38 pages • 1 hour read
Becky ChambersA Psalm for the Wild-Built
Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 2021A 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
Choice
Choice is a recurring motif throughout the work. Through choices, characters assert their freedom and their desire to determine their path. Dex chooses to leave their comfortable life as a garden monk at the inner-city monastery and to become a self-taught tea monk. Tellingly, Sister Mara, the monastery’s Keeper, calmly and supportively accepts this decision. Choice, and therefore freedom, are tenants of Pangan religious life.
Furthermore, Dex is provided with a wagon through which to practice their chosen vocation, illustrating that disciples of Allalae are provided with the necessary resources to practically pursue their choices. The reader is invited to reflect on the differences between Panga and our own capitalist lives on Earth, where choices are restricted by access—or lack thereof—to wealth and resources. Chambers continues to present a utopian society; autonomy is not dictated by material wealth, and material wealth is not celebrated as an indicator of one’s worthiness as a person or as a professional.
Choice is an assertion of freedom. Chambers explores this through Mosscap’s decision to carry Dex’s water tank. Dex feels uncomfortable with Mosscap assisting them, as this carries connotations of humanity’s subjugation of robots in pre-Transition Panga. However, Mosscap points out that Dex is limiting Mosscap’s freedom by refusing to accept its help; although Dex is well-intentioned, they are misguided—“if you don’t want to infringe on my agency, let me have agency. I want to carry the tank” (83). For Mosscap, freedom is being allowed to help its friend, Dex, and Dex must accept this, despite the uncomfortable associations they feel with Panga’s historical mistakes.
Inkthorn
Inkthorn, a village in the Riverlands which Dex visits on their route as a tea monk, epitomizes Pangan society’s desire to minimize harm to the natural spaces which they share their lives with. It is a symbol of sustainable and considered living, and contrasts sharply with the imagery of pre-Transition Panga—and by extension, industrialized Earth.
The structures in the trees, built from recycled wood or from dead trees, are suspended so as to avoid impacting the complex biosphere of the forest floor, which is considered “a living thing” (26). Structures integrate turf roofs and solar panels so as to extend natural spaces and to provide naturally sourced power. Paths cut through the ground-level are done so only when absolutely necessary for the acquisition of resources or materials. Through Inkthorn, Chambers conjures warm and hopeful imagery replete with structures designed by people who care for the land where they live. She offers a critique by implying a contrast with our own mechanized and modernized world, which has expanded indifferently into many complex and beautiful natural spaces, and thereby destroyed these spaces.
Crickets
Crickets are a symbol of the wonder and lure of wild spaces, which Dex yearns to explore. Their desire to hear crickets inspires them to become a tea monk, which allows them to travel around Panga on their bicycle-powered wagon. They are still left with a feeling of restlessness though, and reflect that they still haven’t heard crickets singing in the wild. Dex’s longing to hear crickets reflects how their desire for adventure and exploration has not yet been satisfied.
Through their journey toward the hermitage and their friendship with Mosscap, Dex learns that they have permission to simply exist and marvel, rather than needing to define themselves with a clear purpose. The wonder of the hermitage and the forest around them allows them to come to this realization, as is implied through the peaceful ending with its simple, declarative sentences—“the robot poured. Sibling Dex drank. In the worlds outside, the sun set, and crickets began to sing” (147). In this scene, crickets denote the incredible and beautiful untouched world of the forest, which Dex has finally reached, and which allows them to feel peaceful, content, and at ease to simply “be.”
Related Titles
By Becky Chambers
