How we cite our quotes: (Chapter, Paragraph)
Quote #1
I'd better not get another ruddy dog when my birthday comes. What I want this year is a hunting knife like the one Ben carries on the back of his belt. Now that's a present for a man. (1.65)
Todd has this obsession with becoming a man, which makes sense since he lives in an all-male society and is the last kid left in town. But let's take a look at some of the things that define being a man for him at the beginning—particularly, getting a hunting knife. Association manhood with weapons is a pretty stereotypical gender equation.
Quote #2
I will be a man soon and men do not run in fear but I give Manchee a little push and we walk even a little faster than before, giving the Mayor's house as wide a curve as possible till we're past it and on the gravel path that heads on towards our house. (2.55)
When Todd thinks about being a man, he thinks of bravery and physical strength. This also means that he won't acknowledge that he gets weak or feels scared. It this a healthy mindset or not?
Quote #3
I know what a girl is. Course I do. I seen 'em in the Noise of their fathers in town, mourned like their wives but not nearly so often. I seen 'em in vids, too. Girls are small and polite and smiley. […] They do all the inside-the-house chores, while boys do all the outside. They reach womanhood when they turn thirteen, just like boys reach manhood, and then they're women and they become wives. (7.16)
Now there's an old-fashioned definition for you. Todd's never seen a girl, and the only things he knows about them are from the Noise of other Prentisstown men. We all know that a memory or idea of a thing isn't always accurate. The men have preserved women in their memory as perfect people whose job is to take care of men and look happy while doing it.
Quote #4
She turns her gaze back to me, steady and clear, a small smile on her lips. She's gotta be reading my Noise again but I can't feel no prodding like I do when men try it. (14.60)
Todd meets Hildy, who doesn't have the Noise germ because she's a woman. In addition to not having Noise, then, she also probes his thoughts differently than men do.
Quote #5
Cuz maybe now we found Hildy, maybe she can take care of Viola. They're clearly peas in a pod, ain't they? Different from me, anyway. And so maybe Hidy could help her get back to wherever she's from cuz obviously I can't. Obviously I ain't got nowhere I can be except Prentisstown, do I? (14.117)
Poor Todd just got used to being around the only girl he's ever met, and now he's faced with two of them, and feels left out because they seem to be clicking. The author uses the Noise germ idea to accentuate the differences between how men and women think—and communicate. Hildy and Viola are women and communicating in a way that Todd's never even seen.
Quote #6
And all throughout are men and women.
Most are scattered working in the orchard, wearing heavy work aprons, all the men in long sleeves, the women in long skirts, cutting down pinelike fruits with machetes or carrying away baskets or working on the irrigashun pipes and so on.
Men and women, women and men. (16.123-125)
This is the only scene we see in the whole book that shows harmony between the genders. Men and women are working together in the fields, as equals, which Todd has never even imagined, so the sight is a total wonder.
Quote #7
I'm beginning to think it's a town run by women. I can often hear their silences as they walk by outside and I can hear men's Noise responding to it, too, sometimes with chafing but usually in a way that just gets on with things. (18.108)
Farbranch has used this difference between genders to create more harmony, which is the opposite of what Prentisstown did. Because women's thoughts aren't shared, they do the ruling—it's not about whose better or smarter, it's just about being practical. The men are described as grumbling here and there, but for the most part, everybody's okay with the system.
Quote #8
She nods. "I asked Doctor Snow why they did it here, and he said, "To keep men's thoughts private."
I shrug. "It makes an awful racket, but it kinds makes sense, don't it? One way to deal with the Noise."
"Men's thoughts, Todd," she says. "Men. And you notice he said he was going to ask the eldermen to come seek out your advice?" (33.17-19)
We see some chauvinism going on in Carbonel Downs. Here, women don't get a say in anything, and they're even forced to live in a separate building outside of town. Todd doesn't notice because it doesn't affect him, but Viola picks up on this right away. Doctor Snow wants to talk to Todd about important things, but doesn't even consider asking Viola.
Quote #9
"The army your girl's been talking about has been spotted marching down the river road," Doctor Snow says. "One of our scouts just reported them as less than an hour away."
"She ain't my girl," I say, low.
"She's her own girl," I say. "She don't belong to anyone." (35.28-30)
Doctor Snow is condescending when he refers to Viola as Todd's "girl," and Todd picks up on this undertone and sticks up for her, saying that she is her own person. Oh sexism—ugh.
Quote #10
"After they killed the Spackle," I say, "the men of Prentisstown killed the women of Prentisstown."
Viola gasps even tho she's got to have guessed it, too.
"Not all the men," Ben says. "But many. Allowing themselves to be swayed by Mayor Prentiss and the preachings of Aaron, who used to say that what was hidden must be evil." (36.84-86)
The men of Prentisstown are overwhelmed by the Noise germ and this makes them feel threatened by the women, who don't have it. Their solution is to get rid of all the women so that everyone in Prentisstown is the same: male and Noisy. Pro tip: Genocide is never the answer.