Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Mysterious Benedict Society, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Confidence and Growing Up
Deception vs. Truth
Loneliness vs. Friendship
Control vs. Freedom
Hope
Summary
Analysis
Reynie has a nightmare about leaving his friends behind to join Mr. Curtain. He spends the day worrying about the evening’s Mysterious Benedict Society meeting, since he knows his friends will look to him for a plan, and he doesn’t have one. When the meeting comes, Kate looks to him for a plan. Reynie admits he doesn’t have a plan beyond disabling the Whisperer, but Kate happily seizes that idea as a good plan itself. She points out that despite Mr. Curtain’s security, the Whisperer’s computers must have an access point. Kate offers to look for this herself, and Sticky has to restrain himself from lying to protect the Whisperer. He is ashamed of himself, and he manages to give her directions to the computers.
Reynie continues to feel the burden of leadership, to the point that he dreads seeing his friends because he knows they will seek his guidance. His friends do expect leadership from Reynie, but Kate’s response makes clear that the group’s expectations of Reynie are not as high as his own. Like Reynie, Sticky struggles to resist the Whisperer, and he shares Reynie’s shame. Neither boy is willing to voice this shame, leaving them alone in their suffering. The boys are distracted enough to let Kate indulge in her desire to prove her independence.
Themes
Reynie doesn’t want to let Kate go alone, but she insists, and he doesn’t argue. He is “tired, very tired, of always trying to do the right thing.” Constance says that if Kate gets caught, they will find a way to save her, and the others are moved by this. The girls head out of the dorm, leaving Sticky and Reynie in silence as they both try to hide how much the Whisperer is affecting them. Reynie feels like a traitor for not insisting he accompany Kate. He writes a mental letter to Miss Perumal expressing his fear that he is too weak to resist the Whisperer’s false happiness. He worries that he is not who he thought himself to be; he’d never expected doing the right thing to be difficult. It is especially hard as the group’s leader. The others look to him for help, but who can Reynie look to?
As the scope of Mr. Curtain’s plan comes to light and the fight against him seems impossible, Reynie starts to lose hope. He loses hope in both the mission and himself, and this lack of hope leads him to give in to his exhaustion. He recognizes that the happiness offered by the Whisperer is false, and his craving for it forces him to doubt his morality. Sticky and Reynie both hide their difficulties with the Whisperer, leaving each boy alone to contend with his struggle. Reynie has been lonely all his life, and falling back into this state only pushes him further into despair and hopelessness.
Themes
Reynie hopes that Mr. Benedict will provide the encouragement he needs. He sends a Morse message to the mainland asking for advice on resisting the Whisperer. Minutes pass with no response, and Reynie almost gives up hope before Mr. Benedict signals back, “Remember the white knight.” Reynie recalls his conversation with Mr. Benedict about the chess player who makes a bad move because he doubts himself. Reynie calms down, returns to bed, and imagines throwing away the note he’s written Miss Perumal. He will write a different one.
Reynie is a capable boy and the leader of his friends, but when his hopelessness overcomes him, he needs the guidance of an adult. He turns to Mr. Benedict, and despite the distance between them, Mr. Benedict helps Reynie as best he can. His reminder about the white knight urges Reynie to have faith in himself. Reynie takes this message to heart, and his decision to start new mental letter to Miss Perumal indicates that he intends to look at the situation differently.
Themes
