J. L. Barnes’s The Inheritance Games and the Rejuvenation of Proverbs

Abstract

The present article analyzes the use of proverbs in The Inheritance Games (2020), the first book of the novel trilogy of the same name, currently enjoying great popularity and commercial success among young readers. In the first half of the book, proverbs are a central theme in the development of the action, continuing to be used frequently by various characters throughout the rest of the book, especially by Avery Grambs, the protagonist and first-person narrator. This use of proverbs in a novel targeted at young adults is remarkable inasmuch as they are a discourse device most commonly associated with older generations and traditions. Furthermore, proverbs contribute to the portrayal of various characters, illustrating their paremiological competence and the different ways in which they may be employed as established by proverb scholarship. As a result, the relevance of proverbs for the plot and their frequency of appearance challenges the widespread belief that they are old-fashioned uses of languages most frequently employed by older adults, potentially promoting an interest in them among teenagers and young adults reading the series.