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
Kate sleeps poorly that night as she thinks about Milligan’s sacrifice. She is further irritated by a honking from the mainland, until she realizes the noise is Morse code. She gets up and tries to decipher it. Kate is not as good at Morse code as her friends, so it takes a few tries, but she figures out that Reynie and Sticky are calling her and Constance to the flag tower. Kate hurries to get dressed, but Constance refuses to get out of bed. Kate considers leaving Constance behind, but Mr. Benedict’s plan called for all four of them. Kate refuses to be the one to ruin the plan, so she shakes Constance awake and carries her outside.
Kate is confronted with a situation in which she could prove her independent capabilities once and for all. Instead, however, she recalls Mr. Benedict’s insistence on teamwork. She puts aside pride and convenience and brings Constance with her.
Themes
Kate reaches the flag tower, which houses the Whispering Gallery. She enters the secret passage, only to find her path blocked by Martina Crowe. Kate turns and runs away, leaving Martina confused. Jillson joins Martina, and both Executives are suspicious. Martina identifies the distant beeping as Morse code, and the two hurry to Mr. Curtain’s office to decode it with a code book. They realize Kate and Constance are spies.
Jillson and Martina prove that they are more than simple-minded lackeys of Mr. Curtain. They lack the widespread knowledge of a child like Sticky, as they need to find a book of Morse code to decipher the message, but they are intelligent enough to recognize the beeping as Morse code and to decode it with a book. Mr. Curtain believes children possess inferior intellects, but his plans depend on capable young people in order to succeed.
Themes
Kate and Constance steal a ladder to climb up the flag tower. The Morse code message stops, but the Executives are already on alert, and two of them emerge to watch Kate and Constance run. Constance is getting tired, so Kate straps the ladder to her belt, puts Constance on her back, and runs faster than she thought possible to the Institute Control Building. They reach the building, but the two Executives (one of whom is S.Q.) catch up to them, and Martina, Jackson, and Jillson run out of the building toward them. Kate keeps running up a hill, but once she reaches a stone wall, Kate drops her bucket. Kate can’t stand to lose the bucket, so she runs back for it, giving up her head start.
Kate has made progress in recognizing her stubborn need to prove her self-reliance as a flaw. She has not entirely overcome this need, though, and she jeopardizes the safety of herself and Constance to retrieve her bucket. Kate’s bucket represents her unyielding independence, and she is too attached to that ideal to let the bucket fall.
Themes
Once she retrieves her bucket, Kate starts to climb the ladder with Constance still on her back. They climb over the wall, but Jackson is almost at the top of the ladder. Kate uses her bucket to scoop up enough water to weigh it down, and then she drops the bucket onto Jackson. She lassos the flagpole and starts climbing up with Constance. Martina is right behind them, and when Kate reaches the top of the pole, she sees Martina moving too fast for Kate to pull Constance out of reach. Kate understands that the plan requires all four of the team, and Constance can’t fight of the Executives. Kate tells herself that she can handle them. Part of her believes this, since “Kate’s sense of invincibility was the main thing that had sustained her all her young life alone.” But part of her does not.
Kate retrieves her bucket, but almost immediately she has to give it up again. Her desire to prove herself invulnerable is not sustainable, and she must abandon it just as she must abandon her bucket. This leads to Kate’s realization that she needs to sacrifice herself for Constance. Just as she comes to understand the importance of the team, she must leave her friends behind. Her “sense of invincibility” is a coping mechanism that she developed to endure “her young life alone.” Now that she is no longer alone, she sees that she is not invincible––but that realization comes too late.
Themes
Get the entire The Mysterious Benedict Society LitChart as a printable PDF.
Kate grabs hold of the rope and jumps off the flagpole, positioning the rope like a pulley. Constance is lighter than Kate, so she shoots up into the air as Kate descends. Kate tries to smile at Constance and offers reassurance. Then Kate falls into the arms of the Executives.
Kate falls just like her bucket did, highlighting how much of Kate’s character is dependent on the self-reliance she constructed around her bucket. Even as she descends into danger, she tries to keep Constance from worrying. Kate often projects an air of cheerfulness to avoid seeming weak, but now she does it to help her friend.
Themes
