Engineered Violence and Inheritance in Sundial: Is Cruelty Coded, Conditioned, or Chosen?

The Thematic Claim: Cruelty as a Tangle of Code, Conditioning, and Choice

In Sundial, Catriona Ward refuses a simple answer to the question of where violence comes from. The novel proposes that cruelty is not a single inheritance—biological, environmental, or volitional—but a braided stream where each strand contaminates the others. The central mechanism, the “click,” is a genetic modification designed to suppress violent tendencies, yet it fails unpredictably, suggesting that biology alone cannot determine behavior. At the same time, the novel shows how trauma and upbringing shape characters like Rob and Callie, who must actively choose whether to perpetuate or break cycles of harm. The thematic claim is that cruelty is engineered—both literally through genetic tinkering and figuratively through the stories we inherit and the choices we make—and that inheritance is never destiny.

The Click: Violence as Genetic Engineering

The novel’s most explicit exploration of engineered violence comes through the “click,” a genetic modification developed by Mia and Falcon at Sundial. In chapter 27, Rob learns that she and her twin sister Jack were found as feral children, raised in cages, and that Mia and Falcon “made a tiny edit to the MAOA-L” to calm their violent tendencies. This is the “warrior gene” that Mia has been studying in dogs, as Rob recalls in chapter 14: “Mia looks for what she calls the psycho murderer gene.” The click is presented as a technological fix for a biological predisposition, but it is unreliable. Mia explains that the click “doesn’t stop cutting” and can “start pasting the wrong material back into the code,” causing psychosis and hyperaggression, as seen in the dog Twenty-Three. The click thus becomes a symbol of the hubris of believing violence can be surgically removed from nature.

The failure of the click in Jack—who begins to display “signs” of the old violence, including a star-shaped scar on her neck from when Rob stabbed her as a child—shows that genetic engineering cannot erase the effects of early trauma. Jack’s golden eyes in chapter 35, when she claims to fly at night and eat memories, suggest a regression to a predatory state, but Callie’s act of slashing the coins from Jack’s eyes restores her blue eyes, implying that even a modified mind can be reached by human connection. The click, then, is not a cure but a temporary patch, and the novel questions whether any code can override the lived experience of suffering.

Conditioned Cruelty: The Legacy of Trauma

If the click represents biological inheritance, the novel also shows how cruelty is conditioned through environment. Rob’s own childhood—caged, starved, and forced to fight for survival—is revealed in chapter 27. Mia describes how Rob and Jack were “damaged” and how Rob once tried to kill Mia with a wire. Rob’s instinct for violence was a survival mechanism, not a choice. Yet as an adult, Rob channels that instinct into protecting her children, even as she struggles with her own capacity for harm. Her marriage to Irving is a study in conditioned cruelty: Irving’s threats, his manipulation, and his physical abuse (as seen in chapter 1 when he throws a glass and threatens to take Callie) create a domestic environment where violence is normalized. Rob’s response—locking doors, hiding keys, writing in her Arrowood notebooks—is a conditioned vigilance, but she also chooses to resist Irving’s control.

The conditioning extends to the next generation. Callie, in chapter 25, reflects on her own lack of guilt: “I don’t seem to feel bad about things in the way regular people do.” She reads about killers and thinks about escalation, but she also uses that knowledge to protect Annie. Annie, meanwhile, is revealed in chapter 37 to have been the one who hid dead animals and framed Callie for stealing medicine. Annie’s cruelty appears to be innate, but the novel suggests it may be a product of her environment—the tension between her parents, the neglect she feels when Rob focuses on Callie, and the example of violence around her. The question of whether Annie is “born bad” or “made bad” is left open, but the novel emphasizes that conditioning can be resisted: Callie chooses to take the blame to protect Annie, even as she knows Annie is dangerous.

Choice and Resistance: Breaking the Cycle

The third strand of the thematic claim is personal choice. Rob’s decision to take Callie to Sundial is an attempt to separate her from Annie and to confront the legacy of violence head-on. In chapter 36, Rob kills Irving—a premeditated act of violence that she justifies as protecting her daughters. She reflects on her plan to lure him to the desert and inject air into his heart, and she carries it out. This is not a conditioned reflex but a deliberate choice, and the novel does not shy away from its moral complexity. Rob’s violence is both a repetition of her past (she has killed before, as a child) and a break from it (she kills to save, not to survive).

Callie’s choices are even more explicit. In chapter 33, when Irving arrives at Sundial, Callie presses the controller, hoping to summon the dogs, even though she knows it is broken. She later tells Rob that she pressed the button, but Rob insists it is not her fault. Callie’s choice to protect her mother, and later to confess that Annie is the real culprit, shows that she can override her own conditioned responses. In chapter 37, Callie recalls how she helped Annie hide dead animals and took the blame for the medicine poisoning, saying she will have to protect Annie for the rest of her life. This is a conscious decision to bear the burden of her sister’s violence, not because she is cruel, but because she loves her. The novel thus argues that while cruelty may be coded or conditioned, individuals can choose to act against it.

Symbols and Complexity

The novel’s symbols reinforce the theme. The click itself is a literal symbol of engineered violence, but it also represents the idea that violence can be “switched on” or “off” like a remote control—a false hope that the novel dismantles. The animal bones that Callie collects (chapter 3) are evidence of Annie’s cruelty, but they also become a symbol of death and inheritance, as Callie keeps them hidden, much as Rob hides her own violent past. The maggots that Irving warms in chapter 1 are a grotesque image of decay and transformation, suggesting that violence, like maggots, can emerge from rot and feed on the living. The sundial itself, a symbol of time and measurement, points to the way inheritance is passed down through generations, but also to the possibility of change—a sundial only tells time if the sun shines, and the characters must choose to step into the light.

The complexity lies in the novel’s refusal to assign blame. Rob is both a victim and a perpetrator; Jack is both a sister and a threat; Annie is both a child and a monster. The click fails, but so does the environment—Irving’s abuse, Mia’s experiments, the isolation of Sundial. The novel suggests that cruelty is not a single inheritance but a confluence of factors, and that the only way to break the cycle is through conscious, often painful, choices. Rob’s final act—comforting Callie and promising they are safe—is a choice to love rather than to harm, even as she knows Annie is still out there.

Study Questions and Answers

1. How does the “click” function as a symbol of biological inheritance, and why does it fail?

The click is a genetic modification designed to suppress violent tendencies, but it fails because it cannot account for the complexity of trauma and environment. Mia explains that the click can “start pasting the wrong material back into the code,” causing psychosis and hyperaggression, as seen in the dog Twenty-Three. Jack’s regression to violence despite the click shows that biology alone cannot determine behavior.

1. In what ways does Rob’s childhood condition her for violence, and how does she resist that conditioning?

Rob was raised in a cage, starved, and forced to fight for survival, leading to violent instincts. As an adult, she channels those instincts into protecting her daughters, but she also makes deliberate choices to resist—such as refusing to let Irving control her, and ultimately killing him to save Callie. Her violence is both a repetition and a break from her past.

1. How does Callie’s relationship with Annie complicate the idea of inherited cruelty?

Callie takes the blame for Annie’s actions, even though she knows Annie is the one who hid dead animals and framed her. This shows that cruelty is not simply inherited—Callie chooses to protect Annie despite Annie’s violent tendencies, suggesting that love can override conditioning.

1. What role do symbols like animal bones and maggots play in the theme of engineered violence?

Animal bones represent the physical evidence of violence and death, while maggots symbolize decay and transformation. Both suggest that violence is a natural, organic process that can emerge from rot, but also that it can be transformed—just as Callie uses the bones to understand Annie, and Rob uses her past to protect her children.

1. Does the novel ultimately argue that cruelty is coded, conditioned, or chosen?

The novel argues that cruelty is all three, but that choice is the most important factor. While the click represents biological coding, and trauma represents conditioning, the characters’ decisions—Rob’s to kill Irving, Callie’s to protect Annie—show that individuals can resist their inheritance. The ending, with Rob and Callie driving to save Annie, leaves the question open, but suggests that love and choice can break the cycle.