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
Three days later, it looks like it’s going to snow again. Matt is busy carrying firewood inside when he hears the dog barking and follows the sound to the river. A large shape is coming toward him—and Matt realizes it’s his family. He races for his father and then embraces his mother, who struggles to climb off the sled. Sarah just stares at Matt, and Matt gives her an awkward hug. Matt tells the dog to be quiet and leads his family to the cabin.
Finally, Matt’s family arrives, months after he expected them. This is no doubt gratifying for Matt, as it’s now clear to him that he made the right choice to stay. Matt’s willingness to hug Sarah highlights how much he’s grown and changed over the last few months: she’s not a pest anymore. She’s his sister, a fellow person, and maybe a friend.
Themes
Matt has to help his mother inside because she’s weak and barely able to stand. He settles her on a stool by the fire, noticing that she’s very thin and pale. She says she insisted they get here before Christmas. Matt’s father says it was typhus—they all got sick, but Matt’s mother insisted they get moving. She says she couldn’t stand thinking about Matt alone up here. Matt says he wasn’t alone; he often had the Native Americans. Sarah looks afraid, but Matt says they were his friends—and he had a Native brother. Judging by his family’s stares, Matt knows he’ll have to explain this one to them. They might not ever understand. He watches his father look around the cabin at the bow, the snowshoes, and at all the other things the tribe gave Matt or taught him to make.
Typhus, or typhus fever, is a disease that can last up to several weeks and can be fatal. As Matt and his mother discuss the Native Americans, it becomes clear that they have very different ideas of what was going on here while Matt was on his own. Matt made friends and learned important survival skills—while Matt’s mother fears that he was here totally alone, and then that he was engaging with people she likely considers dangerous. Matt may or may not be able to help her change her perspective, especially since the tribe has left and Matt’s mother might not be able to engage directly with any Native people herself.
Themes
Matt’s father says they must unload the sled before it snows again. Outside with him, Matt asks where the baby is. Matt’s father says it only lived five days, and Matt shouldn’t say anything to his mother. Then, Matt’s father puts a hand on Matt’s shoulder and says he’s proud of Matt—Matt did “a man’s job.” Matt can’t speak. He knows that this is how Attean felt when he found his manitou, and he can’t think of how he almost left with Attean’s family.
The baby’s death is tragic, and it should impress upon readers how difficult life is in this time period. However, Matt quickly shifts to focusing on his father’s praise. In this moment, Matt accepts that he really has come of age over the last few months. But it’s only real to him when his father—the person he admires most—acknowledges it.
Themes
Matt and his father unload flour, quilts, new clothes, and a new kettle. Matt’s father has a new rifle, while Matt discovers that his mother has been carrying Matt’s old rifle. He knows she’d use it if she had to, as would Sarah. Sarah, for her part, seems so grown up as she unpacks the family’s items. She comments on the dog, which won’t come near her. Matt explains that he doesn’t trust white people easily. He realizes he should’ve made Sarah a bow instead of a doll.
While Matt knows how to make most things he needs, items like quilts and a new kettle are still nice luxuries. Having them now, though, suggests that Matt is beginning to move back toward settler culture. He no longer has to rely on the forest to give him everything he needs.
Themes
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Matt’s mother admires everything in the cabin and marvels at all of Matt’s stored food. As Matt turns to head back outside for another load, his mother stops him and says she wants to look at him. She remarks that he’s gotten so tall and thin—and his skin is so dark, she could almost mistake him for a Native American. He jokes that he almost became one, hoping that she’ll never find out about him almost going with Attean’s family. She happily tells Matt that they’re going to have neighbors in the spring, and a few other families are planning to settle nearby. There will be a mill and a town and a school before long. Matt knows he should be happy, but he likes the woods as they are right now.
Matt’s mother’s comment about Matt looking as dark as a Native American is cringeworthy, but it also highlights her unexamined bigotry. What makes a person Native, she implies, is their skin color—a decidedly narrow and racist view of non-European peoples. Further, she’s also very happy that more people are going to settle here, and she seems not to think at all about the Native Americans who are being displaced.
Themes
As Matt listens to his family talk, he thinks of the Native Americans. He wishes Saknis and Attean knew that Matt’s family finally arrived. But Matt also knows that Saknis had been right: more white settlers are coming, and soon, there will be a town where Saknis and his tribe once hunted. Matt wishes he could know if Attean and Saknis found new hunting grounds. But as Matt puts his hands into the pockets of his new jacket, he thinks about the stew he’ll cook for his family and about eating with them tonight. When they’re done with dinner, he’ll tell them about Attean.
On one hand, Matt acknowledges that it’s tragic that Saknis and his tribe have been pushed west thanks to settlers like him. There’s something profoundly sad about a town springing up where Saknis’s tribe has lived and hunted for generations. However, once again, Matt chooses not to think about these uncomfortable thoughts and focus on the future and caring for his family. With this, the novel ends highlighting that for as much as Matt learned from Attean, he isn’t fully willing or able to give up his settler mindset.
Themes
