An interesting thing about Kaz is the way he views a hierarchy within everyone he meets, an attitude probably defined in him by the Kerch culture of trade and the environment of Ketterdam. Kerch is a country that in many ways is designed to reflect the American Dream as it is portrayed in classic literature such as The Great Gatsby: as an ultimately unattainable and useless lie, designed to control and quell the masses in the danger of extreme capitalism. The social hierarchy in Ketterdam is well-established and discussed throughout the novels, though mostly in Crooked Kingdom since the plot stays almost entirely within city limits, and the attitude of viewing a miniature hierarchy amongst those around you as part of the overall societal structure is evidenced in Kaz, and possibly reflected in Wylan; a link both to their different upbringings within the Ketterdam social structure, and their position as literary foils. (I wrote a whole long thing about how Kaz and Wylan had/have the potential to become each other, so feel free to check that out for more detail if you want it). The cityâs hierarchy and the unattainability of joining the rich upper echelon of society is cleverly hinted at from the very beginning of Six of Crows, when Kaz is jumped and then wakes up in what he expects to be the deb of a rival gang. He instead finds himself in Councilman Hoedeâs Manor House, which I believe is on the Geldstradt, and the way he makes the distinction is by realising that the decor in the room heâs in âtakes real moneyâ. We know that people like Pekka Rollins or Tante Heleen have become truly rich from what they do in the Barrel, and so itâs strange to suggest that youâd need âreal moneyâ for this since we would generally use that phrase to refer to a large amount of money. What Kaz actually means here is âold moneyâ or âfamily moneyâ; you need the kind of money that the Merchant Council have been hoarding for generations, making supposedly risky trades when they have millions of savings to cushion the blow if things go wrong, not the kind of money that comes from the popular gambling dens and brothels of the Barrel. He means the kind of money that Daisy and Tom have in Great Gatsby, people whoâve never worked a day in their lives and yet like to think of themselves as very successful at life when all theyâre truly succeeding in is spending their parents money, not the kind of money that Gatsby scraped and saved and began to chase through undisclosed illicit means. Even when men like Gatsby and Rollins make their money, and their name, they are never equal in the social hierarchy to people with old money. (To be clear, not that this is a defence of either character, I have criticisms of both, especially Rollins).
But the hierarchy Kaz places upon himself and upon the others is slightly more subtle, and arguably subversive. He looks down on Matthias because he âstinks of decencyâ and because he supposedly hasnât struggled, arguably gaining slightly more respect for him when he learns of him losing his parents and baby sister but still maintaining the idea of âeveryone has a sob story and you were clearly more lucky in your options to deal with it than I was, itâs not my fault if you made the wrong choiceâ. We as readers obviously know that Matthias had no options but to go with Jarl Brum and spent the next 6 years of his life (I think thatâs the right amount of time, please correct me if Iâm wrong) being emotionally manipulated and abused by him, but Kaz simply refuses to accept has suffered because it would be psychologically damaging to him to admit that Matthias was able to go through that and still come out a good person, when Kaz sees himself as having become truly demonic. Matthias looks down on Kaz for the exact same reason, unable to understand - especially since he knows far less detail about Kazâs trauma - how someone who ever had a core of decency couldnât maintain it through their pain, he assumes Kaz was never a good person, or never had the potential to be one. Kaz also looks down on Wylan, arguably far less for his attempt to maintain a core decency but because he views Wylan as having had the option to do so. Kaz seems to have more respect for Wylan in Crooked Kingdom than in Six of Crows, when he knows more about (but never, it should be noted, the full extent of) Jan Van Eckâs abuse to his son, once again showcasing that he struggles to accept the idea of someone feeling bad when they have supposedly suffered less than him. His trauma has clearly warped him in many ways, and one of them is losing the ability to see relative pain and how different things can affect different people in different ways; he effectively views everything in the manner of âI had it worse, and Iâm fine so you need to get over yourselfâ. He labels Nina âa snobâ for staying away from the Crow Club and the Slat despite being a Dregs member, and her response is âshe didnât much care what Kaz Brekker thoughtâ. I think that Nina is possible the person Kaz holds the most respect for in his platonic relationships, and that is mostly because she simply couldnât care less whether he respects her or not.
His relationship with Jesper is more complex; he judges Jesper for his addiction and yet continually eggs him on, giving him a line of credit to play cards at the start of Six of Crows and having the first step of his planning in Crooked Kingdom to make Jesper play all night, although itâs unclear whether Jesper has ever shared anything about his mother if anyone knows then the most likely parties are Kaz or Inej and yet Kaz forces Jesper to give up his revolvers in Crooked Kingdom, his most treasured possession and his constant connection to his late mother, he consistently infantilises Jesper, but mostly in his head and this is possibly an interesting link to the final nail in the coffin of their relationship; Kaz sees Jesper as a substitute to Jordie. I think itâs possible that he likes to see him as younger because thatâs how he remembers Jordie - itâs also important to remember that Kaz is now several years older than his elder brother ever was so seeing him in someone his own age is possibly even more painful because thatâs a point Jordie never reached (he was only 13 when he died). Jesper is someone that Kaz feels the need to keep at arms length, not because he doesnât respect him but because he fears having a close relationship with someone who could so easily slip away from him like Jordie did. I think we can also arguably see aspects of Jordie within Jesper, the naĂŻvetĂŠ of thinking you can make it Ketterdam followed by the city swallowing you whole, killing Jordie and driving Jesper to his slow self-destruction - âIâm dying anyway, Da. Iâm just doing it slowâ. (If yâall have read many of my analytical posts you may have begun to notice thatâs one of my favourite quotes)
Then we have Inej. Kaz places Inej on a pedestal whatever she does. Iâve spoken before about how she claims to be bad at picking locks whilst he claims to have done âa shoddy job at teaching her to pick locksâ because heâs incapable of accepting that she is incapable of something; if there are flaws, they must be his because she cannot have any. In a lot of situations this can be harmful, going back to the romance of Daisy and Gatsby where Daisy is placed on a pedestal and idealised so much that she become more of an image than a person, so when she does not live up to his every high expectation Gatsby is destroyed by it. But with kanej this seems only to elevate their position, possibly because Kaz isnât claiming that Inej is flawless, but rather that she is capable of working on her flaws in a way that he isnât; it is almost a form of envy. For example, Inej also has a fear of touch and human contact, but she purposely forced herself to cope with small amounts of it, such as allowing Nina and Jesper to hug her even though it makes her flinch, because she fears it becoming a debilitating condition, as it has done for Kaz (not that she knows that initially when itâs first implied that she too fears contact). In the bathroom scene when she admits to him that she also struggles with touch, it has such a massive effect on Kaz not because he refuses to accept that she has flaws but because he sees her as so much stronger than himself and wishes that he could be more like her. Although both of them are ultimately unable to go any further than a few light brushes of contact, itâs suggested that what trigger Inej more than the touch itself is the sexual implications of those touches based on everything she went through at the Menagerie. Kaz doesnât see Inej aligned with with himself or the other gang members, but as above them - and not in the way he labels Nina as a snob, but in a genuine manner he refuses to acknowledge her as low in society because he sees her as deserving of so much more. He notably never refers to her as âa canal ratâ and he never even comes close to defining her by her time at the Menagerie, a start contrast between him, the supposed low of the hierarchy, and Van Eck, the supposed upper, he yells at her âyou little skiv! You little whore!â. However, there is one way in which Kaz arguably looks down on Inej and itâs in a similar way that he looks down in Matthias: how dare she still try so hard to remain truly good, and decent, and to find her Saints and to politely ask them for forgiveness, when it would be so much easier to let the world beat that out of her? Arguably, itâs not that he judges either of them for their faith, but itâs that he fears them judging him for losing his, be that in religion or in the world at all. (I donât think we know if Kaz was raised in a religious household or not, but based on societal structure in Ketterdam and the way most of the population in most of the countries are religious I think itâs safe to assume he at least grew up with an understanding of Ghezen). Kaz fears that theyâll judge him for failing to maintain his core of decency, which is exactly what Matthias does, and so he aims to offend or challenge them before they can him.
Ok Iâm not gonna lie to you guys itâs like quarter past one in the morning as Iâm writing this, and oh my god it just got so long out of nowhere⌠I might have lost my point somewhere in there, I donât even know, this came from one quote I was thinking about and Iâm not sure I even wrote that quote in there so, yeah, I guess. If you bothered to read this far the tysm I hope it made sense
