The City of Bones: Theme and Summary

A theme is the main idea or central message of a piece of writing, and it can also display a lesson to the reader. One of the themes in the book The City of Bones, was that sometimes loving someone can be harmful to yourself. This theme occurred numerous times within the book and got built on as the characters kept experiencing difficulties among themselves. The book included many themes, but I would say that this theme would be the most important because of how much the book revolved around it and by its frequent occurrence in the story. Two of the main characters in the book, Jace and Simon, fell in love with Clary, the third main character in the book. Simon and Clary had been best friends ever since they were kids. He had always loved Clary and would do anything for her or anything just to be with her. But Clary had never noticed that Simon had felt this way about her and just continued on loving him like a brother. On the other hand Jace had grown up being taught that to love is to destroy. His father had taught him a lesson of not to love something completely, "'and he never forgot what he learned: that to love is to destroy, and that to be loved is to be the one destroyed.'"(Clare 206). So as Jace started to fall  for Clary, he was reluctant and a little frightened at first but then tried to over come those obstacles and show her how much she meant to him. "'Jace can be a jerk , but he--' Loves you, she was about to say, and stopped." (Clare 479) This shows how Jace's outlook on love changed throughout the story. In this quote Alec is explaining to Clary how different Jace has become ever since he met Clary because its the first time that Jace had ever allowed himself to love anyone.

At the beginning of the book Clary just lived a normal life with her single mother, Jocelyn and her best friend Simon. One night when Clary and Simon had gone to a club called Pandemonium, Clary notices some people that no one appears to see. She leaves Simon to go investigate the people and witnesses them murder a teenage boy, who she later learns was a demon in disguise. The next day she meets one off the invisible people again named Jace. As he explains to her about him being a shadowhunter and why he doesn't understand how a mortal can see him, she receives a distressed call from her mother warning her not to come home and to stay at Simon's house for the night. But forgetting about her mothers warnings Clary rushes home to see whats wrong, with Jace running right behind her. When she enters her home she notices that its unlocked and finds that her mother is missing. She then sees something moving in her apartment and has her first encounter with a demon who she kills even though she hasn't even had any training. This increases Jace's curiosity about her and he decides to bring her to the Institutes when he lives and learns so that he could introduce her to his tutor. After his tutor examines her further and learns a little bit more about her past and family he concludes that Clary has shadowhunter blood running in her veins. From that point on Clary's life becomes completely different. Her friends, her family and her home all change after learning who she really is.