The Knife of Never Letting Go

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2008

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Download PDF

Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

The Knife

Todd carries the knife throughout the novel. He originally gets it from Ben when he sends Todd out of Prentisstown. Immediately, the knife assumes ominous connotations. If used, it will always be an instrument of violence.

Todd thinks that, “A knife ain’t just a thing…It’s a choice, it’s something you do. A knife says yes or no, cut or not, die or don’t. A knife takes a decision out of your hand and puts it in the world and it never goes back again” (84).

The knife represents several things, depending on how people use it. As the mayor tells Davy, “A knife is only as good as the one who wields it” (258). Until Todd uses it to kill the Spackle, the knife symbolizes Todd’s innocence and impending growth. After he kills the Spackle, the knife is a symbol of his guilt, rage, and coming of age as a killer. At the end of the novel, Viola kills Aaron with the knife, saving their lives.

Noise

Noise is the name people on New World give to other peoples’ thoughts. Noise symbolizes the absence of privacy on New World, the consequences of information overload, and the chaotic nature of the human mind.

Todd thinks, “The lesson of forever and ever is that knowing a man’s mind ain’t knowing the man” (308). The men’s thoughts simply broadcast the temporary contents of their consciousness. Everyone’s thoughts are scattered, surreal, and often lacking a logical sequence. Because thoughts tend to become actions, Noise can betray men’s motives. As Ben tells Todd, “Knowledge is dangerous” (51).

Men can’t hear the Noise of women. The men in Prentisstown find this so intolerable that they kill the women and become the pariahs of New World. In this case, Noise symbolizes the Prentisstown men’s insecurity. They do not want their women to know them better than they can know the women.

The Journal

Todd never knew his mother. Her journal is a link between them. However, Todd can’t read well, so Viola reads it to him. The journal symbolizes knowledge that is not contained solely in people’s minds. It is thinking committed to paper, and a more concrete version of truth than the constant barrage of erratic thoughts.

The Mayor goes to great lengths to suppress literacy in Prentisstown. Through the burning of books and limits on schooling, he controls people’s abilities to learn new information. The journal symbolizes a time when writing and reading were not forbidden and when one’s private thoughts could be committed to paper.

The journal also symbolizes the optimism of the settlers on New World. She wrote of a world of wonders and of the opportunities that awaited Todd. There is a vast difference between her optimism and the version of New World that Todd inhabits.

Haven

A haven is defined as a safe place of refuge, or a sanctuary. In the novel, Haven is also a city where there is a cure for Noise. If the rumors are true, the nature of Haven would be both metaphorical and literal from Todd and Viola’s perspectives. If there is a cure for Noise, then Haven is a refuge from Noise. If it is as big as the rumors say, then Haven should be safe from the army of Prentisstown.

Todd and Viola spend most of the story fleeing. Haven, whether real or not, symbolizes hope and direction. However, Haven is abandoned when they arrive, and then taken over by Mayor Prentiss, who plans on using it as a staging ground for larger takeovers. In that moment, Haven becomes another symbol of false hope and disappointment. It is a Haven for the Mayor and his ambitions, not for the people who fight him.

Choices

The ability to make sound decisions is a common motif in the coming-of-age plot type. Here, the characters in the novel face difficult choices, usually with little time to ponder the consequences. Ben and Cillian have to rush Todd out of the house when he returns from the swamp, with no time to explain. Viola chooses to come with Todd. Todd makes the choice to spare Aaron more than once, no matter how badly he threatens them.

Chapter 8 is called “The Choices of a Knife (66). When Matthew attacks him, Todd uses the knife to cut the silage rolls and escape. But when faced with the Spackle, Todd chooses to use the knife to kill. Todd chooses to kill the Spackle. He lets Aaron kill Manchee, choosing to save Viola instead.