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
Attean doesn’t bring his dog on the day of his and Matt’s “greatest adventure.” Matt feels proud of himself when he manages to shoot a rabbit with his bow while Attean watches. He follows Attean through the forest to the beaver dam, swinging his rabbit by the ears. Suddenly, Attean stops and shushes Matt—and ahead of them, a bear cub sticks its head out of the bushes. Moments later, the bear’s mother pulls the cub out of sight and, looking angry and menacing, rises onto her hind legs. Matt throws the rabbit at the bear, hitting her on the nose, which gives Attean time to shoot an arrow into the bear’s forehead and then her shoulder. Attean then leaps onto the bear and stabs her with a knife. Moments after, the bear dies.
The day begins with Matt symbolically dominating nature by shooting the rabbit (though it’s worth noting that Matt shoots a small prey animal). But quickly, nature shows how dangerous and powerful it can be when the mother bear threatens the boys. The woods, this suggests, aren’t just a playground and supermarket for Matt and Attean. Dangers do lurk in it, and for their own safety, they can’t forget that they’re vulnerable to creatures like bears.
Themes
Matt is horrified. His knees are shaking and to try to hide how afraid he was, he smiles at Attean. Attean, though, isn’t smiling. He stands over the bear, speaking very seriously. When he’s finished, he tells Matt he told the bear that he didn’t want to kill her, and he asked for her forgiveness. Matt is adamant that they had to kill her, since she would’ve killed them. Attean smiles and says Matt moved fast—like a Native. Matt blushes as Attean explains that the women will come and butcher the bear. He then reminds Matt to grab his rabbit. Matt doesn’t want the bloody and mangled rabbit now, but he knows Attean expects him to use it. He also resents that Attean seems to have no intention of sharing the meat. That Attean complimented Matt’s reaction time will have to be enough.
Attean may acknowledge that the bear presented a real danger to the boys. However, it’s possible to acknowledge that and also feel bad for killing a mother bear, leaving her cub to an unknown fate. With his apology, Attean demonstrates his respect for nature—something Matt hasn’t fully learned yet. This is evident in the way that Matt doesn’t want his rabbit anymore. It may be a bit mangled, but it’s still useful meat and fur—and as Attean sees it, it’d be disrespectful to abandon it just because it now looks a mess.
Themes
