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Chapter 5
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 runs with Manchee, he realizes that the bangs from the farm must have been Cillian blowing up the generators to create a Noise so loud it would disguise Todd’s escape for a while. Now in the distance, Todd hears gunshots. As Todd goes along the river, he holds on to his knife in case of crocodiles. All of a sudden, Todd can hear the Noise of hungry crocodiles.
Todd seems to face hostility from all directions, with guns on one side and crocodiles on the other, indicating how difficult life is in his settlement. While earlier passages about lambs and wheat fields emphasizes how nature can help humans, introducing crocodiles instead emphasizes why humans should respect the power of nature.
Themes
A crocodile leaps for Manchee, who barely avoids it. Without thinking, Todd uses his knife and somehow manages to kill the croc. Just as Todd is recovering, Aaron surprises him again, punching Todd in the face. Aaron tells Todd he needs to go back to the town because there’s something important he needs to see. Aaron says he made sure that the whole town knows Todd brought danger to the town by finding the silence. Todd remembers he still has his knife and considers using it, when suddenly, a crocodile lunges on Aaron.
While Todd was afraid of the crocodiles, it’s ultimately Aaron who experiences the consequences and gets attacked by them. Aaron was the first one to attack Todd, and so the fact that the crocs go for Aaron suggests that people who resort to violence are the most likely to experience violence themselves. Todd himself has a chance to commit violence here and use his knife against Aaron. He doesn’t and views this as a failure, but over the course of the novel, he will continue to come back to this decision and reconsider it.
Themes
Todd and Manchee run away. Just then, Todd hears the quiet again. He holds on to his knife, believing he’s going to have to kill a Spackle. All of a sudden, they stop as Todd sees a figure under a tree. Manchee starts barking “Spackle,” but Todd tells him to shut up. As he looks closer, he realizes the figure is actually a girl.
Part I of the novel ends with Todd receiving confirmation that everything he learned about his world is a lie—apparently not everyone has Noise and not all women and girls are dead after all. The first step in Todd’s coming-of-age journey is to learn about how other ways of living, beyond what he knew in Prentisstown, are possible.
Themes
