Riddley Walker Social Concerns

Riddley Walker Social Concerns

Although the setting of this novel is England approximately 2,500 years after a nuclear holocaust has virtually obliterated the cultural heritage of western civilization, several features of Riddley Walker comment directly on important social issues of the present day. The novel's plot emphasizes the interplay of tradition, religion, science, and human nature as well as exploring paradoxes of mysticism and examining the role of the individual whose divided loyalties lead him into ethical dilemmas.

One major focus is the relationship between government and the economic and social concerns of the governed. In Riddley Walker's society, there are three important bodies: the government (the "Ram"), agricultural communities (the "Forms"), and seminomadic communities who mine for metal (the "Fents"), erecting fences within which to live secure from prowling bands of wild dogs while unearthing metal relics of the long-gone technological age. The Ram is trying to recover the secrets of...
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