All four members of the Mysterious Benedict Society struggle with loneliness, and it is the power of their friendship that allows them to triumph over Mr. Curtain. They are recruited to Mr. Benedict’s team because, as Reynie observes, “[they are] all alone.” This isolation has left its impact on the children, and it initially hinders their efforts to fight Mr. Curtain. Kate is desperate to prove that she can be entirely self-sufficient, while Sticky is terrified of never being wanted. This leads to Kate undertaking dangerous and reckless missions by herself and Sticky being tempted by the inclusion offered by Mr. Curtain and his team of Executives. Reynie is also lonely in his role as the group’s leader, and he finds himself agreeing with Mr. Curtain’s assessment that a leader is alone “even among [his] friends…for it is [him]—and [him] alone—to whom the others look for final guidance.”
However, the novel suggests that no one can function entirely on their own, and ultimately it is the children’s mutual support of each other that empowers them to defeat Mr. Curtain. Though the children are without families, the Mysterious Benedict Society gradually becomes a family. Mr. Benedict, an orphan himself, tells Reynie that a family can be made up of dear friends, and Reynie realizes that he might count Kate, Sticky, and Constance as his family. Kate learns that she occasionally needs to ask for help, and Sticky finds friends in the other Society members who want him and care about him beyond what he can provide for them. When Reynie is resisting the Whisperer, the machine Mr. Curtain uses to broadcast subliminal messages via televisions, he draws strength from the thought of his friends. Realizing that he is not alone grants Reynie the bravery to fight the machine. Even the ill-tempered Constance demonstrates the value of friendship when she resists the Whisperer; she stubbornly identifies herself by all her friends’ names instead of her own. In that instance, thinking of her friends literally helps strengthen Constance against the Whisperer. The characters’ devotion to each other helps them fight Mr. Curtain, but the novel suggests that the friendships the children formed over the course of the novel will also prepare them more fully to tackle new challenges in the future.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Loneliness vs. Friendship ThemeTracker
Loneliness vs. Friendship Quotes in The Mysterious Benedict Society
[Reynie’s] own parents were never known to him, and so he didn’t miss them in particular, but on rainy days, or days when other children taunted him, or nights when he woke from a bad dream and could use a hug and perhaps a story to lull him back to sleep––at times like these he didn’t miss his parents, exactly, but he did wish for them.
Part of him wanted not to believe Mr. Benedict. Could he really be trusted? ...It would be such a relief to think his predictions about the thing to come were nothing more than wild speculation. And yet Reynie did trust Mr. Benedict, had trusted him almost immediately. What troubled Reynie was that he so badly wanted to trust Mr. Benedict––wanted to believe in this man who had shown faith in him, wanted to stay with these children who seemed to like and respect Reynie as much as he did them.
And so the question was not whether Reynie could trust Mr. Benedict, but whether he could trust himself. Who in his right mind would actually want to be put in danger just because that let him be a part of something?
Exploring was what she did best, and Kate liked always to be doing what she did best. Not that she was a bad sport; in fact, she was a very good one, and she rarely complained. But Kate had spent all her life––ever since her father abandoned her, which affected her more than she cared to admit––trying to prove she didn’t need anyone’s help, and this was easiest to believe when she was doing what she was good at.
Reynie wasn’t surprised by his friends’ responses. He too had been wary of the notion when it occurred to him. But were they not secret agents? Was not their very presence on the island a deception? Kate and Sticky’s reaction was just an instinctive response, he thought; they would come around in a minute. Still, Reynie was troubled….Where was his powerful love of truth?...Was he perhaps not quite the truth-loving brave soul Mr. Benedict and everyone else thought him to be?
“Children despise superior minds, you know, especially in leaders, who must often make unpopular decisions.”
Reynie thought suddenly of Kate and Sticky, who had been so shocked at his suggestion to cheat on the quizzes. But they didn’t despise him, he knew that….
“One problem with being a leader,” Mr. Curtain was saying, “is that even among your friends you are alone, for it is you––and you alone––to whom the others look for final guidance.” (Reynie felt a pang. That was true, he thought. He did feel that way sometimes.)
“You must remember, family is often born of blood, but it doesn’t depend on blood. Nor is it exclusive of friendship. Family members can be your best friends, you know. And best friends, whether or not they are related to you, can be your family.”
Reynie had drunk up those words like life-saving medicine….[He] had gone to bed thinking of the people he might one day––if everything turned out all right––consider a part of his family.
Reynie’s face fell. “It’s not funny, Kate.”
For a moment––a fleeting moment––Kate looked desperately sad. “Well, of course it’s not funny, Reynie Muldoon. But what do you want me to do? Cry?”
[Sticky] was glaring at Jackson. It was such an angry look––so full of defiant outrage––that Reynie actually felt encouraged. There was strength in Sticky. It was just easy to miss. Easiest of all for Sticky himself.
Reynie had…a very troubling problem. Having been made to feel so wonderful––and so easily, so unexpectedly––Reynie found he wanted to give in to the Whisperer. Wanted it desperately. This was a disturbing development….
Sticky tried to smile, but in truth he was decidedly troubled. If Reynie hadn’t spoken up just then, he wasn’t at all sure what he would have done. He had actually wanted to join the Messengers! Was that all it took to sway him––being asked? Did he want so much to be wanted that he would do, well, anything? It was as if the Whisperer had opened a door, and now Sticky couldn’t close it again. He was so ashamed he could hardly look up.
[Reynie] was hoping against hope that Mr. Benedict would find some way to save them––to save everyone––without requiring anything more from him. Reynie didn’t think he was capable of more, not since the Whisperer. He was worried, deeply worried, that the Whisperer had revealed to him who he truly was.
You shouldn’t let her go alone, Reynie thought. She ought to have help. But when he opened his mouth to argue, he found nothing would come out. A fog seemed to have rolled into his mind, and on top of that he felt bone-weary. He was tired, very tired, of always trying to do the right thing.
[Kate] had grand visions of sabotaging the Whisperer, destroying all its computers by herself. Ripping out cables, crushing components, stealing mysterious gizmos that could not be replaced. Not only would she be regarded as a hero, she could prove once and for all that she could do everything alone––that she needed no one’s help. But now she saw she could do no such thing. Not this time.
There had been times in Sticky’s life when an important question would flummox him no matter how well he knew the answer; and times he had run away from his problems; and times when he’d felt himself paralyzed when action was most needed. He’d never understood this tendency of his––he knew only that he rarely lived up to expectation….
And yet, in these last days, he'd become friends with people who cared about him, quite above and beyond what was expected of him….The effect of…all his friendships had grown stronger and stronger until––though he couldn’t say why he didn’t feel mixed up now––at the most desperate moment yet, he knew it to be true. There was bravery in him. It only had to be drawn out.
It has to be all four of us, but Constance can’t handle them. You can handle them, though. It will be rough, but you can handle them.
(Part of Kate believed this––a very important part, for Kate’s sense of invincibility was the main thing that had sustained her all her young life alone. But another part did not believe this––and it, too, was an important part, for unless you know about this part it is impossible to understand how brave a thing Kate was about to do.)
“Mr. Benedict! Is he the one who tricked you into joining him, who encouraged you to cheat on quizzes, who offered you ‘special opportunities’? Or was that Mr. Curtain, who said cheating doesn’t bother him, who rounded up poor unfortunates only to give them a better life, who has offered you a chance to be an Executive? How different are the two men? Not very, Reynard. The only difference is that one can offer you only suffering now, while the other offers you a way to belong––a way to relieve the loneliness.”
For a moment Constance and Mr. Curtain both trembled violently, as if caught in an earthquake….And then, in a voice so loud it hurt everybody’s ears, Constance exclaimed: “I…don’t…CARE!”
… This was Constance’s great gift––the gift of stubborn independence––and she was bringing it to bear with all her might.
For all her valiant resistance, though, the child was, after all, only a child….She could not hold out forever.
“Just a few minutes more, Number Two. Let them play. They are children, after all.”
And this was certainly true, if only for the moment.
