Princess Academy

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.

Education is a source of individual and collective empowerment for the characters in the novel. At the beginning of the story, the villagers rely predominantly on quarrying linder to survive the harsh winters. Since Mount Eskel is a poor territory, most of its residents are illiterate, which limits their understanding of the broader world. However, when Miri and the other girls begin learning how to read at the academy, they start to learn history and other subjects that reshape their perspectives and open their minds to opportunities. 

Miri, in particular, experiences a significant intellectual awakening through her study of commerce. As she practices reading, she realizes that linder is a highly valuable resource and that traders have been taking advantage of the villagers’ lack of knowledge. She decides that she must tell her family and community about this. She thinks, “[I]f the traders dealt fairly, her village could benefit from the heaps of wonders the rest of the kingdom seemed to enjoy” (131). When Miri shares this knowledge with the villagers, they feel empowered to demand fairer prices from the traders and refuse to let traders like Enrik deprive them of their rightful earnings.