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Chapter 1
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Lyddie, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Bravery, Endurance, and Hope
Labor, Enslavement, and Racial Prejudice
Biological Family vs. Found Family
Written Language and Power
Gender Inequality
Summary
Analysis
Lyddie and Charlie resolve to sell the calf and save the money to pay off the family debt. As Lyddie packs up, she thinks about her family’s string of bad luck. Her father had been born in Connecticut, one of seven sons. He bought land in Vermont in the hopes of having a farm of his own, but the land was poor quality and the crops never flourished. Then, he borrowed money to buy sheep, just as the wool market collapsed.
In this historical moment, more than two centuries after the first colonists claimed land in the United States, many young men struggled with the same landlessness and poverty that confronts Lyddie’s father. Lyddie’s father’s bad luck also shows how entrenched inequity can be: people who were born into poverty could not afford to buy good land, so even their attempts to build wealth only led to more poverty.
Active
Themes
Before Lyddie and Charlie head out, they pile a stack of wood at the front door of the house, barricading the place from intruders. Finally, they set off with the calf in tow, which Lyddie plans to sell to Quaker Stevens. When Stevens learns that Lyddie and Charlie spent the whole winter alone, he offers Lyddie a much better price than she was expecting for the calf (25 dollars). He also invites Lyddie and Charlie in for lunch, though Lyddie is suspicious of Stevens’s radical politics.
Lyddie’s decision to barricade the door shows that her self-protective instincts extend to her family’s cabin, Lyddie’s most beloved place. The radical politics Lyddie references are likely abolitionism, as Quakers were among the most fervent white anti-slavery advocates. But even though Lyddie paints these politics as suspect, it is clear from the exchange with the calf that Quaker Stevens is never motivated by anything but generosity and kindness.
Active
Themes
After lunch, Stevens’s oldest son Luke volunteers to give Lyddie and Charlie a ride to town. Lyddie feels self-conscious being so close to Luke, and she feels envious that Luke has gotten such a good education. She hopes that the miller will let Charlie go to school sometimes, and she worries about Charlie’s frail frame. As they say goodbye, Luke promises to look in on Charlie periodically, which Lyddie feels both “pleased” and “annoyed” about.
Active
Themes
