Ambition Versus Safety: The Mortal Choice in The Familiar

In The Familiar, Leigh Bardugo crafts a world where a single spark of ambition can illuminate a life—or ignite the pyre. The thematic claim is clear: ambition offers the only path to freedom, but the price is constant mortal peril, and safety is an illusion that leaves a woman invisible, hungry, and owned. The novel’s protagonist, Luzia Cotado, is a conversa—a Jew forced to convert—who hides her ancestry and her magic. Every time she uses her milagritos to better her lot, she risks exposure to the Inquisition. This analysis will trace the theme across three key plot arcs, examine character and symbol connections, and address the contradiction that the safest choice is often the most dangerous one.

The First Spark: Kitchen Magic and the Burnt Bread

The story begins with a chain of “if” statements that hinge on a blackened loaf of bread. Doña Valentina Ordoño, neglected by her husband, sees the burnt bread, leaves, and returns to find it perfectly golden. Unbeknownst to her, the scullion Luzia has secretly sung a spell to restore it. Luzia’s mother warned her that she “wanted too much,” claiming her birth during the mourning of a queen confused her into thinking the world wept for her. Yet Luzia uses small magic to make her hard life bearable—doubling eggs, fixing bread, starting fires. These are tiny acts of ambition, but they come with a cost: she cannot see that Valentina has already seen the burnt loaf. Her ignorance puts her in danger.

This early episode establishes the central tension. Safety for Luzia means remaining invisible, silent, and obedient—a life of ash and sorrow. Ambition means using her gift to improve her circumstances, but every act of magic is a gamble. When she heals the bread, she has no way of knowing that her mistress is watching. The chapter ends with the ominous note that it is “far better to endure the discomfort of Doña Valentina’s anger than the peril of her interest.” Here, safety is passive and degrading; ambition is a leap into the unknown.

The Choice of the Pomegranate: Embracing the Torneo

As Luzia is drawn into the world of the Torneo Secreto, the thematic tension intensifies. After a violent confrontation with a guard named Álvaro—who dies horrifically when Luzia’s magic turns destructive—Guillén Santángel brings her a pomegranate. This fruit, loaded with symbolic weight, becomes a tool for exploring ambition. Santángel explains that the pomegranate “belongs to no one, except the woman who holds it in her hand. Eat it or don’t. Enter the torneo or turn your back on it. It is your choice.”

Luzia has just killed a man, and she is terrified of her own power. Yet she is also drawn to it. She confesses that she has “had the same thought” as Santángel’s grim statement “Better him than you.” She admits to enjoying being frightening. This is a crucial contradiction: ambition for Luzia is not just about safety or comfort—it is about the exhilarating, dangerous pleasure of agency. She decides not to flee with her aunt Hualit (who chose the safety of becoming a mistress) but to enter the torneo. She declares, “I was not going to reject the torneo… Luzia had always been a liar and now she was a killer. For it to mean anything, she had to keep going.” This moment crystallizes the theme: ambition is a commitment to a path that may require blood, but the only alternative is a “trembling turnip’s life.”

The Final Ascent: Execution and Miraculous Escape

The climax of the novel brings the theme to its ultimate test. In Chapter 54, Luzia and Santángel are led to the quemadero—the burning grounds—to be executed. Luzia refuses to repent, and as the flames rise, she clutches rosemary and sings her refrán one last time. She targets Fortún Donadei’s emerald talisman and releases her wild magic destructively. The chapter ends with her tearing open the world, expecting either bloodshed or an unwitnessed miracle.

What follows is a brilliant subversion of expectation. In Chapter 55, the official report says they were executed, but no remains are found. Rumors spread. In truth, Luzia and Santángel survive: he burns to ash each dawn and she resurrects him. They flee to Holland, never age, and travel the world. Her ambition—to live fully and freely—has literally broken the bonds of mortality and the Inquisition’s power. Yet this triumph comes at the cost of being forever tied to a cycle of death and rebirth. Safety is achieved, but it is a strange, eternal safety that requires constant loss.

Character Connections: Ambition and Its Price

The theme resonates through every major character. Víctor de Paredes embodies ambition without scruple; he uses Luzia to gain a dukedom, promising Santángel freedom if she succeeds. His ambition is ruthless and ultimately leads to his own death, paralyzed by fear, promising “tomorrow.” Hualit Catalina de Castro de Oro chose the safety of a mistress’s life, but that safety depends on pleasing a powerful man. She tells Luzia that “if a little bit of magic could make us rich, your mother would have died in a palace full of books”—but Hualit’s own life is a trade-off between ambition and safety, one she made reluctantly. Valentina, who initially seemed merely frivolous, ends the novel rejecting her husband and creating a bohemian household—a quiet act of ambition for her own happiness.

Santángel is the most complex: he has lived for centuries as a bound immortal, used by the De Paredes family. His ambition is to be free, and he pins that hope on Luzia. He teaches her to be fearless, telling her, “Fear men, Luzia. Fear their ambition and the crimes they commit in its service. But don’t fear magic or what you may do with it.” Yet he is also the one who warns her of the dangers, showing her the story of Lucrecia de León, a visionary imprisoned by the Inquisition. He embodies the contradiction: he wants Luzia to succeed, but he knows the odds are against her.

Symbol Connections: Pomegranate, Refranes, and Orange Blossoms

The pomegranate appears as the central symbol of choice. In the Qur’an it is a gift from Allah; in the Bible it tempts Eve; in the novel it is a fruit that “means something different to everyone.” For Luzia, eating the pomegranate means committing to ambition—a decision she makes fully aware of the dangers. The refranes, Ladino sayings, are the language of her magic; they tie her to her hidden Jewish heritage and to the power that makes her ambition possible. In the final scene, she sings a refrán to tear open reality. The orange blossoms are less prominent in the evidence but symbolize purity and rebirth—fitting for Luzia’s eventual escape and new life. The scorpion is a symbol of danger and self-protection; Luzia’s magic can sting when threatened.

Complexity and Contradiction

The novel does not offer a simple moral. Ambition saves Luzia, but it also kills Álvaro and nearly destroys her. Safety, on the other hand, is never truly safe: Luzia is assaulted by Don Esteban while working in the kitchen, and the servants live in constant fear of the Inquisition. The contradiction lies in the fact that the ambitious path is the only one that leads to true freedom, but it requires Luzia to become a killer and a liar. She must hide her Jewishness even as she uses the magic that stems from it. The safest choice—staying invisible—means remaining a victim. The novel suggests that in a world where the Inquisition can burn anyone, ambition is not a luxury but a form of survival. Yet it is a survival that comes at a terrible emotional cost.

Study Questions

1. How does Luzia’s mother’s warning about ambition (“Too much wanting”) echo throughout the novel? Does Luzia ultimately prove the warning correct or false?
   Answer: Luzia’s mother claimed her ambition came from being born during the mourning of a queen. The warning proves both true and false: Luzia’s ambition leads to danger and death, but it also enables her escape and immortality. In the end, she achieves more than her mother ever imagined, but not without paying a terrible price.

2. Compare the different forms of ambition shown by Luzia, Víctor de Paredes, and Hualit. Which is most admirable, and which is most destructive?
   Answer: Luzia’s ambition is tied to survival and freedom; Víctor’s is for power and status; Hualit’s is for comfort and security. Luzia’s is most admirable because it seeks liberation for herself and Santángel, while Víctor’s is purely selfish and destructive. Hualit’s is pragmatic but limiting.

3. Why does Santángel tell Luzia to fear men’s ambition rather than magic? How does this advice shape her decisions?
   Answer: Santángel has seen the cruelty of men wielding power; magic itself is neutral. This advice frees Luzia to embrace her gift without guilt. It empowers her to trust her own power and to see the real threat as human greed rather than supernatural forces.

4. The pomegranate symbolizes choice, but also temptation and the underworld (Persephone). How does the mythological context deepen the theme of ambition versus safety?
   Answer: In the myth, Persephone eating the pomegranate binds her to Hades. Similarly, Luzia’s choice to “eat the pomegranate” binds her to the torneo and to Santángel. The parallel highlights that ambition can be a form of captivity as well as liberation. Yet Luzia’s ending inverts the myth: she gains eternal freedom rather than being trapped half the year.

5. In the final execution scene, Luzia refuses a quick death by repenting. What does this refusal say about her ambition and her concept of safety?
   Answer: Refusing to repent shows that Luzia values integrity and self-determination over physical safety. She would rather die on her own terms than live diminished. This final act of ambition—choosing destruction over submission—is what ultimately triggers her miraculous escape, proving that her ambition was not misguided but transcendent.