Chapter One: Summary
The novel, The Knife of Never Letting Go, by Patrick Ness tells the story of a young boy named Todd who finds out not everything is as it seems in his small little town. Todd was taught that when they immigrated to this new world women were killed by a disease floating in the air, while the men and animals survived, but at a cost- anyone could read their thoughts. Since Todd’s mother has died, he is raised by two men named Ben and Cillian and Todd is slowly counting the days when he becomes a man, which you become at the age of 13. The story starts with Todd doing his daily chores collecting apples in the swamp with his dog Manchee when he finds something extremely odd. A place where he can hear no one’s thoughts. No animals, …show more content…
However, although that is the book’s plot and what it focuses on, it also includes subtle messages to the reader. In the Knife of Never Letting Go, Patrick Ness tests the theme that you shouldn’t believe everything so easily.
An early example of the theme occurs when Todd finds an open space of silence in the swamp. Even though Todd was taught his entire life no matter where he was he would always hear some time of animal’s thoughts, there was an area where this wasn’t true. This shows the theme that you shouldn’t believe everything so easily because Todd was ignorant and hung on every word that people told him, yet it turned out not to be true.
Another section in the story where the text stays true to the theme is when Ben tells Todd that the men in Prentisstown killed all the women, namely because the fact that the women could read the men’s thoughts but the men couldn’t read theirs drove the men crazy. It is then that the theme is shown again, when Todd realizes he was wrong to believe that the women in Prentisstown died naturally so easily. Furthermore, when Todd and Viola run into Aaron, Todd finds out Aaron is the sacrifice and that Aaron never thought of sacrificing the girl which Todd just naturally
The novel, The Knife of Never Letting Go, by Patrick Ness tells the story of a young boy named Todd who finds out not everything is as it seems in his small little town. Todd was taught that when they immigrated to this new world women were killed by a disease floating in the air, while the men and animals survived, but at a cost- anyone could read their thoughts. Since Todd’s mother has died, he is raised by two men named Ben and Cillian and Todd is slowly counting the days when he becomes a man, which you become at the age of 13. The story starts with Todd doing his daily chores collecting apples in the swamp with his dog Manchee when he finds something extremely odd. A place where he can hear no one’s thoughts. No animals, …show more content…
However, although that is the book’s plot and what it focuses on, it also includes subtle messages to the reader. In the Knife of Never Letting Go, Patrick Ness tests the theme that you shouldn’t believe everything so easily.
An early example of the theme occurs when Todd finds an open space of silence in the swamp. Even though Todd was taught his entire life no matter where he was he would always hear some time of animal’s thoughts, there was an area where this wasn’t true. This shows the theme that you shouldn’t believe everything so easily because Todd was ignorant and hung on every word that people told him, yet it turned out not to be true.
Another section in the story where the text stays true to the theme is when Ben tells Todd that the men in Prentisstown killed all the women, namely because the fact that the women could read the men’s thoughts but the men couldn’t read theirs drove the men crazy. It is then that the theme is shown again, when Todd realizes he was wrong to believe that the women in Prentisstown died naturally so easily. Furthermore, when Todd and Viola run into Aaron, Todd finds out Aaron is the sacrifice and that Aaron never thought of sacrificing the girl which Todd just naturally