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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Knife of Never Letting Go, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Cost of Violence
Information vs. Knowledge
Bigotry and Misogyny
Humanity’s Connection to Nature
Summary
Analysis
Todd Hewitt, who narrates his own story in a rural dialect, has a dog named Manchee that can talk, but Manchee doesn’t have much interesting to say. Mostly Manchee just says when he needs “a poo.” The dog was an unwanted gift from Cillian, who has been taking care of Todd with Ben ever since Todd’s biological parents died. Todd is walking Manchee toward the swamp so that he can pick up some swamp apples for Ben. Time is counted differently in Todd’s community, with years having 13 months. Todd is 12 years and 12 months old, meaning he is one month away from turning 13 and becoming a man in his society.
The opening lines of the story immediately establish the unusual fantasy setting. Todd’s dialect suggests that he might not have a traditional education, but his familiarity with the swamp shows that he has other types of knowledge. Manchee (whose name is like “mangy”) adds comic relief to the story by revealing that even when dogs can talk, they don’t have much to say. The fact that Todd is nearly a man in his culture foreshadows how the book will deal with his coming of age and raise questions of what it means to be an adult.
Themes
Manchee sees a squirrel and goes running. Todd thinks animals are stupid, both dogs and squirrels. He curses the squirrel, who can’t speak but who can communicate with Todd with its Noise (thoughts). While Todd is distracted, all of a sudden Aaron comes out of nowhere and punches Todd in the face. Aaron is pious and uses his Noise to scold Todd for swearing. Speaking aloud, Aaron tells Todd that the problem with foul language is that God always hears it, even when you just think it, because of Noise.
This passage introduces Noise, perhaps the most important fantasy element in the story. Noise could be an allegory for several things in the real world, including social media and the internet, which also make people’s private thoughts public. Todd lives in a world where information is abundant, but this overload of information ironically makes it difficult for him to find knowledge, which requires sorting out what’s true from what’s not. In confusing situations like this, violent men like Aaron who promise certainty are able to take control.
Themes
Aaron leaves, and Todd finds Manchee, who ran away during the fight. They get to the swamp, and while Todd knows some people complain about the smell, he really doesn’t think it’s so bad. Todd thinks older men only dislike the swamp because they remember how it used to be: full of dead Spackles (an alien race, also called “spacks”). Todd himself doesn’t remember a world before Noise. His Ma and Pa died when he was young, and so Ben and Cillian raised him. Ben believes Todd’s mother was the last woman alive on the planet, but Todd says everyone he knows believes that about their mother.
This passage about the swamps full of bodies of dead aliens shows how fundamental violence is to life on Todd’s planet (something that his recent encounter with Aaron just illustrated). Todd grows up learning that his planet has only men on it, suggesting that perhaps women face greater consequences from the violence and the information overload that exist on Todd’s planet. Todd’s status as an orphan makes him like the protagonist of young adult stories, most notably Huckleberry Finn, a character who also narrates his own story and is a clear predecessor to Todd.
Themes
Todd is the youngest person in his whole town. None of his old friends talk to him anymore because they’ve turned 13 and only like to talk with other men. As Todd walks through the swamp, he hears the worried Noise of small birds. He and Manchee walk further, and all of a sudden Manchee seems worried, barking at Todd to be quiet. Todd listens and is shocked to hear a “hole” in the Noise, a place where the Noise just stops.
Todd’s story begins with him realizing that there are mysteries in his world that he doesn’t know about, even with Noise constantly bombarding him with information. The hole in the Noise could symbolize the gap that exists in Todd’s knowledge of the world.
Themes
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Todd knows Noise should be everywhere. The Spackle released the Noise germ in a war against the humans, killing half the men and all the women, and forcing the survivors to always hear the thoughts of other humans and animals. Since Todd believes Noise is everywhere, he figures the hole in the Noise must be a something instead of a nothing. He wonders if this means the Spackle are back, even though he used to believe that was impossible. Humans have only seen a little bit of Spackle writing. The word es’Paqili means “The People” and is where “Spackle” (as well as the slang “spacks”) comes from.
The fact that Todd and the other humans in his settlement have turned the word “es’Paqili” into “Spackle” suggests that they have not been particularly diligent about learning about the culture of these local aliens. This is an early hint that perhaps the things that Todd knows about the aliens are biased by his own limited perspective that he has learned growing up in a small settlement.
Themes
Manchee runs toward the hole in the Noise, so Todd follows. The quiet makes Todd feel empty on the inside. He feels like he’s about to lose the most valuable thing he has, and all of a sudden, without realizing why, he starts to cry. But then the hole moves, and Todd is just left there crying with Manchee.
Todd is so used to Noise that when he has to go without it, he finds himself suddenly crying. This could be a metaphor for how in the real world, people seek comfort in the constant flow of information on the internet in order to avoid confronting internal fears and problems.
Themes
