Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Sign of the Beaver, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Survival and Indigenous Knowledge
Colonialism, Land Rights, and Entitlement
Nature
Friendship and Respect
Coming of Age and Manhood
Summary
Analysis
Not long after, Matt lays out his notched sticks. It’s been seven weeks; his father should be here soon with his mother, Sarah, and the new baby. It’ll be wonderful to have his family around—and hopefully, his mother can take over the reading lessons. Attean clearly hates the lessons, though he keeps coming. And though Attean often makes Matt feel ridiculous, Matt still misses Attean when Attean doesn’t come. After the lessons, the boys sometimes go fishing or check the snares. Attean sometimes watches Matt weed the corn, though Attean imperiously deems it women’s work and never helps. Matt thinks it must be nice to spend one’s days hunting and fishing instead of working, but that’s not how Matt wants to live.
Matt finds himself relying more on Attean’s company in his family’s absence, and the two seem to be developing more of a friendship. Still, Matt remains pretty imperious and unaware of what Attean’s life is actually like. For instance, Attean isn’t weeding a corn patch like Matt is, but hunting and fishing is still work—it’s just work that Matt finds more fun than weeding. Both boys also begin to develop their ideas of what makes a good man. As far as Attean is concerned, real men don’t garden. Matt’s culture is different, and the tasks he thinks of as manly are necessarily different.
Themes
Attean sometimes brings a sorry-looking dog with him. It’s clearly been in a lot of fights, and its snout is lumpy and bumpy. Attean says the dog doesn’t have a name and that it’s a piz wat—a good-for-nothing dog that will fight anything, bears included. He explains the lumps on the dog’s nose are from when it chased a porcupine. Despite what Attean says about the dog being useless, he clearly loves it, and the dog adores him. Matt is secretly jealous, though he’d never want this dog—it hates him. It growls at him and scares away game when the boys go hunting in the woods.
Through Attean’s relationship with his dog, readers and Matt get a closer look at his personality. He’s sarcastic and dry—Matt knows Attean is joking when he says the dog is useless. This speaks to how Matt is learning more about Attean as their friendship deepens. He’s not just an expressionless Native person, as Matt initially described him. Rather, Attean is a person like Matt, with a sense of humor and a dog who loves him.
Themes
One day, Attean leads Matt deep into the woods. Matt isn’t sure he could find his way back—is Attean trying to make Matt feel helpless? Matt knows that’s not true, as he does trust Attean and the boys are no longer enemies. They come upon some crudely hacked-off tree stumps and then reach a creek—and Matt notices a beaver dam in it. The beaver smacks its tail on the water, creating a noise like a gunshot. Matt jumps and Attean laughs.
Matt is beginning to trust Attean more; he no longer sees Attean as an adversary. Because of this, Matt now gets to enjoy more natural wonders than he would’ve prior to meeting Attean, such as the beaver and its dam. In this context, the forest itself is somewhat scary, but the natural world provides endless entertainment.
Themes
When Matt wishes he had his rifle, Attean says this beaver is too young to shoot. Then, he points to a nearby tree and the “[s]ign of beaver” carved into it; this beaver belongs to his family, and only “people of beaver” will one day hunt here. Other Native people will see the sign on the tree and respect it. Matt figures most white men wouldn’t care, even if they noticed the sign and knew what it meant. Still, he’ll tell his father when his father returns.
Attean continues to educate Matt so that Matt can safely and respectfully navigate the forest. Now, Matt can be respectful to animals (as by not killing them too young) and to the local tribes who hunt in these forests, and have done so long before settlers arrived. Matt shows that he’s taking Attean’s lessons to heart when he vows to tell his father about the beaver signs: he now respects Attean and his tribe, so he doesn’t want to step on their toes. But even Matt realizes that he’s unlike other settlers in this regard.
Themes
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Then, Attean tells Matt to lead the way home. Matt asks if this is a trick, but Attean says Matt needs to learn. Taking the lead, Attean walks off, pointing to broken sticks, tufts of grass, and carefully-placed stones. Matt remembers Attean making these markers, but he thought nothing of them the first time. Matt says his father uses slashes on trees, but Attean says this way, nobody will know where they went—or where to find the beaver. Matt is ashamed that he thought Attean was trying to trick him. Following along, he realizes that he and Attean are Robinson Crusoe and Friday in reverse: the “savage” knows just what to do, while Matt follows diligently. Matt doesn’t want to be Attean’s master, but he would like to earn the boy’s respect. Attean suddenly stops and offers Matt some sap from a tree, which becomes a pleasant gum.
Attean makes the case that it’s a safety issue for Matt to learn how to navigate the woods, especially without leaving a trace. It also ensures that Matt can be respectful of any Native-made trail markers he finds. All of this impresses upon Matt how little he knows about navigating the wilderness, and how indebted he is to Attean. And in turn, this leads Matt to again question the premise of Robinson Crusoe. Does it even make sense, Matt wonders, for Crusoe to subjugate and enslave Friday when Native peoples, in Matt’s experience, are knowledgeable and helpful?
Themes
