Todd Hewitt—Aaron

Todd Hewitt and Aaron are bound by pursuit, fear, and opposing responses to violence. Aaron treats Todd as expendable while pursuing Viola; Todd’s efforts to defend her place him against Aaron’s coercive authority and the beliefs that helped shape Prentisstown’s violence.

A Hostile Pursuit

The relationship takes shape around Aaron’s pursuit of Todd and Viola. When Viola recounts her earlier encounter with Aaron in the swamp, she describes being frightened by his repeated preaching and pursuit. Her account establishes that Aaron’s threat is not limited to physical capture: he also imposes his ideas on her, while she has little ability to escape or make him listen.

The conflict becomes immediate when Aaron emerges from the woods behind Viola and seizes her. Todd moves toward them, but Aaron knocks him down. Todd is unarmed and still carrying Manchee; after Aaron finds Todd’s knife, Todd can do little but watch. Aaron declares that he has no further use for the boy and raises the knife. Todd loses consciousness before he can know what will happen next. The encounter makes their imbalance plain: Aaron controls the immediate situation, while Todd’s attachment to Viola gives him reason to resist despite his helplessness.

Viola as the Stakes of Their Conflict

Todd’s hostility toward Aaron is inseparable from his attempt to protect Viola. Aaron’s treatment of her has left her afraid, and the account of his capture makes clear that Todd’s danger is part of the same pursuit. Aaron does not treat Todd as a meaningful opponent or negotiate with him; he dismisses him as no longer useful. Todd, by contrast, remains focused on Viola even as Aaron overpowers him.

The contrast is also carried through Noise. As Todd lies unable to move, he sees Aaron’s thoughts and Viola within them. The scene links Aaron’s power over Todd to his control of the immediate threat against Viola, while Todd’s scattered thoughts register fear, regret, and concern for her. His concern is not an abstract objection to Aaron: it is bound to the person Aaron has seized and the danger she faces.

Aaron’s Preaching and Prentisstown’s Violence

Todd and Aaron’s personal conflict is connected to a broader history Ben recounts. Ben explains that hardship across New World—failing crops, sickness, and a lack of prosperity—was followed by preaching that blamed the Spackle. That preaching became a movement and then a war. Aaron is identified as one of the preachers whose ideas helped turn blame into collective violence, although the account does not assign him responsibility for every act that followed.

The same account connects Aaron’s preaching to the killing of Prentisstown’s women and of men who tried to protect them. Ben says that many men were swayed by Mayor Prentiss and Aaron’s preaching, including the claim that what was hidden must be evil. Todd identifies his mother among those killed, and Ben confirms the revelation. Aaron’s conflict with Todd therefore reaches beyond the immediate pursuit: Todd learns that the ideas associated with Aaron belong to the history of losses that shaped his own life.

Todd’s Moral Separation from the Town

Later revelations about Prentisstown’s coming-of-age killings show how violence was reproduced across generations. Todd learns that men who were said to have disappeared had in fact been killed, sometimes by boys on their thirteenth birthdays. He also learns that people could be selected to die if no escapee was available. The account describes the town as complicit, then sets Todd apart from that shared guilt.

This history sharpens the contrast between Todd and Aaron without making them equivalent adversaries. Aaron is associated with preaching that helped authorize persecution; Todd’s experience exposes the consequences of that system, including his mother’s death, and his actions in the encounter with Aaron are directed toward protecting Viola. Their relationship is thus both a direct struggle between pursuer and defender and a moral opposition between Aaron’s coercive influence and Todd’s refusal to accept violence as the town’s unquestioned inheritance.