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Chapter 1
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 feels unsettled as he walks back to his village. He doesn’t believe that silence exists because he’s always been surrounded by Noise. Todd lives in Prentisstown, where Mayor Prentiss is in charge. Boys used to be taught by their parents, then after all the mothers died, they’d learn from videos and other learning modules. But Mayor Prentiss wanted to control what everyone learned, so he made all the boys go to one school. It was difficult to give tests, because everyone could hear each other’s thoughts through Noise. The school doesn’t teach reading or writing, and when Ben tried to teach Todd, Mayor Prentiss stopped it.
Todd himself doesn’t necessarily understand what’s going on in his settlement, but it becomes clear in this passage that Mayor Prentiss is trying to use propaganda to control what people in his settlement think. Todd is an unreliable narrator, not necessarily because he lies, but because there are many things about his world that he doesn’t yet know. This relates back to the idea that Noise offers a lot of information, but it doesn’t help people determine what’s true knowledge.
Themes
Prentisstown has a population of 147, with 146 men and then Todd, who is still technically a boy. Prentisstown is in a place called the New World, and there used to be other settlements around, but the Spackle and their germs wiped out most of the other settlements. Mayor Prentiss claims that Prentisstown only survived because of his military skills.
This passage again emphasizes how violence plays a central role in Todd’s world. Because Mayor Prentiss controls the schools and prevents people from reading, his claims about the settlement surviving due to his own military prowess are suspicious.
Themes
Todd has never known life without Noise, which is not just words but also pictures of memories, fantasies, and other thoughts people have. It becomes impossible to tell what’s true or a lie, because people lie to themselves even in their own thoughts.
When Todd gets back to Prentisstown with Manchee, he passes Mr. Phelps’s store. Mr. Phelps is always despairing about the end of the world and imagining his dead wife Julie naked, even as he talks with Todd about what a beautiful day it is. Todd tries to think his usual Noise so that he won’t reveal anything to Mr. Phelps about the Noise hole he just found in the swamp, although he isn’t sure why he wants to hide his discovery.
Todd’s experience of seeing naked people in Noise continues the metaphor of Noise being like the Internet, with the Internet being the first place some people see explicit images. Todd’s mundane interaction with Mr. Phelps contrasts with Mr. Phelps’s explicit thoughts, mirroring how Todd himself is trying to keep a secret about the Noise hole he saw.
Themes
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Todd passes Mr. Hammar at the petrol station, and his Noise is always bloody and angry. When Mr. Hammar sees Todd, he thinks “One month” and pictures Todd alone, which Todd doesn’t know how to interpret.
Once again, Todd doesn’t understand something about the world around him. Mr. Hammar seems to know something Todd doesn’t, and Mr. Hammar’s anger seems to hint at a connection between Noise and violence.
Themes
Todd walks through more of the town. At the pub is Mr. Prentiss Jr., the sheriff, who is only two years older than Todd. Mr. Prentiss Jr. hassles people who don’t obey Mayor Prentiss, and this week, Mr. Turner is in trouble for not giving Mayor Prentiss enough free corn. Todd goes on to the Church, which has some of the most Noise in town. At the Church, Aaron preaches about how the New World is like Eden and the Old World was a place of sinfulness. Everyone is supposed to go to church every Sunday, but Mayor Prentiss usually doesn’t.
This passage reveals that Mayor Prentiss rules through bribes and intimidation, while also indulging in nepotism, since Mr. Prentiss Jr. seems immature for his role as sheriff. The name Mr. Prentiss Jr. seems to reflect the son’s desire to be like his father, Mayor Prentiss, but it ends up taking on a humorous tone that reflects how the young man can’t live up to his father’s big name. It’s also suspicious that Mayor Prentiss doesn’t attend the required church services—he makes the rules, and so he gets to ignore them if he wants.
Themes
At the top of the hill in Prentisstown is the place with the most Noise of all: Mayor Prentiss’s house. Mayor Prentiss believes it’s possible to control the power of Noise and use it to his advantage, so he’s often thinking chants like “I AM THE CIRCLE AND THE CIRCLE IS ME.” Todd is afraid of the mayor, so he urges Manchee to walk a little faster as they pass the mayor’s house. They head on toward Todd’s house, which has less Noise because it’s past the main part of town.
The mayor’s strange Noise suggests that he is something like a cult leader. The fact that the mayor’s house has the most Noise in town and yet Todd doesn’t understand what the mayor is doing suggests once again that for all the information that Noise provides, it does little to provide actual knowledge.
Themes
