The Sign of the Beaver

by

Elizabeth George Speare

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Matt’s Mother Character Analysis

Matt’s mother stays behind in Quincy, Massachusetts with Matt’s sister Sarah while Matt and his father ready their homestead in Maine. Matt thinks of his mother often and remembers her as a kind, loving woman who appreciates beautiful things. Particularly as winter comes, Matt tries to do things that he believes will make his mother happy, like braid corn together to hang on the wall. She’s pregnant when Matt and his father leave, and Matt learns once his family arrives at the cabin that the baby only lived for five days.

Matt’s Mother Quotes in The Sign of the Beaver

The The Sign of the Beaver quotes below are all either spoken by Matt’s Mother or refer to Matt’s Mother. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Survival and Indigenous Knowledge Theme Icon
).
Chapter 14 Quotes

Matt was puzzled. He had heard that the Indians worshipped the Great Spirit. This Gluskabe did not sound like a Great Spirit. He sounded more like one of the heroes in the old folk tales his mother had told him when he was a child. He decided it would be impolite to ask more. He wondered if the Indians had many stories like that. And how could it be that here in the forest they had learned about the flood?

Related Characters: Matt, Attean, Matt’s Mother
Page Number: 70
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 21 Quotes

He was proud that they had wanted him to live with them. But he knew that he could never be really proud, as Attean was proud, of being a hunter. He belonged to his own people. He was bound to his own family, as Attean was bound to his grandfather. The thought he might never see his mother again was sharper than hunger or loneliness. This was the land his father had cleared to make a home for them all. It was his own land, too. He could not run away.

Related Characters: Matt, Attean, Saknis, Matt’s Father, Matt’s Mother
Page Number: 114
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 25 Quotes

“You’ve done a grown man’s job, son,” he said. “I’m right proud of you.”

Matt could not speak. It took his breath away to think that he might have gone with the Indians, that they might have come to an empty cabin and found that all his mother’s fears had come true. He would never have heard the words his father had just spoken. This was how Attean had felt, he knew, when he had found his manitou and became a hunter.

Related Characters: Matt’s Father (speaker), Matt, Attean, Matt’s Mother
Page Number: 133
Explanation and Analysis:
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Matt’s Mother Quotes in The Sign of the Beaver

The The Sign of the Beaver quotes below are all either spoken by Matt’s Mother or refer to Matt’s Mother. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Survival and Indigenous Knowledge Theme Icon
).
Chapter 14 Quotes

Matt was puzzled. He had heard that the Indians worshipped the Great Spirit. This Gluskabe did not sound like a Great Spirit. He sounded more like one of the heroes in the old folk tales his mother had told him when he was a child. He decided it would be impolite to ask more. He wondered if the Indians had many stories like that. And how could it be that here in the forest they had learned about the flood?

Related Characters: Matt, Attean, Matt’s Mother
Page Number: 70
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 21 Quotes

He was proud that they had wanted him to live with them. But he knew that he could never be really proud, as Attean was proud, of being a hunter. He belonged to his own people. He was bound to his own family, as Attean was bound to his grandfather. The thought he might never see his mother again was sharper than hunger or loneliness. This was the land his father had cleared to make a home for them all. It was his own land, too. He could not run away.

Related Characters: Matt, Attean, Saknis, Matt’s Father, Matt’s Mother
Page Number: 114
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 25 Quotes

“You’ve done a grown man’s job, son,” he said. “I’m right proud of you.”

Matt could not speak. It took his breath away to think that he might have gone with the Indians, that they might have come to an empty cabin and found that all his mother’s fears had come true. He would never have heard the words his father had just spoken. This was how Attean had felt, he knew, when he had found his manitou and became a hunter.

Related Characters: Matt’s Father (speaker), Matt, Attean, Matt’s Mother
Page Number: 133
Explanation and Analysis: