The Chaos Walking Trilogy - Patrick Ness
1. The Knife of Never Letting Go
2. The Ask and the Answer
3. Monsters of Men
This is the third time that I have read this trilogy of
books and every time I am amazed by how well written they are. They fulfill my
requirements of a classic by containing both exceptional storytelling and
literary devices, raising them a cut above most, if not all, other Young Adult
trilogies out there.
Each novel is unique and yet part of a larger whole. Each
story has a different overarching struggle and a different prevailing theme.
Yet all the novels are cohesive in their overall message and thought.
The stories take place on a newly settled world where men’s thoughts are openly projected as “Noise” that everyone else can see and hear. Due to this, the books make a large commentary on information and the effects that widespread information can have on people.
In the first book, “The Knife of Never Letting Go,” the main
character, Todd, begins in a small town called Prentisstown thinking it is the
last town. All the women have died due to the “Noise” germ and he is the last
boy, soon to become a man under the direction of Mayor Prentiss. Then he
discovers a “hole” in the noise, a girl, deep in the nearby swamp and soon he
is running for his life with the girl Viola trying to reach Haven, the largest
settlement where they may finally be free from the Mayor and his army of men.
“The Knife of Never Letting Go” is a Journey novel. The
characters begin in one place and aim to end up in another – “Haven” which is,
by its name and in-novel connections, a symbol for Heaven. It is a story about
Sin and redemption from Sin. Todd is not a perfect character by any means, but
he is trying to do his best with his limited knowledge. This is a story about
transforming choices. All throughout the book Todd has a knife that he uses
and, as he himself says, “a knife is a choice.” Our choices can be used for
good or for ill. It is a story about understanding – Todd and Viola seek to
understand one another throughout the course of the novel as they are running
for their lives. They seek to understand the people around them and the strange
new world they are a part of. It is a story about Hope – belief that everything
will be alright in the end, despite their worries and the struggles and the
combination of people and circumstance seeking to destroy them. And finally, it
is a story about the importance of understanding the true past. Although Todd
believes that he knows what is going on at the beginning, bit by bit, the past
is revealed along with the reasons for their struggles Indeed, throughout the
following novels the past and what has really happened continues to play an
important role. All of these elements are applicable to us in our own lives on
our own journeys. And of course, the ending throws us for a loop and forces us
on to the next book.
The Ask in the Answer splits perspectives into two: Todd and
Viola. The author does an excellent job of distinguishing viewpoints and making
each character voice unique and convincing. The principle struggle of the book
is the struggle to trust each other when you’re apart for so long. Todd and
Viola are separated in Haven, New Prentisstown, a town they looked to for hope
and found instead the Mayor. With Todd forced to be by the Mayor and Viola soon
taken in by a rebel group call “The Answer” they are both faced with difficult
circumstances and choices.
And that is the first theme here: how do we make choices in
difficult situations? situations where there are no clear easy paths to do
right? Todd and Viola can’t trust the people they are forced to be with, but
neither do they have the option to just leave. In each group, there is large
pressure to conform to certain ideals – ideals that aren’t good for Todd or Viola. How can we maintain our own identity when we are, basically, forced to
be someone else? Because of what the two groups do and represent, Todd and
Viola sometimes struggle to trust each other. Another theme in this book is
trust: it’s strengths and weaknesses. It is at the same time the greatest bond
and at the same time others can use it against you with more nefarious
purposes. Which leads to the final large theme I can see in this book: the
craftiness of the Devil. There is no doubt in my mind that the Mayor represents
the Devil. But he is not the clearly evil Devil of children’s fairytales. He is
much more like how Satan himself must be – convincing in his desire to do what
is best, getting others to do the more obvious dirty work while keeping his own
hands clean, honestly making you doubt his evilness even as everything around
him seems to go to hell. None of these books are preachy, but you get the sense
that the author has the purpose of helping us understand how truly difficult it
can be to tell between right and wrong.
Finally, the last book, pure and simple, is about war. The
title “Monsters of Men” comes from a quote in the 1st book where Ben, a father
figure to Todd, says that “war makes monsters of men.” There is a continuous
war in this book between the settlers and the “Spackle,” the native species to
the planet that we have known about from the 1st book. In fact, there is a
third narrator in the book from the perspective of a Spackle character we met
in the 2nd book. Again, the author excellently distinguishes between his
narrators in such a way that each adds their own unmistakable voice to the
action of the story.
Similar themes crop up in this book as in the last couple.
Trust is still a major point as is the possibility of redemption from past
wrongs. How bad does someone have to be before they are irredeemable? An
obvious theme that the book has is that of the effects of war on all those
involved. The largest theme that leaps out to me, perhaps because of the way
that I read the novels, it that of choosing to become like Christ or to become
like Satan. As I’ve stated earlier, the Mayor is a type of Satan. On the other
hand, Ben, Todd’s aforementioned father-figure who has been largely absent
since the 1st book, is a type of Christ. Neither of these things are explicitly
stated, but all the literary clues are there. Whereas the Mayor represents
lies, destruction, war, chaos, deception, close-mindedness, and control over
others, Ben reenters the story as the voice of reason, peace, cooperation,
forgiveness, hope, freedom, and honesty. Several times in the story Mayor has
wanted to turn Todd into his son and has slowly and deceptively been trying to
turn Todd into a copy of himself, but in the end, Todd must choose whether he
wants to become like the Mayor or like Ben. But considering all that Todd has
done, you wonder what will happen. Part of the struggle between these two
figures is their reaction to the “Noise” of the world, a device that not only
furthers the story, but also plays its own role as a symbol for all the
information we are bombarded with in this day and age. The Mayor seeks to close
himself off from the information or use it to control others. He hides his
thoughts in the dark where none can hear or see. All the information drives him
mad with the desire to end it all. On the other hand Ben opens his noise,
surrounds them in loving ways, accepts the information and becomes one with it.
He is without guile and uses his Noise to help others. And so we can also see
the two ways of reacting to information.
In conclusion to this essay/review of sorts, I declare the
Chaos Walking Trilogy to be a classic for me at least. The symbols contained
therein teach me and help me reflect on things in my own life. And at the same
time, the story itself is compelling. Even if you see none of the themes and
symbols that I see when I read the book, this book makes you laugh, cry, doubt,
and wonder. You become frustrated at times and you sigh relief at others. In
short, this series has great story and literary value. If you have not read
this series before, or started and then stopped, you have missed out. Go out to
the library or the bookstore and read these books. That is all.
