Riddley Walker

Abel Goodparley is the prime minister of Inland and the head of the government known as the Ram. As the prime minister, he travels from town to town and provides puppet shows to the population to teach people the lessons the government wants them to learn. Goodparley is introduced from the perspective of Riddley, who immediately informs the reader that he does not trust the prime minister. Riddley’s frequent descriptions of Goodparley’s small, untrustworthy eyes and his odd demeanor highlight him as a potentially threatening figure. Goodparley has power and a desire to use it. During the first meeting with Riddley, he talks at length about his desire to resurrect the technology of the past, while lecturing the people about not pursing science and intellectualism because it may harm them. Goodparley is a power-hungry hypocrite who Riddley does not trust. As the novel develops, Riddley is proven to be correct in his judgement, though he develops a more sympathetic view of the deposed prime minister.

The bond between Goodparley and Riddley strengthens when Goodparley teaches Riddley about the past. As the prime minister, Goodparley is permitted to know more about the ruined world surrounding them. He has access to ancient documents, he controls the brutalization of the Eusa folk, and he even knows about the mysterious Punch puppet that Riddley finds. Goodparley becomes a mentor figure for Riddley, teaching him the truth about the puppets even though he seemingly has nothing to gain from Riddley’s increased knowledge. Goodparley also reveals the traumas of his past. He was orphaned as a young boy and taken in by an older man named Granser, who raped and beat Goodparley. After Goodparley tried (and failed) to kill Granser, he joined the government and eventually became the prime minister. All of Goodparley’s attempts to rebuild the world stem from the traumas of his past. He sees a great deal of himself in Riddley, who is also an orphan and a runaway. Goodparley and Riddley bond over their similar status and their desire to change the world, even if they disagree on many fundamental aspects of what needs to change.

Goodparley is betrayed by Orfing and blinded by the Eusa folk. The loss of his eyes strengthens his bond with Riddley, as he becomes more dependent on Riddley for survival. Goodparley’s lost eyes are a symbol of his loss of power (Riddley focused on the untrustworthy appearance of Goodparley’s small, squinting eyes early on). With these eyes gone, Goodparley poses less of a threat. Riddley tries to help Goodparley but the former prime minister dies a quiet, miserable death. He is killed in an accident by the man who traumatized him as a child. For all of Goodparley’s ambitions and his plans to change the world, he dies alone in the woods as a helpless figure who is entirely dependent on others. Goodparley’s death, ironically, teaches the same lessons as his Eusa plays. Goodparley is killed by the pursuit of science and the lofty ambitions which he cautioned against.

Lissener is the leader of the Eusa folk and a key player in the political upheaval which takes place in the novel. Riddley first meets Lissener when Lissener is being kept in a prison. As Lissener explains, he and the other Eusa folk are imprisoned and routinely tortured for the supposed crimes of their ancestors. The government of Inland has practiced a centuries-old tradition of brutalizing the Eusa folk with no apparent resolution or goal other than violence. Torture, rape, and murder are facts of life for all of the Eusa folk, Lissener explains, which provides the justification for why he would want to develop gunpowder and lead an uprising against the Ram. Lissener’s history and his traumatic past provide the explanation for why he would want to risk a return to humanity’s violent past: For Lissener and the other Eusa folk, the violence did not stop with the end of the war. For the Eusa folk, every year since the end of the war has been a constant cycle of violence from which they are desperate to break free.

At first, Riddley defines Lissener through his disfigurement. Lissener has no eyes and a misshapen mouth. Even his name is a pun on his listening ability, highlighting how he must relate to the world differently because of the way his body differs from other people. However, Riddley quickly realizes that Lissener is more than just his physical appearance. Lissener can navigate the tricky terrain of Inland without assistance, he can exert influence over a pack of wild dogs, and he can outsmart seasoned politicians such as Goodparley. Lissener’s appearance is deceptive. While Riddley and the rest of his society are wary and dismissive of the Eusa folk and people with physical disabilities, Lissener defies any expectations and shows himself to be an important figure and a powerful leader. He overthrows Goodparley, manipulates Riddley, and creates a powerful new weapon for the Eusa folk.

However, Lissener’s success is fleeting. Like many other characters, he is a victim of his own ambition. Lissener and the other Eusa folk succeed in taking power and developing gunpowder but then they demonstrate their lack of understanding of gunpowder’s violent potential. They accidently blow themselves up, bringing about their own destruction using the tools they hoped would empower them. Lissener becomes his own worst enemy. The ultimate irony of Lissener’s physical blindness is that he never needed his eyes to move through the physical space of Inland, yet he was blind to his own inevitable death. Lissener was unable to see how he would fall victim to the same ambition that brought down Goodparley and Orfing.

Brooder Walker is Riddley’s father and his death at the beginning of the novel sets the plot in motion. He is a connexion man, the person responsible for interpreting the Eusa plays for the village. This position has some degree of social importance. Brooder meets with the government officials when they arrive in town, he helps to set the ideology of the society through his interpretations, and he is one of the few people in the community who is able to read and write. Brooder’s simple, unassuming demeanor masks a quiet, introspective person. He is a literate, devoted father and a widower, a man who has raised his son to be as insightful, as intelligent, and as literate as he has tried to be.

Brooder’s interpretations also hint at a subtle complexity to his thoughts. Riddley remembers one connexion which was a simple pun on the meaning of the word salt. While the connexion seemed innocuous, Riddley never forgot the interpretation and neither did Goodparley. In a later scene, Goodparley admits that the simple pun completely changed the way he viewed the world. While Riddley is focused on delivering an elaborate, performative connexion which will impress the community, his father’s connexion has a lasting influence which is still being felt at the end of the novel. Brooder might have seemed a simple man, but his simplicity belies a complexity in the same way that the seemingly stone age society of the novel is built on complex social interactions and a complicated relationship with the past.

Eusa is a mythical figure who plays a big role in the belief system of the characters in Riddley Walker. As is shown in the Eusa puppet shows, Eusa is blamed for inventing the nuclear bombs which brought about the end of 20th-century society. Eusa’s crime, according to the plays, was rampant intellectualism. Eusa was a scientist whose research brought about the end of the world, so the moral of his story becomes a caution against developing new and dangerous technologies.

Eusa may be based on a real person in the past, but the mythical version of Eusa is a very real figure in the present. Eusa and the varying interpretations of his story become a method of social control. By reminding the population of the dangers of intellectualism and the perils of scientific research, the government of Inland is able to control and organize people as they see fit. Eusa is less a character and more a symbol of the way in which the government uses culture to exert authority over a captive population of people by creating a religion which teaches them to be obedient, docile subjects.