Riddley Walker

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1980

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.

Download PDF

Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-12

Chapters 13-15

Chapters 16-18

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Puppets

Puppets possess symbolic value not only in the broader scope of the text, but also for the characters in the novel. The puppets are broadly based on the traditional British characters of Punch and Judy, a show in which a male puppet interacts with other characters. The shows are typically violent and slapstick, generating comedy from the various ways in which Punch attacks and is attacked by the other characters. For the characters in Riddley Walker, however, the puppet shows are the only form of culture. The traditionally silly and outdated shows become an important vehicle for ideology and entertainment. The Ram uses the shows to teach the population about new ideas, while the population is emotionally invested in the shows because it has no books, movies, or other forms of entertainment. For the characters, the shows symbolize a powerful cultural force and a social activity which cannot be matched.

The physical qualities of the puppets also have symbolic meaning. The Mr. Clevver puppet is described like the traditional Christian devil, as a red man with horns, while the Punch figure which Riddley finds has a hunchback. Mr. Clevver’s devilish appearance is a symbolic reminder of who caused the war which destroyed society, while Punch’s disfigurement is a symbol of the way in which an irradiated society treats mutation and disfigurement with contempt. The physical appearances of the puppets symbolize the society’s values and fears.

For the audience, the disparity between the reality of the puppets and the characters’ views of the puppets has an important symbolic meaning. The different ways in which the puppets are viewed symbolizes the disconnect between Riddley’s era and the 20th century. A form of entertainment which is considered old fashioned, kitsch, and irrelevant is turned into the most important cultural event in the post-apocalyptic world. The difference in views symbolizes how much the world has changed, highlighting how much has been either lost or misinterpreted by the passage of time. The puppets are a reminder to the audience that the relics of the past that seem so familiar in the present day are viewed entirely differently by a society which has been scarred and reshaped by a traumatic nuclear war.

The Weather

Riddley’s world is constantly caught in a rainstorm. The rain pours down every day and the somber mood matches the events of the book. By using this literary technique, named pathetic fallacy, the emotional state of the characters is reflected in their environment. A miserable world of death and struggle is matched by a perpetual storm in which everything is damp, muddy, and unable to stay warm for very long. The grim weather is a symbol of the pain and suffering characters like Riddley endure; just as Riddley experiences no real moments of happiness, he is never able to escape the constant drizzle which falls all over Inland.

People share memories of their past in which the weather was better. The use of sunny weather in recollections of the past symbolizes the comforting effects of nostalgia. When sharing memories of better times, the characters make sure to point out how the sun was shining. They are able to envision a time when their lives were better, and the weather was better as well. The warmth of the sun and the warmth of the memories combine into a single moment of nostalgic bliss and the characters enjoy the emotion of their memories just as much as their memories of the improved weather.

The weather is also a symbol of the lingering effects of the nuclear war. Even though society has collapsed, humanity still retains many fundamental traits, such as destructive ambition and a propensity for violence. These traits endure and are exacerbated by the fallout of the war in the same way that the typical English weather endures and is exacerbated by the destruction of the environment. Rising sea levels cut Inland off from the rest of the United Kingdom and indicate that the physical world has been altered by the nuclear bombs. However, regular grey skies and rain are not unfamiliar to residents of the south of England. As much as the physical world is reshaped, a great deal stays the same. The weather is wetter, greyer, and constant in the future, symbolizing the way in which the people of Inland retain a link to their forebears even as everything becomes worse.

The Ruins of the Old World

Riddley and his peers are surrounded by the ruined buildings of the old world. The society destroyed by the nuclear war is found everywhere, in the form of deserted ghost towns, giant cathedrals, and machines buried beneath the mud. These relics of the past are constant reminders of the stark difference between what humans could once achieve and the limited capabilities of the people of Inland. The symbolic power of these ruins applies to the characters and the audience: The characters must live in the shadow of humanity’s previous accomplishments, knowing that they will never be able to achieve a fraction of what was once possible, while the audience is reminded of how far humanity has fallen in the aftermath of a destructive war. The ruins function as symbols of the discrepancy between the old and the new.

The characters who exist among the ruins also feel the perpetual frustration of their technological limitations. Every time they dig up a new machine, they look inside and find cogs and wiring which mean nothing to them. When a document is discovered, they have to invent explanations and interpretations which the audience knows to be untrue, while the Eusa plays incorporate the ruins of the old world in misguided and incorrect ways.

The ruins are symbols of the characters’ desperate attempts to make sense of a terrible reality. Every abandoned building, every mysterious machine, and every illegible document is a potent reminder of what has been lost, so the characters impose their interpretations on each of these items to alleviate their frustration. They view the Punch and Judy characters as the dominant mode of culture, they wildly misinterpret a description of a painting, and they get many basic facts about history wrong. The characters resent their technical limitations, and the stories they invent to explain the ruins are symbolic attempts to reclaim authority over a world they do not understand. For every ruin and relic, the characters have an incorrect explanation. Each incorrect explanation for each ruin is a symbolic reminder of their desire to control a world in a way they know is possible, but in a wholly knowledgeable they cannot logically aspire to.