Tomorrow, When the War Began

by

John Marsden

The Hermit / Bertram Christie Character Analysis

A man who local Australian legend claims lived alone in the remote bush that Ellie and her friends know as Hell. According to legend, the Hermit killed his wife and family in cold blood, and he retreated to the bush when the district rejected him and his evil act. However, when Ellie and the others hide out in Hell after the war breaks out, Ellie finds the Hermit’s hut, and his personal papers suggest another story entirely. The papers Ellie and Lee find in the hut imply that the Hermit killed his family because they had been badly burned in a fire, and their remote location in the bush meant that getting medical attention in time was impossible. The Hermit’s family was dying and suffering, so he killed them out of love to put them out of their misery. The Hermit’s story proves that it is possible to do evil acts—or acts that are traditionally seen as evil—out of love, and he makes Ellie examine morality in an entirely different light. Because of the Hermit, Ellie learns that Hell isn’t just a biblical place—it can also be a type of self-imposed punishment. The Hermit would have been in Hell wherever he was, just as Ellie is in Hell wherever she goes because the war has forced her to kill and carry that emotional and moral burden with her. The Hermit also underscores the limitations of storytelling, especially legends, and highlights the importance of leaving a written record. Without the records found in the Hermit’s hut, Ellie and the others wouldn’t know the truth about his story, which fuels the group’s desire to record their own story.

The Hermit / Bertram Christie Quotes in Tomorrow, When the War Began

The Tomorrow, When the War Began quotes below are all either spoken by The Hermit / Bertram Christie or refer to The Hermit / Bertram Christie. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
War, Law, and Morality Theme Icon
).
Chapter 4 Quotes

I went for a walk back up the track, to the last of Satan’s Steps. The sun had already warmed the great granite wall and I leaned against it with my eyes half shut, thinking about our hike, and the path and the man who’d built it, and this place called Hell. “Why did people call it Hell?” I wondered. All those cliffs and rocks, and that vegetation, it did look wild. But wild wasn’t Hell. Wild was fascinating, difficult, wonderful. No place was Hell, no place could be Hell. It’s the people calling it Hell, that’s the only thing that made it so. People just sticking names on places, so that no one could see those places properly any more. Every time they looked at them or thought about them the first thing they saw was a huge big sign saying “Housing Commission” or “private school” or “church” or “mosque” or “synagogue.” They stopped looking once they saw those signs.

Related Characters: Ellie (speaker), Homer, Fiona, The Hermit / Bertram Christie
Related Symbols: Hell
Page Number: 43-44
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16 Quotes

Only humans knew about Hell; they were the experts on it. I remembered wondering if humans were Hell. The Hermit for instance; whatever had happened that terrible Christmas Eve, whether he’d committed an act of great love, or an act of great evil... But that was the whole problem, that as a human being he could have done either and he could have done both. Other creatures didn’t have this problem. They just did what they did. I didn’t know if the Hermit was a saint or a devil, but once he’d fired those two shots it seemed that he and the people round him had sent him into Hell. They sent him there and he sent himself there. He didn’t have to trek all the way across to these mountains into this wild basin of heat and rock and bush. He carried Hell with him, as we all did, like a little load on our backs that we hardly noticed most of the time, or like a huge great hump of suffering that bent us over with its weight.

Related Characters: Ellie (speaker), The Hermit / Bertram Christie
Related Symbols: Hell
Page Number: 215-216
Explanation and Analysis:

I too had blood on my hands, like the Hermit, and just as I couldn’t tell whether his actions were good or bad, so too I couldn’t tell what mine were. Had I killed out of love of my friends, as part of a noble crusade to rescue friends and family and keep our land free? Or had I killed because I valued my life above that of others? Would it be OK for me to kill a dozen others to keep myself alive? A hundred? A thousand? At what point did I condemn myself to Hell, if I hadn’t already done so? The Bible just said “Thou shalt not kill,” then told hundreds of stories of people killing each other and becoming heroes, like David with Goliath. That didn’t help me much.

Related Characters: Ellie (speaker), The Hermit / Bertram Christie
Related Symbols: Hell
Page Number: 216
Explanation and Analysis:
Epilogue Quotes

We’ve got to stick together, that’s all I know. We all drive each other crazy at times, but I don’t want to end up here alone, like the Hermit. Then this really would be Hell. Humans do such terrible things to each other that sometimes my brain tells me they must be evil. But my heart still isn’t convinced. I just hope we can survive.

Related Characters: Ellie (speaker), Homer, Lee, Fiona, The Hermit / Bertram Christie, Robyn, Chris
Related Symbols: Hell
Page Number: 284
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Hermit / Bertram Christie Quotes in Tomorrow, When the War Began

The Tomorrow, When the War Began quotes below are all either spoken by The Hermit / Bertram Christie or refer to The Hermit / Bertram Christie. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
War, Law, and Morality Theme Icon
).
Chapter 4 Quotes

I went for a walk back up the track, to the last of Satan’s Steps. The sun had already warmed the great granite wall and I leaned against it with my eyes half shut, thinking about our hike, and the path and the man who’d built it, and this place called Hell. “Why did people call it Hell?” I wondered. All those cliffs and rocks, and that vegetation, it did look wild. But wild wasn’t Hell. Wild was fascinating, difficult, wonderful. No place was Hell, no place could be Hell. It’s the people calling it Hell, that’s the only thing that made it so. People just sticking names on places, so that no one could see those places properly any more. Every time they looked at them or thought about them the first thing they saw was a huge big sign saying “Housing Commission” or “private school” or “church” or “mosque” or “synagogue.” They stopped looking once they saw those signs.

Related Characters: Ellie (speaker), Homer, Fiona, The Hermit / Bertram Christie
Related Symbols: Hell
Page Number: 43-44
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 16 Quotes

Only humans knew about Hell; they were the experts on it. I remembered wondering if humans were Hell. The Hermit for instance; whatever had happened that terrible Christmas Eve, whether he’d committed an act of great love, or an act of great evil... But that was the whole problem, that as a human being he could have done either and he could have done both. Other creatures didn’t have this problem. They just did what they did. I didn’t know if the Hermit was a saint or a devil, but once he’d fired those two shots it seemed that he and the people round him had sent him into Hell. They sent him there and he sent himself there. He didn’t have to trek all the way across to these mountains into this wild basin of heat and rock and bush. He carried Hell with him, as we all did, like a little load on our backs that we hardly noticed most of the time, or like a huge great hump of suffering that bent us over with its weight.

Related Characters: Ellie (speaker), The Hermit / Bertram Christie
Related Symbols: Hell
Page Number: 215-216
Explanation and Analysis:

I too had blood on my hands, like the Hermit, and just as I couldn’t tell whether his actions were good or bad, so too I couldn’t tell what mine were. Had I killed out of love of my friends, as part of a noble crusade to rescue friends and family and keep our land free? Or had I killed because I valued my life above that of others? Would it be OK for me to kill a dozen others to keep myself alive? A hundred? A thousand? At what point did I condemn myself to Hell, if I hadn’t already done so? The Bible just said “Thou shalt not kill,” then told hundreds of stories of people killing each other and becoming heroes, like David with Goliath. That didn’t help me much.

Related Characters: Ellie (speaker), The Hermit / Bertram Christie
Related Symbols: Hell
Page Number: 216
Explanation and Analysis:
Epilogue Quotes

We’ve got to stick together, that’s all I know. We all drive each other crazy at times, but I don’t want to end up here alone, like the Hermit. Then this really would be Hell. Humans do such terrible things to each other that sometimes my brain tells me they must be evil. But my heart still isn’t convinced. I just hope we can survive.

Related Characters: Ellie (speaker), Homer, Lee, Fiona, The Hermit / Bertram Christie, Robyn, Chris
Related Symbols: Hell
Page Number: 284
Explanation and Analysis: