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
Matt decides he needs a bow like Attean’s—Attean can shoot ducks out of the air with his. Years ago, in Massachusetts, Matt and his friends made play bows, so he has some experience. However, the bow Matt makes doesn’t shoot well, and when Attean catches Matt practicing with it, he says he’ll find Matt better wood. Attean chooses a long, dead ash branch and coaches Matt through scraping it clean and then shaving it down so it’s as big around as a finger. Then, Attean coats the wood with some fat from Matt’s fish stew and spends hours twisting spruce roots for the string. Slowly, Attean bends the bow until he can loop the string over both ends. He says it’ll shoot “pretty good” and cuts Matt some birch for arrows.
While Matt used a bow and arrows as toys back in Massachusetts, he now recognizes that Native tools like a bow aren’t toys. Rather, a bow could help him feed himself. While this illustrates Matt’s growing respect for indigenous tools and methods, Matt still needs Attean’s help to craft a useful bow, as Matt doesn’t have the skills to make one that’s very functional. Attean’s help means that Matt becomes increasingly independent in the forest.
Themes
Matt is thrilled with his bow—but it’s difficult to shoot. It hurls arrows into brush well away from where Matt aimed. But Matt practices every day, and after a while, Attean replaces the spruce string with animal sinew. With practice, Matt manages to hit the edge of his target—soon, the squirrels will need to watch out.
As Matt practices with his bow, he shows that he’s increasingly sold on using indigenous methods to survive. The difficulty of shooting the bow highlights that these methods are in no way easy; they take practice. However, once a person is competent, they’re extremely effective.
Themes
