osed society, as he is one of the few members of the Waknuk community, who has alternative knowledge to that which is preached by members of the town in which he lives. The theme of the nature of a closed society refers to the fact that people who live in such communities aren’t able to question what they are taught as they are they are deprived of the knowledge which travelling and other people can teach them. When reading the novel it is clear that Axel identifies with the text’s criticisms of intolerance. Axel disagrees with the intolerance toward things different from the normal, as he himself is not physically the same as others in Waknuk. Axel Morton however is not a deviant because his abnormality was obtained after birth in a sailing accident. “He was standing in the customary way, with much of his weight upon the thick stick he used because his leg had been wrongly set at sea”. This quote reveals Axel Morton’s difference from the norm, and although it is not a huge variation, he still had to cope with that difference, and his inability to perform certain tasks that others could do. Although this difference from the norm was not deviational, he was still able to sympathise with true deviants, as he knew what it was like to be different to others around him. His difference form the norm was not the only reason for which he sympathised with deviants, but his knowledge also of other places and people, allowed him to have an open mind about certain viewpoints, which others did not. Axel Morton as a character is used to convey the theme of intolerance in the novel, in the sense that he disagrees with the intolerance of others around him, and criticises the intolerant beliefs upon which the society is based.Sophie Wender is a minor character in the novel who also conveys the theme of intolerance. Sophie Wender is a deviant in the sense that she had six toes instead of the normal five. For this very small ...
