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Chapter 26
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
As Todd and Manchee travel, the terrain gets more rugged. When Manchee asks for food, Todd realizes he’s all out. Eventually, Manchee manages to kill a squirrel. He offers it to Todd, but Todd lets him have it. They keep going, and Todd thinks he hears the Noise of people nearby. He hopes they have food.
For the first time in a while, Todd is back to being alone with Manchee again. This chapter provides an opportunity to see how traveling with Viola may have changed Todd permanently as well as how her absence might cause him to revert to his old ways.
Themes
Todd approaches the huts of some men, then all of a sudden, he hears their Noise going “Prentisstown?” Todd changes his mind immediately and decides to run away, to Manchee’s disappointment. Todd continues to follow the trail Manchee leads him on.
Although Todd has learned a little bit about relying on other people for help, he has also learned from his experience with Matthew in Farbranch that he has to be careful about whom he trusts.
Themes
Todd comes across a turtle sunning itself. He wants to kill it and eat it with his knife, but he keeps thinking of the Spackle and can’t do it. Todd keeps walking on, feeling weaker and weaker. Eventually, he collapses into a ditch and can’t get up. After a while Manchee starts barking about people and food. There are carts coming on the road ahead, but they seem to go past without hearing Todd’s cries for help. Just as Todd thinks the carts are gone, he sees Wilf beside him.
Todd’s physical weakness in this passage symbolizes all the various ways that he’s weaker when he tries to go off on his own. And so, just at the moment when it seems like Todd might succumb to his weakness, Wilf manages to rescue him, showing once again how Todd must rely on other people for his journey.
Themes
