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Chapter 12
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Mysterious Benedict Society, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Confidence and Growing Up
Deception vs. Truth
Loneliness vs. Friendship
Control vs. Freedom
Hope
Summary
Analysis
The Institute’s curriculum has been designed by Mr. Curtain, and when a class runs through all the lessons, they repeat them from the beginning. All the lessons are eventually reviewed over and over, and the students who learn them best become Messengers. The children of the Mysterious Benedict Society are familiar with this strange teaching style; just like in their old schools, rote memorization is “discouraged but required,” and class participation is “required but rarely permitted.”
The Institute’s strict and unchanging lessons satirize the education system by pointing out the undue emphasis on rote memorization and the hypocrisy of requiring “but rarely permit[ting]” class participation. In this way, the Institute––and by extension, the education system––functions as a tool to perpetuate the dominant authority’s control.
Themes
Reynie and Sticky have been earning perfect scores, but Kate and Constance are struggling academically. The four are in a class taught by S.Q. Pedalian and a Messenger, Martina Crowe, when Jackson arrives and calls two Messengers out of class. In this same class, Reynie also recognizes the two children he thought had been kidnapped, and he is surprised to find that they look purposeful and happy. He chastises himself for jumping to conclusions, and he concludes that he must be getting everything wrong.
The two children’s newfound happiness hints that the Institute has more secrets that the Mysterious Benedict Society has yet to uncover. Reynie is embarrassed that he jumped to conclusions, but he then jumps to the conclusion that he has gotten everything wrong. He is building some confidence as a leader, but he still struggles with insecurity and self-doubt.
Themes
S.Q. asks Reynie and Sticky to stay after class. They exchange a nervous look, worried that they are expected of something, and Martina hisses at them angrily as she leaves. S.Q. tells the boys (tripping over his words as he does) that he is amazed by their performance. He congratulates them, and Reynie asks about the two other new students. S.Q. explains that they are “special recruits” who get extra encouragement to become top students; Jackson and Jillson were special recruits themselves. When Sticky asks what makes special recruits special, S.Q. chokes on his words and avoids answering.
S.Q. is the kindest but least competent of Mr. Curtain’s Executives, which makes him a good source of information, since he is less skillful at deception than his peers. He cannot think of an appropriate lie to explain the special recruits, so he avoids answering. However, his nervous response indicates that the true answer is significant.
Themes
Reynie asks why Martina is so angry at them, and S.Q. laughs that their perfect scores are showing her up. There are only a limited number of jobs for Messengers, so if a Messenger falls behind, they might lose their role. This happened to S.Q. several times when he was a Messenger. Reynie mentally notes that they will have to watch out for Martina.
Another method by which Mr. Curtain controls his students is by pitting them against each other. By establishing the role of Messenger as coveted and limited, he has indirectly made Martina an enemy of the Mysterious Benedict Society.
Themes
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