In Ness’s The Knife of Never Letting Go, narrator Todd believes that a race of aliens called the Spackle unleased a Noise germ against humanity that killed all of the women on the planet. By the end of the novel, however, he has learned from Ben and his Ma’s journal that, led by Mayor Prentiss, the men of Prentisstown exterminated the Spackle as a scapegoat for their colony’s problems, then murdered all of the women in town out of paranoia. With the help of local preacher Aaron, Mayor Prentiss was able to indoctrinate all the young boys in town into his cult by controlling the settlement’s school and having boys perform a murderous initiation ritual when they reach the age of adulthood. The case of Prentisstown is the most dramatic example of prejudice in the story, showing how a fear of the unknown can turn people violent and make them vulnerable to charismatic dictators like Mayor Prentiss.
But while Prentisstown is the most obvious example of the dangers of discrimination in the story, bigotry and misogyny also take more subtle form in other parts of the novel. Unlike Prentisstown, the settlement of Carbonel Downs isn’t a murder cult, but it has its own patriarchal society. Women have to live in a separate dormitory, and they aren’t allowed to take part in the town’s decision-making, meaning that no one listens to Viola when she tries to warn them about an impending attack by the Prentisstown army. Furthermore, music blasts from the center of the settlement at all times, providing no benefit to the women but ensuring that the men in the settlement can hide the thoughts in their Noise. Finally, like most settlements in the New World, the people of Carbonel Downs have strict laws against outsiders, viewing former Prentisstown residents like Todd and Ben as threats without even considering that the newcomers might be fellow allies against Mayor Prentiss’s army. Throughout the novel, misogyny and bigotry take on a variety of forms, both blatant and subtle, showing how prejudice may temporarily unite small communities but ultimately leads to paranoia and distrust that can tear society apart.
Bigotry and Misogyny ThemeTracker
Bigotry and Misogyny Quotes in The Knife of Never Letting Go
Cillian comes running up but before he says anything to us, Ben cuts him off and says, “Don’t think it!”
Ben turns to me. “Don’t you think it neither. You cover it up with yer Noise. You hide it. You hide it as best you can.” And he’s grabbing my shoulders as he’s saying it and squeezing tight enough to make my blood jump even more than it already is.
It’s a girl.
I know what a girl is. Course I do. I seen ’em in the Noise of their fathers in town, mourned like their wives but not nearly so often. I seen ’em in vids, too. Girls are small and polite and smiley. They wear dresses and their hair is long and it’s pulled into shapes behind their heads or on either side. They do all the inside-the-house chores, while boys do all the outside. They reach womanhood when they turn thirteen, just like boys reach manhood, and then they’re women and they become wives.
Aaron turns, not even fast like, just turns like someone’s called his name. He sees me standing there, knife in the air, not moving like the goddam coward idiot I am, and he smiles and boy I just can’t say how awful a smile looks on that torn-up face.
“Viola,” I say again.
She don’t nod this time.
“I’m Todd,” I say.
“I know,” she says.
A shadow steps into the far doorway.
Matthew Lyle.
And his Noise is saying, Ye ain’t going nowhere, boy.
“I don’t think we’re safe anywhere,” I say. “Not on this whole planet.”
“If they’d told me, Prentisstown would’ve heard it in my Noise and known that I knew. We wouldn’t’ve even got the head start we had.” I glance at her eyes and look away. “I shoulda given it to someone to read and that’s all there is to it. Ben’s a good man.” I lower my voice. “Was.”
Doctor Snow turns to Ben. “And though I do believe you’re just a man out looking for his son, the law’s the law.”
Oh, son, there’s so much wonder in the world. Don’t let no one tell you otherwise. Yes, life has been hard here on New World and I’ll even admit to you here, cuz if I’m going to start out at all it has to be an honest start, I’ll tell you that I was nearly given to despair. Things in the settlement are maybe more complicated than I can quite explain [...] it was hard enough even before I lost yer pa and I nearly gave up.
But I didn’t give up. I didn’t give up cuz of you, my beautiful, beautiful boy, my wondrous son who might make something better of this world, who I promise to raise only with love and hope and who I swear will see this world come good. I swear it.
“Welcome,” says the Mayor, “to New Prentisstown.”