Riddley Walker

Riddley inherits the role of connexion man from his father. The title is passed down across generations and marks Riddley out as a privileged individual. Unlike most people, he has been taught to read and write ahead of his life’s work, which is watching and interpreting the plays. Literary ability is a form of generational wealth which is passed down from father to son like property, setting Riddley apart from others and providing him with a fortune which few others can hope to achieve. If Riddley’s literary abilities make him unique, the way he inherits these abilities speaks to the nature of the society. The connexion men, like many other positions in the patriarchal society, are closely protected trades which consecrate and protect power in the hands of a select few individuals. Everyone in the society has a role to play, but some people (by the nature of their birth) are more privileged than others in terms of what they can hope to achieve in their lives. With so little material wealth and so little of value to be passed down to the next generation, intelligence and responsibility form the foundation of Riddley’s inheritance.

Literary analysis becomes a key part of life in the post-apocalyptic society. Designated connexion men are given the role of teaching the audience the morals of the story as it is presented to them in the play. These interpretations can be short and simple, as with many of Brooder’s connexions, or they can be more complicated and abstract, as with the interpretation Riddley hopes to provide. The prevalent role of literary analysis in the novel creates an ironic twist in the text. Riddley’s own writing is abstract and open to interpretation. Given the use of language in the book, the audience is able to interpret and understand many of the puns, jokes, and references as they please. Riddley’s job as a connexion man foreshadows the interpretation done by the audience when trying to understand Riddley Walker. The book emphasizes the importance of literary analysis in its contents and its form.

The Eusa shows are a form of social control, used by the Ram to convey their political agenda and ideas to the people under their control. Goodparley and Orfing invent the Eusa shows to deliver new ideas to people. Though the story of Eusa is preserved exactly, every puppet show is different. The travelling politicians wander through Inland and deliver the shows to people as the only form of entertainment. They control how, what, and when people are exposed to new ideas. As such, Goodparley and Orfing have the power to shape the culture of Inland. Like Riddley’s role as a connexion man, their roles are inherited from the prime minister and the deputies of the past. The Ram has spent centuries using the Eusa story and the Eusa shows to direct the progress of the society.

Riddley provides the full transcript of the story of Eusa, exactly as it was passed down to him from his father. The spelling and the style of the language are as markedly different from Riddley’s language as Riddley’s language is from contemporary English. However, the syntax, punctuation, and grammar show that the language of the Eusa story is built on a consistent framework of rules. Unlike Riddley’s language, for example, the Eusa story employs “thay” (31) as a plural form of “the.” However, like Riddley, the Eusa story retains the habit of never spelling out a number. The similarities and discrepancies between Riddley’s language and the language of the Eusa story is a useful metric for measuring the way in which society becomes more and less complex and literary. The Eusa story’s language comes from a time closer to the nuclear war which broke apart human society. Riddley’s more complicated (but still rudimentary) version of English shows how, even in the short time between the Eusa story and Riddley’s time, language has evolved and become more refined. The inclusion of the Eusa story provides an additional data point on the timeline of the society of Inland. The 20th-century English breaks apart into the language of the Eusa story, which slowly becomes more refined by the time Riddley is born. Society is healing in the wake of the nuclear war, but the process of rebuilding something as complicated as a written language takes many centuries.