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A man who local Australian legend claims lived alone in the remote bush that Ellie and her friends know as Hell. According to legend, the Hermit killed his wife and family in cold blood, and he retreated to the bush when the district rejected him and his evil act. However, when Ellie and the others hide out in Hell after the war breaks out, Ellie finds the Hermit’s hut, and his personal papers suggest another story entirely. The papers Ellie and Lee find in the hut imply that the Hermit killed his family because they had been badly burned in a fire, and their remote location in the bush meant that getting medical attention in time was impossible. The Hermit’s family was dying and suffering, so he killed them out of love to put them out of their misery. The Hermit’s story proves that it is possible to do evil acts—or acts that are traditionally seen as evil—out of love, and he makes Ellie examine morality in an entirely different light. Because of the Hermit, Ellie learns that Hell isn’t just a biblical place—it can also be a type of self-imposed punishment. The Hermit would have been in Hell wherever he was, just as Ellie is in Hell wherever she goes because the war has forced her to kill and carry that emotional and moral burden with her. The Hermit also underscores the limitations of storytelling, especially legends, and highlights the importance of leaving a written record. Without the records found in the Hermit’s hut, Ellie and the others wouldn’t know the truth about his story, which fuels the group’s desire to record their own story.
The Hermit / Bertram Christie Quotes in Tomorrow, When the War Began
The Tomorrow, When the War Began quotes below are all either spoken by The Hermit / Bertram Christie or refer to The Hermit / Bertram Christie. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 4 Quotes
I went for a walk back up the track, to the last of Satan’s Steps. The sun had already warmed the great granite wall and I leaned against it with my eyes half shut, thinking about our hike, and the path and the man who’d built it, and this place called Hell. “Why did people call it Hell?” I wondered. All those cliffs and rocks, and that vegetation, it did look wild. But wild wasn’t Hell. Wild was fascinating, difficult, wonderful. No place was Hell, no place could be Hell. It’s the people calling it Hell, that’s the only thing that made it so. People just sticking names on places, so that no one could see those places properly any more. Every time they looked at them or thought about them the first thing they saw was a huge big sign saying “Housing Commission” or “private school” or “church” or “mosque” or “synagogue.” They stopped looking once they saw those signs.
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This quote, which occurs on the last day of Ellie’s camping trip in Hell, sheds valuable light on Ellie’s moral struggle once the war begins, and it also sheds light on the novel’s other characters. When Ellie refers to the man who built the path in Hell, she is referring to the Hermit, who escaped to the bush after being rejected in town for murdering his wife and infant son. Presumably, the locals refer to the remote bush where the Hermit lived as Hell because it served as his self-imposed punishment for killing his family. However, as the novel unfolds, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima autem. Modi omnis iure. Sint qu
Chapter 16 Quotes
Only humans knew about Hell; they were the experts on it. I remembered wondering if humans were Hell. The Hermit for instance; whatever had happened that terrible Christmas Eve, whether he’d committed an act of great love, or an act of great evil... But that was the whole problem, that as a human being he could have done either and he could have done both. Other creatures didn’t have this problem. They just did what they did. I didn’t know if the Hermit was a saint or a devil, but once he’d fired those two shots it seemed that he and the people round him had sent him into Hell. They sent him there and he sent himself there. He didn’t have to trek all the way across to these mountains into this wild basin of heat and rock and bush. He carried Hell with him, as we all did, like a little load on our backs that we hardly noticed most of the time, or like a huge great hump of suffering that bent us over with its weight.
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When Ellie learns the true story behind the Hermit, she begins to grapple with her own moral dilemma and her thoughts about Hell and morality. Ellie considers Hell to be a uniquely human creation, and the Hermit is a prime example of this. The Hermit killed his own wife and infant son on Christmas Eve, but it is implied he killed them out of love to spare their suffering. The Hermit’s family had been badly burned in a fire and were dying, alone and in pain, miles away from medical attention. In this way, Ellie doesn’t know if the Hermit’s Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit b
I too had blood on my hands, like the Hermit, and just as I couldn’t tell whether his actions were good or bad, so too I couldn’t tell what mine were. Had I killed out of love of my friends, as part of a noble crusade to rescue friends and family and keep our land free? Or had I killed because I valued my life above that of others? Would it be OK for me to kill a dozen others to keep myself alive? A hundred? A thousand? At what point did I condemn myself to Hell, if I hadn’t already done so? The Bible just said “Thou shalt not kill,” then told hundreds of stories of people killing each other and becoming heroes, like David with Goliath. That didn’t help me much.
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Like the Hermit, Ellie considers herself a murderer. She has “blood on [her] hands,” and, like the Hermit, the reasons why she killed don’t really matter. The Hermit likely killed his family out of love to spare them suffering and pain, but Ellie can’t decide if his actions represent good or bad. Similarly, Ellie kills to save herself and her friends, whom she loves and cares for deeply, and she can’t tell if her own actions are good or bad. Furthermore, Ellie implies that if she killed to save her friends and family, that would be more acceptable than killing Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consecte
Epilogue Quotes
We’ve got to stick together, that’s all I know. We all drive each other crazy at times, but I don’t want to end up here alone, like the Hermit. Then this really would be Hell. Humans do such terrible things to each other that sometimes my brain tells me they must be evil. But my heart still isn’t convinced. I just hope we can survive.
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This quote, which occurs at the very end of Tomorrow, When the War Began, underscores the importance of love and friendship within the novel. Tomorrow, When the War Began is the first book in a series of seven, so Ellie’s story and her hardships are just beginning. There is no end in sight to the war by the close of the book, and Ellie and the others aren’t any closer to finding their parents. Friendship is all Ellie and the others have, and without it, they are sure to end up alone and miserable, just like the Hermit. To Ellie, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque i
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The Hermit / Bertram Christie Character Timeline in Tomorrow, When the War Began
The timeline below shows where the character The Hermit / Bertram Christie appears in Tomorrow, When the War Began. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...cliffs known as Satan’s Steps. According to local legend, Hell was the home of the Hermit, an “ex-murderer” who allegedly killed his wife and infant son. Ellie, however, has a hard...
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Chapter 2
Ellie tells the group about the Hermit, a supposed “ex-murderer,” and Robyn asks how anyone can be an “ex-murderer.” Either you’re a...
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Chapter 3
...well built out of uniform round logs. The group immediately decides the stories about the Hermit must be true. Who else could have built such a bridge? He must have lived...
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...if they are the only ones to ever set eyes on it, except for the Hermit, of course. The path opens to a clearing about the size of a hockey field,...
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Chapter 5
...overrun with people looking for a good campsite. They swore they would look for the Hermit’s hut next time and went to bed. Ellie, couldn’t sleep, just like the last few...
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Chapter 14
...definitely a hut. She approaches the door and rips the vines away. What if the Hermit is still inside, Ellie thinks, dead on the floor? She goes inside and looks around.
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...is worried and asks where she has been. Ellie tells Homer that she found the Hermit’s hut and will soon give them all a guided tour.
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Chapter 15
...it gets dark. During lunch, Lee asks Ellie if she will take him to the Hermit’s hut. Ellie agrees, and by 2:00, they are on their way.
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Ellie and Lee make it to the Hermit’s hut and only stop to rest once. They talk as they walk, and Ellie admits...
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...a war medal awarded to Bertram Christie, which Ellie and Lee decide must be the Hermit’s name. There are newspaper clippings about the murder of Bertram’s family, but the details are...
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Chapter 16
...more pieces of paper inside the metal box, and one is a letter from the Hermit’s mother-in-law. She writes that she has always defended Bertram and believes his account of the...
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...passionately holding each other. Ellie says that she doesn’t want to end up like the Hermit, and they head back to the campsite. When they arrive, Homer and Fiona sit closely,...
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...happiness. She is with her friends, and they are doing alright, all things considered. The Hermit’s hut has made her appreciate what she still has, and she decides to enjoy it...
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...how she thought about Hell and the people who named it. Only people, like the Hermit, can know about Hell. She doesn’t know if the Hermit committed an act of love...
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Ellie has killed, just like the Hermit, but she doesn’t know if she killed out of love for her friends or value...
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Chapter 18
...foul and rotten.” Fiona speaks up next. She really just wants to go to the Hermit’s hut and hide until the war is over. She doesn’t feel brave like the rest...
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Epilogue
...happy with it. She keeps thinking about how important leaving a record is. Take the Hermit, for example. If they hadn’t found the records in his hut, they would only know...
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...drive each other nuts, but Ellie doesn’t want to be alone and live like the Hermit. That would really be Hell, Ellie thinks. Ellie’s heart won’t let her believe that people...
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