Theodore Savage · Chapter
XIX explained
Theodore is formally accepted into the tribe in a night ceremony.
What happens
Theodore is formally accepted into the tribe in a night ceremony. He is assigned a hut site and given tools, and he and another tribesman plan to retrieve his winter food store. During the ritual, he swears oaths of loyalty to the community and renounces all forbidden knowledge, cutting himself off from his past. The women observe but have no voice in the proceedings. Theodore reflects on the loss of civilization and the echoes of ancient rituals.
Themes in this chapter
Social Regression and Myth-Making
The tribe's ritual, with its feudal and biblical echoes, demonstrates the reversion to archaic social structures and the creation of new traditions.
Knowledge and Ignorance
The oath explicitly renounces 'devil's knowledge' and forbids inquiry into the secrets of nature, institutionalizing ignorance as a virtue.
Gender and Dependence
Women are excluded from the ceremony's voting or assent, relegated to observers, highlighting their subordinate role in the tribe.
Characters to notice
- Theodore Savage
Undergoes the formal acceptance ceremony, swears oaths of loyalty and renunciation of knowledge, and begins building a hut for himself and Ada.
- Ada Cartwright
Mentioned as Theodore's wife; she is not present at the ceremony but is referenced in the context of the hut being built for them.
Key passages
“The actual and formal ceremony of his acceptance into the little community took place after night had fallen; deferred to that hour in part because, with nightfall, the day’s labour ceased and the fishermen and snarers of birds had returned to their dwelling-place—and in part because darkness, lit only by the glow of torches and wood fires, lent an added solemnity to the rite.”
The formal acceptance ceremony was held at night, both because the day's work was done and because the darkness and firelight made the event more solemn.
Sets the scene for the ritual, emphasizing the practical and symbolic reasons for the timing.
“As in days long past—(so Theodore remembered)—the overlord, the suzerain, had taken the hands of his vassal. … Did he remember—this latter-day barbarian—the ritual of chivalry, the feudal customs of Capet, Hohenstaufen and Plantagenet? Or was his imitation of their lordly rite unconscious?”
Theodore recalls feudal hand-taking rituals and wonders if the headman is consciously imitating medieval customs or if the similarity is accidental.
Highlights the theme of social regression and the unconscious repetition of historical forms.
“Written pages and the stonework of churches might perish, but the word that was spoken endured.”
Although books and buildings are destroyed, spoken language and oral tradition survive.
Reflects on the persistence of oral culture after the collapse of written civilization.
“I do swear and take oath that I will purify my heart of that which is forbidden, that I will renounce and drive out all memory of the learning which it is not meant for me, who am sinful man, to know.”
Theodore vows to cleanse himself of forbidden knowledge and forget all learning considered sinful for humans.
Central to the theme of knowledge and ignorance, institutionalizing the taboo against intellect.