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Chapter 7
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
Aaron pushes Todd against a tree and tries to choke him. Todd sees that the crocodiles have disfigured Aaron’s face. Just when Todd is about to pass out, Manchee bites Aaron’s leg, causing him to let go of Todd. As Todd recovers, he notices the girl is gone. Aaron gets up and hears the sound of her running away, refers to the girl as “the sign,” then abandons Todd to chase her.
Like Cillian, who proved how he cared for Todd in a time of crisis, Manchee also defends Todd to prove his loyalty. The crocodile bites on Aaron’s face illustrate the consequences of living a violent life and failing to respect the power of nature.
Themes
Todd wonders for a moment whether it would be better just to let Aaron chase the girl so he can escape. But then he hears her scream and goes running, knife in hand. As he gets closer, he can tell from Aaron’s Noise that he intends to sacrifice the girl to God. Todd catches up and tells Aaron to let the girl go. Aaron isn’t even paying attention, and Todd realizes he’ll probably have to kill Aaron.
Aaron finally notices Todd’s Noise. He says that Mayor Prentiss will be sorry to hear of Todd’s death, but God doesn’t care about cowards anyway. Todd hesitates to use his knife, and so Aaron hits Todd’s hand, knocking the knife away. He hits Todd again, knocking him into the water of the nearby river. Just as Todd is struggling, he finds a rock in the water and begins hitting Aaron with it, until eventually Aaron goes limp.
While Todd was unable to us his knife to attack Aaron earlier, here Todd finds himself in a position where he has no choice but to fight back or risk dying, forcing him to use the rock against Aaron. While earlier, Todd regretted not using his knife, feeling that it meant he lacked courage, Todd doesn’t get any sense of triumph for using the rock here.
Themes
When Todd recovers, he sees that the girl has his knife, although Aaron has tied her hands. Todd cuts her free. She seems to know that Todd hesitated to use his knife on Aaron. The two of them both realize that Aaron is still breathing. Todd thinks about how he could easily kill Aaron, and it would probably even be the right thing to do. But he can’t do it. He rationalizes that Aaron will probably drown there anyway, then tells the girl they have to leave.
Once again, Todd faces the choice about whether to use his knife. In this situation, the temptation is even clearer—Todd know Aaron wants to kill him, and Aaron is too wounded to fight back. The book does not give a clear answer to this moral question, and while Todd’s decision not to kill Aaron might leave him with a clearer conscience, it ends up having repercussions later.
Themes
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