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Chapter Six
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Word for World is Forest, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Violence, War, and Colonization
Nature and Ecology
Communication and Translation
Gender and Masculinity
Summary
Analysis
Davidson has been using Major Muhamed’s tape recorder to make note of everything that’s happened in New Tahiti. Future generations should know how treacherous humans can be. The recording includes everything that happened in Smith, New Java, King, and Central, and everything he’s learned from HQ since. No one knows the full truth except the creechies, but clearly the attack at Central was an “inside job,” aided by Lyubov—and the creechies killed Lyubov anyway. It’s safe to assume that anyone still alive is a traitor, including Gosse and Benton.
Much like Davidson disregarded the ansible’s orders, he’s disregarding the truce that Dongh negotiated at Central. Once again, Davidson blames others for the violence he spurred. This time, he suggests that Lyubov betrayed his people, when really, the reason the Athsheans attacked Central was because of Davidson, since Davidson carried out a raid (which Dongh may not know about). And while Davidson perhaps isn’t wrong to be suspicious of Lyubov, who chose not to share vital information with the humans, the reason Lyubov hid that information was because he was frightened that Davidson would return to Central.
Themes
The creechies say the women are dead, but that’s probably a lie, and the creechies are probably experimenting on them now. Muhamed had recorded all his conversations with Central post-massacre, and when Davidson first heard one particular exchange between Dongh and Muhamed, he destroyed the recording in a fit of anger. It was too hard to hear Dongh and Muhamed discussing total surrender, agreeing not to retaliate, and planning to move the men to a tiny plot of land. Most likely, Dongh and Muhamed aren’t natural traitors and were just made cowardly by this stupid planet, which only the strongest men can withstand.
Again, the reason that the Athsheans killed the women was to prevent them from carrying out their assigned purpose of breeding—and in this way, Davidson’s own society set up the conditions for the women’s deaths. Once again, Davidson equates violence with strength and masculinity, which leads him to believe that retaliation is the answer to every problem—when really, Davidson’s violence either directly or indirectly spurred most (if not all) of the Athsheans’ violence in the novella.
Themes
Davidson had no choice but to shoot Muhamed, which was a bummer, but Muhamed never would’ve gone along with Davidson’s plan. Now it’s just Davidson and the officers. Davidson rarely speaks to Dongh on the radio directly; usually it’s Juju Sereng. Davidson likes Juju, but he’s an asiatiform, and it’s weird how many of them survived the massacre—the only euraf left alive was Gosse. Here in Java, the 55 men who remained loyal and are therefore still here are mostly eurafs. You can’t be really human without some euraf blood, but Davidson will save the “yellow bastards” anyway.
Because Davidson expresses overt racism here, it seems unlikely that the men Davidson killed—including Muhamed—were truly “disloyal.” Davidson distrusts outsiders, and because race factors into that, he distrusts nonwhite soldiers. Davidson was always planning to take over New Java from Muhamed, and now it seems that he’s accomplished this. Since Davidson’s rogue decisions caused the Athsheans to attack Central earlier, it’s not clear what damage he’ll do now that he controls New Java.
Themes
On the radio earlier, Juju had told Davidson that he was making it hard for the rest of the humans, since they have a neutrality agreement with the creechies. Davidson insisted that his men could still retaliate, even outnumbered, which Juju thought was insane. Either way, Juju claimed that the truce was binding, and if the humans break it, it’s over for them. Maybe when the Shackleton comes back, it’ll wipe out the creechies, but for now the humans have to back down.
Juju may just be trying to placate Davidson by suggesting that the humans could attack the Athsheans when the ship returns. But if he’s sincere, this is further proof that the humans believe that the only response to violence is more violence. Even if they don’t agree with Davidson’s current methods, they agree with his mindset.
Themes
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Davidson asked Juju to send Central’s hoppers to him if they were too scared to use them, and Juju ordered Davidson to bring the last hopper (which is at New Java) back to Central. After that call, Davidson was somewhat worried that the men would send their hoppers from Central to bomb him in New Java, but then he realized they were too afraid, since they promised the creechies that they wouldn’t use the hoppers. Absolutely insane. Davidson has waited long enough to attack; it’s been two weeks, and he’s created a defense system in his camp, which includes landmines built by a kid named Aabi. Now, he takes the hopper and drops a bomb on a creechie camp.
Again, it’s not clear whether or not the humans know that Davidson’s raid caused the Central massacre, but if they do, they’re right to be worried that he still has an armed hopper. Davidson’s attack on the Athshean camp will have consequences for him, something he’s likely aware of—after all, he raided the Athshean village knowing (and maybe hoping) that the Athsheans would attack the humans in turn. Davidson’s actions here are self-defeating, which suggests that he craves cyclical violence even when it serves no tactical purpose.
Themes
After the rainy season is over, Davidson will bomb whole islands—including Central, if they don’t man up. Later that day, someone on the radio—maybe Gosse—berates Davidson for thinking he can make the creechies surrender. Davidson asks if he can pick up some desserts and drugs from Central if he sends a hopper over, and they agree. Smiling, Davidson then tells them to put what he needs in a net and he’ll pick it up without landing. Dongh finally gets on the radio and tells Davidson that if he keeps disobeying orders, Dongh will tell the natives that he’s no longer responsible for Davidson. He wants Davidson to send the 66 men at Java back to Central, so Davidson cuts the radio off. None of the guys at Central can face reality.
The planet’s ecosystem, which Davidson has spent so long trying to dominate, seems to prevent him from carrying out larger attacks, since he can’t bomb islands in the rain. This passage reveals that Dongh is not fully aware of what’s going on in New Java. While he knows Davidson has gone rogue, he doesn’t know that Davidson killed 11 men—he thinks there are 66 men at New Java, whereas Davidson previously stated that there were only 55. Once again, Davidson suggests that “realism” means asserting dominance, which differs from Selver and Lyubov’s definition.
Themes
The creechies don’t do anything about Davidson’s raids, which proves his theory that you just have to be tough with them. Davidson has kept the men at Java logging, but now there’s no point in logging if no one’s picking up wood. So, they decide to burn the wood instead, just for something to do. Davidson is considering a raid on Central to get the other hoppers so he can do more damage, but he hasn’t mentioned this to anyone, even Aabi or his other right-hand man, Temba. An attack on HQ might be too much for them, because they still think they’ll eventually return to Central. They don’t know that those guys are traitors now.
Earlier, the humans’ deforestation at least served a purpose, since Earth has no wood. Davidson’s decision to burn trees serves no purpose and seems to be a way to show further dominance over the planet, since the humans don’t value nature like the Athsheans. Interestingly, Davidson is now as isolated from his own people as Lyubov and Selver were, and maybe more so, since he’s considering attacking the humans. The difference is that his isolation doesn’t serve a purpose—instead, Davidson wants to act violently to prove his own prejudices right and to validate his self-image.
Themes
Two weeks later, the men start to get antsy. Davidson tells Aabi, Temba, and another guy, Post, about his plan to liberate the hoppers. Aabi wonders how they’ll get fuel, since they’re low, and Davidson says they can steal that, too. The men stare at him, dumbfounded; they’ve lost their nerve, too. Davidson walks away, disgusted. He thinks about how they’re low on “maryjanes,” since some of the guys are using too heavily. Davidson will have to lock the stores up, which will break some of the men, but that’s fine—maybe he can trade those guys to Central for fuel.
Again, Davidson’s planned violence serves no purpose, both because the humans are outnumbered and because, as Aabi reminds Davidson, the hoppers would eventually run out of fuel and ammo. Furthermore, the men’s boredom and heavy drug use suggests that they might eventually turn on Davidson, particularly if Davidson took the drugs away or revealed that he has no plans to return to Central. Davidson’s situation is precarious, but he still insists on violence for violence’s sake.
Themes
Suddenly, one of Davidson’s guards starts screaming, and a gun goes off. Thousands of creechies swarm in, which sets off the landmines, but they keep coming. It’s just like the rat army that Davidson saw as a kid in Ohio, which made him scream for his mom—or maybe that was a dream. Davidson makes it to the hopper, along with Post and Aabi.
Much like Selver couldn’t tell his dreams from reality after introducing violence into the Athsheans’ lives, Davidson can’t tell his nightmares from his memories. This suggests that his desire for violence prevents him from seeing the bigger picture the way the Athsheans ordinarily can. Davidson’s memory or dream is ambiguous, but it could suggest that his deep hatred for the Athsheans might be (at least partly) rooted in a traumatic childhood experience. Interestingly, this experience left him dependent on a woman (his mom), which may have impacted his later, hyper-masculine worldview.
Themes
Davidson asks where Temba is, and Post says that he’s dead. Aabi wants to pilot the hopper, so Davidson lets him, but when Davidson asks where he’d heading, Aabi says that he’s taking them to Central. Davidson orders Aabi to circle around Java instead, so that while the creechies burn camp, they can burn the creechies. Aabi says that they can’t do that, because some of their guys might be creechie prisoners. Davidson pulls a gun on Aabi and tells him to turn around. Post argues that they should go to Central, so Davidson knocks him out with the barrel of the gun.
Once again, Davidson’s desire for violence is self-defeating, because killing the Athsheans could mean killing Davidson’s own men. (It’s likely that the Athsheans are taking prisoners, since they did before.) Earlier, Lyubov noted Davidson kills himself when he kills others. Davidson’s desire to bomb the Athsheans proves Lyubov right, since this will only lead to his own destruction. Again, violence is cyclical, and Davidson wants to continue that cycle.
Themes
Aabi turns around but can’t find the camp in the dark. Davidson thinks about how he’s the only really strong man here. The fire at New Java must have been put out, because they can’t see it from the sky now. Davidson couldn’t have predicted this attack, since the creechies came out of nowhere. Aabi must be messing with him and pretending not to know where camp is, so Davidson tells him he has seven minutes to find it. They reach a clearing but it’s hard to see, so Davidson switches the hopper’s lights off, which leads Aabi to panic and get the hopper stuck in a tree. It plunges and wobbles, and Davidson loses consciousness.
The fact that the Athsheans were able to charge through Davidson’s landmine defenses without anyone noticing them suggests that they might have camouflaged in the forest. This means that Davidson’s lack of knowledge about nature led to his camp’s downfall. He’s also wrong that the attack was unpredictable, since he was courting an attack from the Athsheans by bombing their camp. Davidson is acting erratically—and again, his violence is cyclical, because his anger at Aabi hurts them both.
Themes
When Davidson comes to, he’s groggy. He can’t find Aabi, and he barely knows where he is. He then figures out that he’s still in the hopper, wedged between trees. He climbs out and drops to the ground. Weirdly, he doesn’t have a torch on him—maybe Aabi took it, since he crashed the hopper on purpose. Davidson can see a light in one of the trees, which must be Aabi, but when Davidson goes to find him, he steps on something slick: Aabi’s body. Aabi deserved that for turning traitor.
True to form, Davidson blames Aabi for his own violent behavior. Aabi didn’t crash the plane on purpose; the plane crashed because of Davidson’s aggressive behavior. It’s not clear whether Aabi died from falling out of the tree or died in a confrontation with an Athshean while Davidson was unconscious. Readers are as disoriented as Davidson, and he's in the same vulnerable position he was in after the Smith massacre.
Themes
Davidson sees the light again. He reaches for his gun, then realizes it’s in the hopper. He starts to run, not knowing where he’s going and getting smacked by branches. As he tries to hide in a bush, the light shines on him and he sees a group of creechies. Remembering what Lyubov said, he turns on his back, shuts his eyes, and exposes his neck. He opens his eyes and sees that there are at least 20 with spears. He shuts his eyes again, and nothing happens. He almost feels like laughing: it’s so easy to trick them into keeping him alive. They can’t kill him—he’s like a god.
Davidson’s definition of godhood is different from Selver’s. Selver is a god because he changed his community, while Davidson claims to be a god because he thinks he can control the Athsheans. In reality, the Athsheans choose not to kill him—the novella has proven that they have no biological conditioning to spare anyone, even those who surrender. It's in-character of Davidson to mistake mercy for submission—more than likely, he wants to believe he has more control than he does.
Themes
Someone calls Davidson’s name, and he opens his eyes to see Selver looking at him from above. It’s no longer nighttime. Selver doesn’t have a weapon, but the creechies surrounding him have spears and stolen revolvers. He tells Selver to hurry up and kill him, which confuses Selver: does Davidson want to die now? He spent the night in the surrender position. Davidson spits in Selver’s face, so Selver spits back and laughs.
Maybe to demonstrate the cyclical nature of violence, the novella also follows a cyclical pattern, as Selver and Davidson are in the same positions they were in after the Smith massacre. This time, Davidson is intentionally in the surrender position and Selver has apparently abandoned Davidson’s gun (suggesting that he has no further plans for violence). Once again, Selver gives Davidson mercy, but Davidson rejects it.
Themes
Selver tells Davidson that both he and Davidson are gods: Davidson insane, Selver either sane or insane. As gods, they’ve given each other gifts. Davidson gave Selver the gift of killing, and Selver gives Davidson the gift of not killing. Davidson will have to carry that gift alone, because the yumens told Selver that if he returns Davidson to them, they’ll put Davidson on trial and execute him. That means that if Selver wants to save Davidson’s life, he has to treat Davidson like an Athshean who has gone mad and isolate him on an island.
Again, Davidson and Selver have two definitions of godhood. But if being a god means impacting one’s society, then Davidson has certainly done that—his impulsive violence has spurred all the novella’s violence, which led to the humans’ downfall. Meanwhile, Davidson is just as isolated from his society as Selver has been—and again, maybe more so, since his people have rejected him. Selver’s mercy toward Davidson is also fitting punishment, as Davidson despises the Athsheans and would hate to be treated like one of them.
Themes
Davidson says that he should have killed Selver back in Central, and Selver agrees that this might have been for the best. But Selver notes that Lyubov stopped him, and Lyubov has stopped him from killing Davidson now, too. The killing is over, as is the tree-cutting. There are no trees on Dump Island, where Davidson is headed, and no one to kill, though trees and people both existed there once. Davidson might learn to dream on Dump Island, but he’ll probably just go mad.
If Davidson had killed Selver, the Athsheans may never have retaliated against the humans and become violent, which is likely why Selver agrees that in some ways, this would have been for the best. More than likely, readers are meant to question Selver’s assertion that the killing is over, since Athshean society has been permanently altered both by Selver’s hatred of Davidson and by Selver’s connection with Lyubov, which saved his life and then allowed him to enact mass violence. As readers learned at the start of the novella, Davidson worked on the now-eroded Dump Island before he was promoted. This means that, like the humans at Central, he’ll be forced to live alongside his own ecological destruction.
Themes
Davidson tells Selver to just kill him and quit bragging, and Selver says that he can’t: Davidson is a god, and he’ll have to do it himself. Someone ties a noose around Davidson. He could run, as they wouldn’t dare to kill him. Instead, he follows the creechies.
Selver’s words are ambiguous, but like Lyubov, he’s probably implying that Davidson’s violence is cyclical—Selver’s decision to spare him ends that cycle and leaves Davidson to his own self-destruction. Davidson still thinks he has control, but he’s powerless.
Themes
