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Chapter 15
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
Viola says it’ll still be months before the settler ship will arrive. Tam mentions it takes 64 years to make it from the Old World to the New World, although most people spend that time frozen in hibernation. Viola, however, was born on the ship because her parents were both caretakers who stay awake to watch everything else. Todd realizes that there have only been settlers on the New World for 23 years, meaning that Viola’s settler ship left before anyone even arrived in the New World.
The references to a “New World” and an “Old World” invite comparisons between these settlers and the Europeans who originally came from the Old World of Europe to the New World of the Americas. This novel presents an even more extreme version of colonization, making it so that it’s not just a few months of ocean separating the settlers from their homes, but, in fact, a full 64 years of space travel.
Themes
Hildy and Tam say they both left the Old World because it was getting violent and even the unknown seemed better. Talking about her parents on the spaceship seems to upset Viola, so she starts crying. Hildy tells Todd that the next day she’ll take them to the nearby settlement, which is called Farbranch.
Hildy and Tam’s motives reflect the motives of many settlers in the past, who often immigrated to avoid wars or persecution. While it is never confirmed that the Old World is Earth, the Old World seems to represent a pessimistic vision of what the real Earth might turn into.
Themes
When Todd is alone with Viola again, he asks her if it’s really a good idea for them to stay overnight instead of going to the settlement immediately. To his surprise, Viola gets angry, confronting him about his Noise, including his thoughts about how he finds her so emotionless and how he wants to leave her with Tam and Hildy.
Todd was so preoccupied with Viola’s lack of Noise that he doesn’t even consider what his own Noise was revealing. This shows how even though Todd has begun the process of trying to understand the wider world, he still needs to attain more self-awareness.
Themes
Hildy interrupts Todd and Viola’s argument to say that their rooms are ready. She asks them both to apologize to each other, but they don’t want to, so eventually she gives up and says they’re old enough to apologize on their own time.
Hildy’s attitude toward Todd differs from Ben and Cillian’s. While Ben forced Todd to go on the journey, knowing it was best for Todd, Hildy ultimately lets Todd make his own decision. This shows how even in such a short period of time characters are beginning to recognize Todd more and more as a man—and this has nothing to do with his age on the calendar.
Themes
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Still reserved, Viola asks Todd why his journal is telling him to go to Farbranch in the first place. Todd’s Noise reveals that he can’t read and doesn’t understand the journal. Nevertheless, he refuses her help and goes off to sleep on his own. He has nightmares about Aaron and Mayor Prentiss until all of a sudden Hildy wakes him up for breakfast.
Although Todd has been learning to accept Viola, eventually he reaches a point where his pride and his shame about the things he doesn’t know both cause him to push back. This shows again how he can’t quite escape the Prentisstown mindset he grew up with, something that gets confirmed by the nightmares he has that night.
Themes
As Viola and Todd get ready to go, Hildy points them toward a road that goes from Farbranch to Prentisstown, or New Elizabeth as it used to be called. Todd says Prentisstown never had any other name, so Hildy says it must be her mistake. She promises to take the two of them to Francia, who is Hildy’s sister and also the deputy mayor of Farbranch for the year.
The change of New Elizabeth to Prentisstown shows how, although Todd knows Prentisstown as a place dominated by men, it was not always this way and even used to be named after a woman. The fact that Hildy’s sister runs Farbranch also challenges Todd’s ideas about women, since he just pictures them as wives and mothers.
Themes
They make their way towards the settlement, and Todd can see both men and women, probably a few less men than Prentisstown. He detects both Noise and silence from them. As Todd walks by, some people’s Noise begins to say “Prentisstown?” but Hildy assures Todd that’s just curiosity. But then a man named Matthew with a giant machete comes up and says no one from Prentisstown is welcome in this settlement.
Todd regarded Viola with fear and suspicion, but now he learns what it feels like to have people looks suspiciously at him. Matthew’s machete is a sign that he might be capable of violence, but the fact that his weapon of choice is also a kind of knife suggests that perhaps he and Todd have more in common than either of them realize.
Themes
