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Chapter 4: “Boys Don’t Blubber”
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Hard Work, Perseverance, and Success
Safety and Responsibility
Risk and Reward
The Growth and Development of America
Courage and Grief
Summary
Analysis
Early in the first winter after the peace treaty, Nat runs—literally—into Dr. Bentley, the new, Harvard-educated pastor in town. Dr. Bentley comments on the thinness of Nat’s coat. Nat quickly answers that only sissies need winter coats, then rapidly tries to backtrack his words to avoid insulting the warmly-dressed pastor. Dr. Bentley laughs Nat’s unintentional insult off and asks why he’s not in school. He’s heard about Nat’s exceptional abilities from Master Watson. Later that evening, Nat learns from Lizza that Dr. Bentley dropped by and told Mother that Nat should be in school, preparing for a Harvard education. But while Mother thanked him for his kind words, she worries over the impossibility of his advice.
Nat initially applies Hab’s lesson that boys don’t blubber too broadly; with maturity (as this incident illustrates) he gradually learns that the point isn’t to deny suffering—it’s to accept suffering patiently. Dr. Bentley’s visit to the home points toward the serious interest the educated men in the community take in Nat because of his intelligence and mathematical skills. Although it doesn’t initially carry a sense of responsibility, soon Bentley and others will assume a more active role in Nat’s education that demonstrates how members of a community should take care of one another.
Themes
Just before Christmas that winter, Mother dies. The night after her funeral, Father sits at the table with his head in his hands and promises Granny that he’ll try harder to support his family. She encourages him but worries that he lost his anchor when Mother died. Two years later, in 1785, when Nat is 12, Granny dies. Again, Father sits at the table with his head in his hands, promising his eldest child, Mary, that he’ll do better.
Father’s boat sank after the anchor he was using to hold it off a nearby reef became detached, allowing the boat to drift. Granny worries that Mother’s steady presence provided a much-needed point of stability in Father’s life and that without her, he will struggle more than he has already. And the loss of Mother and then Granny seems to magnify his haplessness, betraying how much he relied on others to assume responsibility for helping him to face the world.
Themes
Not long after Granny dies, Nat wakes up from a restless sleep to hear Father talking to Mary in the kitchen below. He can’t hear much, but he gathers that Father has arranged to send him away to school, since the family could do with “one less mouth to feed.” Surprised to find himself crying when he feels so happy, Nat reminds himself that “boys don’t blubber.” Nat promises himself that he'll work harder than he ever has when he gets to Harvard. The whole family will be proud of him!
Considering Father’s ongoing inability to gather his courage and support his family, their ongoing poverty soon requires other members to step up and reduce the demands on Father’s small income. Nat can’t believe his good luck, since his “sacrifice” will require doing the thing he most dreams of, excelling in school. But even as he faces this happy proposition, his determination to work hard and succeed partially draws on his sense of responsibility toward his family; success and responsibility go together in his mind.
Themes
In the morning, Nat finds Mary and Father at the table. Father stares with concentration at some paperwork before clearing his throat. Father tells Nat that he’s been in conversation with Jonathan Hodges, co-owner of a Salem chandlery (the store that sells supplies for sea voyages). Hodges thinks that a few months’ instruction with teacher Michael Walsh will give Nat what he needs to prepare him for an apprenticeship as a bookkeeper at Ropes and Hodges.
Getting Nat out of the house serves Father’s immediate need, but it binds Nat to a nearly inescapable path toward life as a tradesman, not an educated Harvard man. After the loss of his mother and grandmother, Nat finds himself facing still more grief.
Themes
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The papers are an indenture contract, which will bind Nat to service at the chandlery for nine years. Tears sting Nat’s eyes as he realizes the implications of Father’s plan. Not only must he work in the chandlery for nine years, but he must live with Mr. Hodges, too! Nat steals a glance at Mary’s worried face, then swallows his own tears and tries to crack a joke. He bravely whistles as he walks to Walsh’s house for his lessons, even though he feels trapped.
Indentured servants bound themselves to the service of a master for a set period of time in exchange for learning a trade, room and board, and sometimes other financial investments like the cost of a trip from Europe to North America. Although many indentured servants faced abuse, mistreatment, and some never earned their freedom back, in theory, indenture provides one pathway to achieve success through hard work and persistence. It’s not the life Nat imagined for himself, but, remembering his responsibility to take care of his family, Nat puts a brave face on to cover up his own devastating sense of disappointment.
Themes
