The Ask and the Answer

The Ask and the Answer is the second book in Patrick Ness's Chaos Walking trilogy, released in 2009. Unlike the first novel, The Knife of Never Letting Go, the book is told in the alternate voices of the protagonists Todd and Viola, who are separate for much of the novel. The books are set on a foreign planet that humans have settled and coexist with a sentient native species, the spackle. Todd was born on the planet, while Viola was a scout for a second wave of human colonists.

Themes in The Ask and the Answer

This section contains spoilers.

Gender

Men on the New World have 'the Noise', which means everyone else, including the women, can hear their thoughts; women have no Noise. This is a source of distrust between the sexes. This is distrust is furthered by the actions of President Prentiss, who, upon his invasion of Haven, insists upon gender segregation. Prentiss was also discovered in The Knife of Never Letting Go to have been responsible for the murder of all the women in Prentisstown, and later in The Ask and the Answer he bands the women of Haven.

Outside of the policies of President Prentiss, sexism appears to have already been an issue in Haven: men are 'doctors' while women are 'healers'. The women who lead the resistance against President Prentiss's takeover are from the ranks of the healers. This resistance group, called The Ask, is mostly women, and are responsible for many bombings in Haven, which leads up to open warfare.

Morality during wartime

Viola questions the terrorist policies of the Ask, and just how far you can go in pursuit of freedom. Though the Ask's attacks are aimed at unoccupied buildings, there are casualties. Later the Ask lead an assault on Haven, in an attempt to have the city reclaimed by the time Viola's people arrive.

Todd, meanwhile, is under the thumb of President Prentiss, who threatens him with the suggestion that he'll harm Viola otherwise. Todd is assigned to control the spackle, who have been enslaved and set to work. He participates in the collaring of the spackle – with collars that will kill if removed – and later of the women of Haven, justifying it by saying it's better he do it than someone else who might be crueler. President Prentiss also sets about training him in interrogation techniques – or rather, torture – which are used upon women suspected of being in the Ask.

Colonisation and xenophobia

As well as being enslaved, the native spackle are given the 'cure' for the Noise, which is their natural method of communication. As a result, they are unable to talk within themselves. However, the people have not considered that 'their' spackle are not the only ones, and the novel concludes with the arrival of a spackle army on the scene.

Previously, humans and spackle have co-existed fairly peacefully – at least since the Spackle War, shortly after humans arrived on New World. They are looked upon with some affection, much like pets. It is clear they are not considered fully people – Todd, who is unable to kill a human, has murdered a spackle in the first book, and in The Ask and the Answer he deals with his guilt about this, even as he serves as an enslaver of the spackle.