62 pages • 2 hours read
Samuel ButlerErewhon
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1872A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Watch
The narrator’s watch causes trouble for him upon entering Erewhon, but it also brings him comfort during his journey. In the final escape from Erewhon, he wishes that he had the watch on him to measure the time he has been in the air, but his desire for the watch at this late date also reveals the symbolic significance that the object holds for him throughout the novel. Ultimately, the watch is a representation of England, English customs, or European culture more broadly, as it reminds the narrator of the Euro- and anthropocentric values of his home country. In the mountains as he approaches Erewhon, though he appreciates the beauty of nature around him, he takes comfort in his watch as a talisman against the elements of nature that may harm him. So long as he has this piece of the technology that he believes to demonstrate the superiority of his species and culture, he does not fear the mountains as severely. Likewise, in the balloon, while knowing the time is not particularly useful, the idea of having a piece of home is comforting, and he laments that he could not bring his watch with him.
As a symbol, the watch also underpins the critical differences between English and Erewhonian culture, with the watch representing, for the Erewhonians, the dangers of technology. As the author of the Book of the Machines notes, the watch is not fully autonomous, but it is still a marker of the potential for machines to develop and evolve. Initially, the narrator believes that the watch will show the mark of superior technology and will allow him to gain favor or incite amazement in the Indigenous populations that he meets, but he quickly realizes that the Erewhonian magistrate hates the watch, and the fact that possession of the watch is a crime causes him many problems. Throughout his time in Erewhon, the narrator begins to lose favor with the court crowd, and the crime of bringing the watch into the country resurfaces. In this sense, the watch does not just represent English customs; it also represents the fundamental incompatibility of the narrator with Erewhon.
Light Hair
Light hair represents Erewhonian values that coincidentally align with the narrator’s own, for just as the narrator finds key similarities between his culture and the Erewhonians, his light hair and complexion happen to be valuable physical traits in Erewhon. This factor correlates directly with Eurocentric views on race and ethnicity. Because the narrator has light hair, he is excused from his numerous blunders in social interactions, as well as some legal blunders, such as possession of the watch and brief illness. As the novel progresses, however, the narrator’s light hair is not enough to protect him from the growing suspicions of the king and the court that he is not trying in earnest to assimilate into Erewhonian culture. Although the Erewhonians initially revere the narrator’s hair, Butler betrays a flaw in the Erewhonian culture by leading them to regard the narrator with suspicion despite his appearance.
The narrator’s light hair ultimately symbolizes the value of appearance over character, meaning that the Erewhonians think highly of those who are beautiful, even if they are also wicked or foolish. This pattern is expressed in the willingness to overlook crimes, illness, and foolishness in people who are attractive, and the narrator’s light hair often places him in that category. Furthermore, the premise of punishing those who are deemed sick or “ugly” indicates a broader social desire to remove illness and “ugliness” from the genetics of their population; thus, the Erewhonians clearly espouse a version of eugenics. The fact that they ignore the narrator’s light hair in the end, however, indicates that, as with all social standards, exceptions can be made when sufficient suspicion is warranted. In this case, the narrator’s refusal to adopt Erewhonian beliefs combines with his possession of the watch to convince the king and the court that the narrator is fundamentally an outsider to their country, and the light hair comes to represent a kind of cultural disguise.
Assurances of Truth and Validity
From the outset of the novel, the narrator includes insistences and assurances that the work is not fiction. These range from justifications of his actions to promises of honesty, and he often includes his own shortcomings, such as not understanding something or making a mistake, all of which serve to reassure the reader that this is a work of nonfiction. This motif is common in Erewhon as a parody of the genre of travel literature that predates it. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, a similar work of satire, employs assurances of truth as a means of parodying the travel or adventure genre. Common throughout the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, travel or adventure literature could be either fiction or nonfiction, but it held the common pattern of leaving one’s home country, traveling in a foreign land and learning foreign customs, then returning home with the added wisdom of the trip. Erewhon falls into this same category, but like Swift’s famous novel, it is not intended to be read as true nonfiction, and its affectations of authenticity are only a literary device.
The motif of assurances serves to convince the reader that the narrator is being honest, but, in a work of satire, it serves as a predecessor of the trope of the unreliable narrator. Instead of convincing the reader that the narrator is infallible, these protestations of truth imply that the narrator is as much a victim of his own beliefs and ideologies as any of the characters he encounters. For example, when remarking that Chowbok is foolish and stubborn for refusing to accept Christianity, the narrator notes that he tried earnestly to convert Chowbok. This earnestness actually betrays the narrator’s bias in favor of Christianity and against the Indigenous religions, for were the situations reversed, the narrator would certainly refuse to accept Chowbok’s religion, just as he later refuses to accept the Erewhonian religion. Whenever the narrator insists on his own legitimacy, the Butler is prompting the reader to analyze the narrator’s underlying biases and faults.
