Graceling is an intriguing novel by Kristin Cashore about a girl named Katsa and a boy named Po who learn about the true meaning of friendship as they traverse across the country, depending upon each other for survival, placing their own lives in each other’s hands. As they solve the mystery of a kidnapping, they mature and grow together, as they are finally allowed to be independent. In the end, Katsa and Po both learn that, in order to mature and reach their full potential, they must develop friendships, connections, and have independence. King Randa gave Katsa almost no freedom to do what she wanted, so Katsa was stuck being ordered around by Randa, as he was the king and she was afraid of accidentally killing him in rage. She could not refuse anything Randa asked her to do, “There was no way around what he wanted… After a while Katsa forgot about defiance. It became too difficult to imagine.” Since Katsa’s grace was killing, she killed, maimed, or injured whoever Randa wanted to hurt. She hated doing this, as it developed a fearsome reputation for her, almost to the point where everyone she walked past would look…show more content… Katsa had to abide by Randa’s will and thus never got a chance to experience independence or happiness. So, as she grew, she never got to take those necessary steps in order to fully mature into an adult. However, this all changed when Katsa left Randa’s kingdom in hope of a better future and met Po. She began to understand what it felt to be independent and grew up, maturing and understanding who Randa really was - an evil tyrant with no power over