A Deadly Alliance - Summary Essay

 Honestly, this short story is terrifying to read.

At first, Leopardstar just seems to be telling the reader why she did what she did. I think though, that she actually knows she’s in a bad situation, and trying everything she can to prove herself wrong.

She starts off by talking about the difficulty of being a leader and how hard it had been just recently. She was under a lot of stress, and her Clan needed help to survive.

Then she lays out the plan, and his vision for the forest, that Tigerstar had told her. You can see sense in what he had told Leopardstar. I think she’s trying to remind herself of the future she saw.

In the second half, she starts to admit things like him being in charge, and not knowing what he plans to do to half Clan cats. She justifies all these things in any way she can. At this point, it seems clear that she is trying to defend it to herself as much as the reader. 

She wants to believe she made the right choice. Knowing that, reading back over from the beginning, you start to see that she’s been doing this throughout. She is begging StarClan that she made the right choice while covering it up as an explanation to the reader for following Tigerstar.

The central theme in A Deadly Alliance is trust. Although trust is often viewed as a positive thing, misplaced trust or belief in another can have negative consequences. This misplaced trust is what the short story explores. Leopardstar chooses to believe ‘[Tigerstar] and [her] will be joint leaders’ pg. 51. She trusts his judgement against half-clan cats, although she ‘[doesn’t] know what Tigerstar plans to do with [them]’ pg. 51. She trusts he has her, and their joint Clans’, best interests at heart ‘[allowing] him to leave a few ShadowClan warriors in [their] camp to protect [them]’ pg. 51.

The main characters in A Deadly Alliance include firstly, Leopardstar, the protagonist. She tells the story to the audience directly through this person. This allows us a closer glimpse into her mind, and we understand how she sees and justifies the things she is describing. The antagonist is Tigerstar, who talks about a combined Clan, before taking over hers and making himself in charge of both. This causes Leopardstar to have to justify what he does, explain to the reader shy she trusted him, and also trying to convince herself that she was right to do so.

The short stories main situations are listed here: RiverClan has been through hardships the last few seasons. Leopardstar believes joining Tigerstar’s TigerClan will help make RiverClan healthy again. She sees sense in his talk of one Clan. Leopardstar reveals some things she questions and begins to justify Tigerstar’s actions. She fears being cast out of the Clans if she doesn’t follow him. She doesn’t know his plans for the half-clan cat but tells herself ‘[she knows] something must be done’ pg. 51. She lets some ShadowClan cats stay in the RiverClan camp. They begin to build a hill of prey bones by the riverbank that gives her nightmares.

Thank you for reading. If you have any thoughts or comments on this or the short story, please post them below. I’d love to hear from you.

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Alice B Hutley