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Chapter 20
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
Mr. Curtain sits in his usual place in the plaza when Reynie approaches him. He explains that he has noticed Mr. Curtain’s journal has many dog-eared pages, so Reynie offers him several bookmarks. He waits for Mr. Curtain to put them into the book. Mr. Curtain finds Reynie a nuisance, “and yet the nuisance had flattered him,” so he puts the bookmarks in the journal. Before Reynie leaves, he asks why Mr. Curtain is always staring into the distance on the plaza. Mr. Curtain says that he is looking at his proudest accomplishment, the turbines, which he considers a remarkable achievement and a continuation of Holland’s history of controlling the sea. Reynie is struck by Mr. Curtain’s vanity.
Mr. Curtain considers himself a master of controlling the world around him. He even believes that he has conquered the sea itself with his turbines. He is blind, however, to Reynie’s ability to control him. Reynie easily assesses that Mr. Curtain is susceptible to flattery, and although Mr. Curtain thinks of children as inferior nuisances, Reynie’s judgment proves correct: he can control Mr. Curtain by telling the man what he wants to hear.
Themes
Reynie hurries back to his friends on the hilltop. Constance has been keeping watch, surprisingly doing what the others asked her to do. Hidden behind a cactus, Kate is on her hands and knees, and Sticky stands on her back, peering through her spyglass. He has been watching Mr. Curtain turn the pages in his journal, though Sticky is only able to make out portions of each page. He can’t tell if the contents are useful yet, because he hasn’t thought about them––“there’s a difference between remembering and thinking,” he says. The group is interrupted by Jackson, who threatens to take Kate to the Waiting Room unless she gives him the spyglass. She relents, but he thinks the device is simply a kaleidoscope.
Once again, the Mysterious Benedict Society has worked out a strategy to utilize each member of the team. While Constance keeps watch and Reynie uses his connection to Mr. Curtain, Kate’s strength provides a sturdy foundation for Sticky to spy from. Sticky clarifies that his intelligence and his photographic memory are different skills; he is gifted in both areas, but he is only confident in his memory, since that comes naturally and requires little active input from him. The spyglass’s disguise proves useful when Jackson confiscates it and believes it to be a kaleidoscope, in yet another instance of the children employing deception for their own ends.
Themes
Later, Sticky tries to reproduce what he saw in Mr. Curtain’s journal. The passages reveal that Mr. Curtain believes humans are driven by fear, and he hopes to make use of this. He has concluded that perfect control is impossible, but the illusion of perfect control can be just as effective. He refers to memory-wiping as “brainsweeping,” and notes that trigger objects can cause relapses of memory. An entry dated the day of the children’s arrival notes that the Helpers have increased the power of the turbines to prepare for the Improvement. The last entry is a list of slogan ideas promoting Mr. Curtain, though the children don’t know its purpose. They report their findings to Mr. Benedict and go to bed, pleased that they are making progress.
Mr. Curtain views the world through a cynical lens. He believes that people make choices based on fear, not hope, and he aims to manipulate those fears. He recognizes that his desire for complete control is impossible, but he is satisfied with the appearance of control. Mr. Curtain thinks that the appearance of control is effective enough to grant him genuine authority, which speaks to his warped perception of deception and truth. In his view, if a deception is powerful enough, it becomes truth.
Themes
