald talisman and creating an illusion that allows her and Santángel to escape. The pomegranate’s seeds—each a potential new life or destruction—mirror Luzia’s branching choices.
Inquisition and Institutional Fear
The pomegranate appears in a context of fear. Luzia worries about demonic magic and the Inquisition’s scrutiny. Santángel tells her to fear human ambition, not magic. The fruit itself is a product of the conquered kingdom of Granada, part of Spanish monarchs’ heraldry. By eating it, Luzia symbolically claims power from the very institutions that oppress her. The irony is that this power leads to her execution, though she escapes through magic.
Freedom and Servitude
Luzia is a scullion, later a competitor, but always subject to someone—Valentina, Víctor, or the king. The pomegranate represents a choice to serve her own ambition rather than others. When Santángel turns his back, he gives her a moment of privacy and autonomy. The fruit is the first thing she claims for herself since the story began.
Character Connections
- Luzia Cotado: The pomegranate is her personal symbol. She eats it, tastes it in memory, and uses it to define herself.
- Guillén Santángel: He brings the fruit, explains its meanings, and grants her the privacy to eat it. His own relationship to pomegranates is casual—he bites into one as if it were an apple—suggesting he is comfortable with power and temptation.
- Víctor de Paredes: He never touches the fruit directly, but he controls the circumstances that lead Luzia to eat it. His ambition for her magic is a shadow version of her own appetite.
- Hualit / Catalina: Luzia’s aunt offers a different path: escape. The pomegranate represents Luzia’s rejection of that safety.
- Fortún Donadei: The rival competitor whose emerald talisman Luzia targets in the final scene. The pomegranate’s seeds and the emerald both function as focus objects for magic.
Study Questions and Answers
Question 1
Why does Luzia insist on eating the pomegranate in private, with Santángel’s back turned?
Answer: Luzia wants to enjoy the fruit “as it was meant to be enjoyed, without worrying what I look like with juice streaming down my chin.” This request is an assertion of control after a day when she lost control of her magic and killed a man. Privacy allows her to experience pleasure without performing humility. It is a small act of rebellion that foreshadows her larger defiance in the torneo.
Question 2
How does the pomegranate’s meaning shift between Chapter 19 and Chapter 25?
Answer: In Chapter 19, the pomegranate is an object of temptation and guilt. Luzia hesitates to eat it because she feels it will compound her sin of murder. By Chapter 25, after she has succeeded in the first trial, the pomegranate has become a declaration of identity: “I am the woman who has eaten the pomegranate.” The fruit no longer represents sin but ambition and self-definition. It transforms from something external (a test) to something internal (a chosen label).
Question 3
What are the risks Luzia takes by eating the pomegranate, and how do they connect to the novel’s themes of freedom and servitude?
Answer: The immediate risk is that she commits to the torneo and to serving Víctor de Paredes’s ambitions. She gives up the chance to flee with her aunt to Salonika. Eating the fruit makes her a visible contender, subjecting her to Inquisition scrutiny and rival sabotage. The risk connects to freedom because Luzia chooses her own path rather than remaining hidden as a scullion. Yet the path leads to a different kind of servitude: performing miracles for the king. The pomegranate embodies the paradox of choosing one’s own master.
Question 4
In the final execution scene (Chapter 54), Luzia uses her refrán to target Fortún Donadei’s emerald talisman. How does this action relate to her earlier consumption of the pomegranate?
Answer: The pomegranate taught Luzia that objects can carry concentrated meaning and power. Santángel explained that talismans can focus a sage’s abilities and crack with a single use. By eating the pomegranate, Luzia learned to claim an object’s symbolic weight for herself. In the execution scene, she applies this lesson by targeting Donadei’s emerald—a talisman she had earlier failed to alter. Her transformation from a woman who hesitates to eat a fruit to one who deliberately destroys a rival’s treasure is the arc the pomegranate started.
Conclusion
The pomegranate in The Familiar is a compact symbol that encapsulates the novel’s core tensions: temptation versus choice, hidden identity versus public power, and the cost of ambition. Leigh Bardugo uses the fruit’s rich cultural history to give Luzia a tangible object through which she can redefine herself. By eating it, Luzia rejects fear and embraces the possibility of becoming either a miracle worker or a monster. The pomegranate belongs to no one—except the woman who holds it.
For further exploration, see our main book page, or read about related themes like hidden identity and heritage, ambition versus safety, the cost of power and magic, Inquisition and institutional fear, and freedom and servitude. You may also learn more about the characters involved: Luzia Cotado, Guillén Santángel, Víctor de Paredes, Valentina Ordoño, Hualit/Catalina de Castro de Oro, and Fortún Donadei.