In Jeanette Winterson's The Battle of the Sun, she uses a minor character, a boy named Crispis, to demonstrate the good of the world and to symbolize how light always conquers dark. Crispis is introduced as, "The smallest boy. . . covered in bright red curly hair, and because it stood on end it made him look like he had a perpetual fright." (Winterson 24) This description is meant to make Crispis seem wimpy and unimportant to the plot, despite his later involvement in the story.
Crispis' importance is first hinted at when Jack's mother Anne comes to visit. Anne tells Crispis "[of a] sunflower that found the sun" and "If you promise to go to sleep, I promise there will be a sunflower for you tomorrow." (Winterson 85) Crispis then tells her that he wishes he were "that sunflower" (Winterson 85). This strengthens the concept that Crispis is just a sad, tiny boy who wants not to be picked on any longer.
The sunflower, to Crispis, is a way to escape from his current situation. He wants to feel the sun on his face and sway in the breeze of life, but instead he is kept in "the Dark House" (Winterson 19) and under strict watch by the Magus' servants. He represents a small ray of light that is trapped in a world of darkness, unable to express himself and underutilized. When the sunflower is brought up again in the novel it symbolizes the same ideas, but on a much grander scale.
Towards the end of the novel when the Queen of England herself asks what is protecting a single house from being turned to gold, the owner replies, "'The sunflowers . . . for they are emblem of the sun, and the sun is emblem of the true gold that is the treasure of the soul, and not of the common gold that spoils the hearts of men.'" (Winterson 337) This is the first moment that the reader is directly told that the sunflowers are the only thing that can fight the power of the Magus, the man who is trying to use his dark powers to turn the city of London into gold. It shows that desires for material objects are defeated by desires for morality. Crispis serves as the fool in this novel, he is the one that hints to the reader how wonderful being a sunflower would be, only he describes the want from more of a freedom standpoint.
The last scene of the novel with Crispis is when he is found in a sunflower patch. Earlier in the novel he eats a magic sunflower seed which turns him completely yellow with a black face. This symbolizes how he is impenetrable to the Magus' power simply because of who he is. When Jack and his mother go searching for Crispis after the battle is won and find him in a field of sunflowers he tells them, "'This is my home, among the sunflowers, who don't frighten me . . . I'd rather be a sunflower" (Winterson 383) After much persuading, Jack's mother eventually gets Crispis to, "walk beside her out of the field of sunflowers." (Winterson 385) Even though the field was Crispis' safe place, to conclude the story he must leave. Every trace of the Magus has been erased and the only piece left was little Crispis alone in the sunflower patch, enjoying his freedom. But to wipe away the last spot of darkness, one must set the final ray of light free.
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