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Symbols
Throughout Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, books represent the value of education as well as the capacity of almost everyone to learn and better their own life. Even after Father pulls Nat from school, Nat refuses to stop learning; his natural curiosity leads him to start keeping an obsessive collection of notebooks in which he records everything he learns through conversations with others. Eventually, he discovers that he can learn even more by borrowing books from Mr. Ropes, Dr. Bentley, the Reverend Dr. Prince, and others. Nat’s belief in self-education and self-motivation culminates in the publication of his own book, which aims to teach any interested person who can read and count on their fingers all they need to know to successfully navigate at sea. His success teaching troublemakers like Dan Keeler, self-professed book-“dumb” men like Lem Harvey, and cutthroats like Lupe Sanchez proves the power of education to improve the life of the lowliest person.
Books Quotes in Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
The Carry On, Mr. Bowditch quotes below all refer to the symbol of Books. 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:
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Chapter 8: “Lock, Stock, and Bookkeeper”
Quotes
Back in his own room, Nat stared at the Latin books. Could he do it? Well, he could try! One thing, he thought, if he ever got a chance to go to Harvard, he’d need to know Latin. Just now a chance to go to Harvard seemed farther away than ever. But, he told himself, you never could tell what might happen. If the chance came, he’d be ready.
By the next summer, he had learned enough Latin to begin to translate the Principia. It seemed to him that he lived in two worlds now. One was the world of the chandlery, where he kept books and sold marlinespikes, belaying pins, and hemp rope. The other was the world of the universe, where he translated Newton’s Principia—a word at a time, until he had read another sentence. Sometimes he spent a whole evening working on two or three sentences.
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Books Symbol Timeline in Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
The timeline below shows where the symbol Books appears in Carry On, Mr. Bowditch. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3: Word from the Pilgrim
...him arguing with the Reverend Dr. Prince and Dr. Holyoke over the fate of some books he purchased at the auction. When Dr. Stearns sees Nat and Lizza, he informs them...
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Chapter 7: The Almanac
...an errand to research the start of surveying in his copy of Chambers’s Cyclopaedia. This book, Nat soon discovers, contains information on every topic under the sun, and he soon delves...
(full context)
Chapter 8: “Lock, Stock, and Bookkeeper”
...its comprehensive breadth, but each time he reads an entry, he wishes for a whole book on the subject. For instance, astronomy. Dr. Bentley lends Nat his copy of Newton’s Principia...
(full context)
Chapter 9: Anchor to Windward
...agreed to extend him a free membership. They started the collection with a bounty of books seized many years ago from a British ship by the Pilgrim and rescued from Dr....
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...her home. She leaves before Nat collects his wits enough to open it. It’s a book—in Latin.
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Chapter 17: Lunars and Moonlight
...visit, not yet willing to take on a platonic role in her life. Mr. Blunt’s book provides a welcome excuse to avoid her after he’s done with the Astrea’s business. Mr....
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Reverend Dr. Prince visits and reminds Nat to use the Salem Philosophical Library—the books miss having a reader who understands them as well as Nat, he says. Dr. Holyoke—a...
(full context)
Chapter 18: The Astrea to the Rescue
Nat boards the Astrea with an extra sea chest full of charts and books—on the voyage he plans to check all the yet-unprinted tables because so many people’s lives...
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Chapter 21: “Sealing is Safer”
...the new moon and asks Nat for some silver to jingle. Nat doesn’t take the book manuscript with him on their honeymoon, but, at Polly’s urging, they cut the trip short...
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