Landen In The Short Story Karma By Jade Antoine

In the short story “Karma,” by Jade Antoine, there is a king and queen ruling in the kingdom of Welbia. The king was repeatedly abusing the queen and the queen had to go to extreme lengths to try and stop the abuse. Queen Victoria reached out to a fairy and asked her to grant her powers so she could stop King Blake’s malevolent behavior. When she was given magic, the fairy told her if she used the magic for evil, the consequences would fall upon her unborn child. The queen went back to the castle and contemplated how she should use her powers. One day the king tried to hit the queen and she used her powers to dismember him and remove his mouth. Shortly after, the queen was captured, stripped of her magic and sentenced to life in the dungeon. The fairy sent her daughter away and cursed her by covering her daughter completely with tattoos of names and pictures. The daughter, Ariana, was constantly ridiculed as a child into her teenage years and began to bully others in retaliation. In the story, there is another character, Landen, who presents himself as a homeless man, but actually was a king who was punished for mistreating his citizens. He tells Ariana about …show more content…
In the story, the main character was completely covered in tattoos. Each tattoo was either a name or picture of someone who needed help. The tattoos symbolized karma, or the saying “what goes around comes around.” Which is why, whenever Ariana did a selfless act, the other person would be rewarded with happiness and Ariana would also benefit from their happiness. The mirror that the queen had symbolized her mistakes. She was so driven by hate that she put her daughter’s life at risk. So as a punishment, she was forced to watch her daughter suffer with tattoos in the other realm. The point of view shifts from Landen to Ariana throughout the story. The setting alternates between the kingdom of Welbia and New York