"The City of Ashes" by Cassandra Clare

           "The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new."  - Socrates. 

            Change doesn't always have to be a bad thing. In fact, whether or not the change you seek is deemed good or bad is based entirely on yourself and how you build on the change. The book "The City of Ashes" by Cassandra Clare is the second book in the Mortal Instruments series. The book is based solely on the shadow hunters Clary, Jace and Clary's friend Simon. Throughout the book the characters Clary and Jace fight through a battle with them selves, the people they love most, and those they wished they didn't care so much about. They meet new people, and discover more hidden secrets about there past life, and all throughout this book, every single important event changes them in some way.

             Identity, or in other words, discovering who you are and what you want are events that can change anyone. Many times the people around you can help reveal a part of yourself that was hidden, however, sometimes no matter how much the people around you reveal, your true self remains hidden from you. For example, in "The City of Ashes" it states, "Somebody's girlfriend," she said. "Somebody's sister, somebody's daughter. All these things I never knew I was before, and I still don't know who I am." (83) In this sentence, Clary is looking back at the two major secrets that were relieved to her. To add on, this event changed Clary in a good way. It helped Clary realize that no matter how much is revealed to her, she still knows less. She realizes that no one knows her inner self, not even herself. Moreover, I believe that we all get days where we feel as if we are drifting away from ourselves. As if no matter how much we thought we knew about ourselves in the past, as times goes on and such events come that changes us and opens our eyes, we actually don't know what we are capable of and who we are as human beings. 

          To understand yourself, you need to accept reality. Many people deny reality when they want something they know they can never have. Like Jace, in "The City of Ashes", many people believe that if they deny something long enough, it will disappear. However, the fact is, in reality things don't work like that. So the best things to do is accept its existence. For example, in a conversation between Jace and Clary, Jace stated “When I was a little kid, I realized that if you say any word over and over fast enough, it will lose its meaning. I’d lie awake saying the words over and over to myself-” to this Clary replied, “It doesn't matter how many times you say it. It’ll still be true.”(200) additionally, as you can see, reality is something that is underestimated by even the strongest of people.

           Sometimes, discovering who your real family members are can change you. It can break your heart, and open your eyes to clearly see the relationship you have with others. Because of this book, I learned that the people I hold close to me are my family, it doesn't matter that we don’t have a blood connection that ties us together. As Clary said “Family is more than blood. Valentine isn't my father. Luke is. Just like Alec and Max and Isabelle are Jace’s family. If you try to tear him out of your family, you’ll leave a wound that won’t ever heal.” (62) When you are separated by those who are you hold close, or your close relationship with them is threatened in any way, that is when you begin to realize that those people are your family. It is at such a moment that you realize the strong bonds you created with others. It changes you to fight for all those bonds, to tie all those stray ends, and to make sure that the wound of loosing “family” is vanquished. In other words, family does indeed change people. They influence you, they motivate you, they anger you, and many times they break you. However, if the scar they leave behind does eventually heal, it is because along with changing you, your family changed itself.

            
         Along with family comes trust and love. To love someone you be able to trust them with all your heart. To be loved by someone, you need to be trustworthy. In the book Simon states, “You know what the worst thing I can imagine is?”… “Not trusting someone I love.” (245) this is a fear that many people may have. To add on, many people may feel as if the person they love most is hiding something from them. It can feel horrible to think that you can’t even trust the one you hold dear. Losing trust can change someone’s perspective of another person. However, love can change perspectives in an entirely different way. For example, in a conversation between Luke and Clary on page 211, Cassandra Clare wrote “Everyone has choices to make; no one has the right to take those choices away from us. Not even out of love.” – Luke. “But that’s just it,” Clary said. “When you love someone you don’t have a choice”…“Love takes your choices away.” Not only can love take your choices away, but love can also influence your choices and completely change them. Love is tied in with reality; sometimes you love someone so much that you completely erase all of your past choices to make new ones. When you’re in love, you create your own reality. It changes you to feel things you have probably never felt before and it makes you see things in a completely different way. Furthermore, love can create a huge change in someone’s life, but all this can also be changed because of false honesty (trust).

            Furthermore, “The City of Ashes” is compelling book where many events change the characters. Many of those events, to add on, are revolved around specific themes of identity, trust, pain, and love. These themes revolve around our life too; in fact these events are similar to what happens in real life. In other words, such events can change people in our world too. While reading “The City of Ashes” I felt as if I could connect to many of those life changing events. Every single one of us may be changed in some way because of our friends, family, and the general public, just like the characters in Cassandra Clare’s book “The City of Ashes.” To conclude, I have learned many things while reading this book, and reading this book also opened my eyes to see beyond my reality, what I know about myself, and the people I call family.