The Toll

The narrative of The Toll zigzags through a three-year timeline and features a large cast of characters. How does this narrative structure shape the content of the text? How does it help illustrate or reinforce the novel’s key themes and ideas?

The Toll is a work of dystopian fiction, which presents a futuristic society in frightening decline. Compare and contrast The Toll with a similar work, such as Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy, The Giver by Lois Lowry, or 1984 by George Orwell. What key themes and ideas do the texts share? In what ways, if any, do they diverge in their treatment of these themes?

The Toll features various forms of texts, such as the Testament that will later mythologize the novel’s events and Da Vinci’s journals. What is the wider significance of these texts within the novel? How does the novel explore the power and dangers of textual transmission and storytelling?