Morality and Corruption: Hollow City (second book of Miss Peregrine’s House for Peculiar Children)

Mumu takes a trip into the themes associated with Hollow City, the second book of Miss Peregrine’s House for Peculiar Children from Ransom Riggs

Two sides of the same coin; one choice can lead to thousands of outcomes. Morality based upon the choice of saving others, or Corruption, a power vacuum that continuously feeds and gains nothing. In Hollow City, the second book of Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, explores this dichotomy from how the children react to how the wights and hollows become more and more corrupted.

Miss Peregrine has changed into her peculiar form since the last book, her mind slowly being lost. She is with the children, albeit stuck in her animal form, as they look for another time loop to save her. Even with Miss Peregrine on the sidelines, the children survive and find another time loop to hopefully set her back to the way she was. It takes an ymbryne to help another ymbryne transform back, after all.  She lost some sense of morality due to being stuck in her animal form, killing a pigeon that was Miss Wren’s personal friend. One of the characters, Millard, sums it up perfectly: “I hope there’s still something human left in her to rescue.” (pg 298).

Brownyn, another peculiar, shows empathy and chooses to save those who are destined to die. She runs off to find the girls, as Emma laments that they could have saved them. Millard even states that there was no point; they were destined to die, and history fixes itself; even pointing out why one couldn’t kill Baby Hitler to stop the Holocaust. Yet, Brownyn, even with all these facts thrown around, rushes to find the two normal girls. As it turns out, they were as peculiar as the rest of them, surviving the wreckage of the war. She even scolds Enoch for saying that the normals need the ambulance more than they do; Enoch makes it clear that he feels that their lives are more important than a thousand normals. She then makes it clear-they wouldn’t take an ambulance from suffering people. Great moral backbone, Brownyn!

Now, on the other side of this, we are introduced to Caul, Miss Peregrine’s brother. As it turns out, he was the bird that the children thought was Miss Peregrine. He took form and decided to play along as an ambush tactic to get more peculiars. He is a leader of a group of wights and hollows; he chose to go down this path to get immortality and the power corrupted him into this terrible being. He could have been respected, a positive influence of a person; but as it is described, when he stretched, there were protrusions on his back, like aborted wings. (pg 386)

Morality and Corruption, one to help others, the other to hinder others for one’s own gain. Brownyn chose to protect innocents, whether peculiar or normal. She chose to be moral, even when History fixes itself. Caul chose to harm others to gain immortality and power. Corruption turns people into monsters, like wights and hollows, causing Caul to aim for and harm children. It always boils down to a choice- would you harm an innocent to extend your own life?

Mumu the Tricked loves to read and write. It’s easier to sit still and work with their eyes and hands than move around some days. They are hoping to become a successful author and book reviews are quite fun, too. Thank you!

PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions of the staff of Memento Mori Ink do not necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or Crystal Lake Publishing. Thank you for understanding.