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Flashbacks
Volume 1, Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Faith and Magawisca:
Faith and Magawisca are foils, representing parallel yet opposite outcomes of cross-cultural kidnapping. In Volume 1, Chapter 2, Mrs. Fletcher asks if Magawisca is tired from the journey to Bethel:
“My foot,” replied Magawisca, “is used to the wild-wood path. The deer tires not of his way on the mountain, nor the bird of its flight in the air.”
This is Magawisca's first introduction in the novel. Mr. Fletcher has described her as an American Indian "servant" who was taken to Boston and placed in the service of Hope and Faith's family. Magawisca makes it clear in this line that she is effectively enslaved, and that she belongs on the "wild-wood path" among her own people rather than here among the white settlers. Faith's kidnapping and marriage to Oneco is at the heart of the novel's plot, but Magawisca's kidnapping kicks off the narrative. In fact, Mononotto kidnaps Faith in retaliation for, among other things, Magawisca's kidnapping.
Both Magawisca and Faith develop close interracial friendships with boys around their age while in captivity. Magawisca confides in Everell about the Mystic massacre that resulted in the deaths of so many in her community, including her mother and brother. Faith, meanwhile, develops a bond with Oneco. This bond in fact begins in the Fletcher home, before Faith is ever kidnapped. In Volume 1, Chapter 3, Martha Fletcher writes in a letter to her husband that
Oneco hath always some charm to lure [Faith's] waywardness. He bringeth home the treasures of the woods to please her—berries, and wild flowers, and the beautiful plumage of birds that are brought down by his unerring aim.
Oneco, Magawisca's brother, has also been kidnapped by white settlers and placed in the Fletcher home. Oneco and Faith's relationship is essentially a younger, gender-swapped version of Magawisca and Everell's relationship.
Mononotto takes all four of them back after the raid on Bethel, but their fates diverge from there. Mononotto plans to execute Everell, and Magawisca intervenes on his behalf. In the process, she loses her arm to Mononotto's hatchet. Everell, though, is allowed to escape back to his people. Later, there is some question as to whether Everell might marry Magawisca. But neither of them really believes this is possible. In Volume 2, Chapter 14, Magawisca tells Everell and Hope that
“My people have been spoiled—we cannot take as a gift that which is our own—the law of vengeance is written on our hearts—you say you have a written rule of forgiveness—it may be better—if ye would be guided by it—it is not for us—the Indian and the white man can no more mingle, and become one, than day and night.”
Magawisca's arm itself is a physical scar representing the suffering American Indians have endured because colonists have stolen "that which is our own." She cannot "mingle" with white people because it is "not for us," meaning American Indians, to forgive.
But Magawisca is not hopeless. She suggests that "it may be better—if ye [white settlers] would be guided by" the "written rule of forgiveness" Christians preach. And in fact, this is what Faith seems to do. Whereas Everell goes back to the Puritans because of Magawisca's sacrifice, Faith and Oneco remain with Mononotto. She and Oneco are allowed to foster their friendship and later courtship in peace, and Faith seems to offer herself up as a trade for what Mononotto has lost. She represents a renewed possibility that Mononotto will have biological grandchildren. Whereas Magawisca's arm represents the trauma surrounding her relationship with Everell, Faith and Oneco's relationship seems to represent a healing wound.
Related Themes:
Volume 1, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Faith and Magawisca:
Faith and Magawisca are foils, representing parallel yet opposite outcomes of cross-cultural kidnapping. In Volume 1, Chapter 2, Mrs. Fletcher asks if Magawisca is tired from the journey to Bethel:
“My foot,” replied Magawisca, “is used to the wild-wood path. The deer tires not of his way on the mountain, nor the bird of its flight in the air.”
This is Magawisca's first introduction in the novel. Mr. Fletcher has described her as an American Indian "servant" who was taken to Boston and placed in the service of Hope and Faith's family. Magawisca makes it clear in this line that she is effectively enslaved, and that she belongs on the "wild-wood path" among her own people rather than here among the white settlers. Faith's kidnapping and marriage to Oneco is at the heart of the novel's plot, but Magawisca's kidnapping kicks off the narrative. In fact, Mononotto kidnaps Faith in retaliation for, among other things, Magawisca's kidnapping.
Both Magawisca and Faith develop close interracial friendships with boys around their age while in captivity. Magawisca confides in Everell about the Mystic massacre that resulted in the deaths of so many in her community, including her mother and brother. Faith, meanwhile, develops a bond with Oneco. This bond in fact begins in the Fletcher home, before Faith is ever kidnapped. In Volume 1, Chapter 3, Martha Fletcher writes in a letter to her husband that
Oneco hath always some charm to lure [Faith's] waywardness. He bringeth home the treasures of the woods to please her—berries, and wild flowers, and the beautiful plumage of birds that are brought down by his unerring aim.
Oneco, Magawisca's brother, has also been kidnapped by white settlers and placed in the Fletcher home. Oneco and Faith's relationship is essentially a younger, gender-swapped version of Magawisca and Everell's relationship.
Mononotto takes all four of them back after the raid on Bethel, but their fates diverge from there. Mononotto plans to execute Everell, and Magawisca intervenes on his behalf. In the process, she loses her arm to Mononotto's hatchet. Everell, though, is allowed to escape back to his people. Later, there is some question as to whether Everell might marry Magawisca. But neither of them really believes this is possible. In Volume 2, Chapter 14, Magawisca tells Everell and Hope that
“My people have been spoiled—we cannot take as a gift that which is our own—the law of vengeance is written on our hearts—you say you have a written rule of forgiveness—it may be better—if ye would be guided by it—it is not for us—the Indian and the white man can no more mingle, and become one, than day and night.”
Magawisca's arm itself is a physical scar representing the suffering American Indians have endured because colonists have stolen "that which is our own." She cannot "mingle" with white people because it is "not for us," meaning American Indians, to forgive.
But Magawisca is not hopeless. She suggests that "it may be better—if ye [white settlers] would be guided by" the "written rule of forgiveness" Christians preach. And in fact, this is what Faith seems to do. Whereas Everell goes back to the Puritans because of Magawisca's sacrifice, Faith and Oneco remain with Mononotto. She and Oneco are allowed to foster their friendship and later courtship in peace, and Faith seems to offer herself up as a trade for what Mononotto has lost. She represents a renewed possibility that Mononotto will have biological grandchildren. Whereas Magawisca's arm represents the trauma surrounding her relationship with Everell, Faith and Oneco's relationship seems to represent a healing wound.
Related Themes:
Volume 2, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Rosa and Esther:
Rosa and Esther are foils: each young woman falls in love with a man who does not love her back, but they have very different experiences of unrequited love. For example, in Volume 2, Chapter 3, Rosa uses a metaphor comparing her relationship with Sir Philip to that between a baby and a murderer:
“Ay, Sir Philip—and will not the innocent babe stretch its arms to the assassin if he does but smile on it? You told me you loved me, and I believed you. You promised always to love me, and I believed that too; and there was nobody else that loved me, but Mignonne [her canary]; and now I am all alone in the wide world, I do wish I were dead.” She sunk down at Sir Philip’s feet, laid her head on his knee, and sobbed as if her heart were breaking.
Rosa's experience of unrequited love is a painful reinforcement that she is unloveable and alone in the world. She describes wishing she were dead because of Sir Philip's treatment of her, but she nonetheless remains committed to him because of the promise that he might love her. Rosa's metaphor comparing herself to a baby and Sir Philip to an assassin illuminates how helpless she feels. Sir Philip exploits and abuses that helplessness. Ironically, it is this treatment that eventually leads Rosa to assassinate Sir Philip and kill herself in the process. Sir Philip's abusive treatment begets a final, violent seizure of power on Rosa's part.
By contrast, Esther is treated with kid gloves regarding her unrequited love for Everell. Everell tells her that he does not want to marry her, but he and Hope Leslie go to great lengths to make sure Esther does not feel rejected out of hand. Because Esther's feelings are treated with respect, she gracefully steps aside in the end to let Everell and Hope Leslie marry one another. Her choice to go back to England and live an unmarried life is its own kind of claim to power, but it does not hurt anyone the way Rosa's claim to power does. As foils, Rosa and Esther support the novel's underlying claim that poor treatment can drive people (large groups and individuals alike) to violent revenge.
Related Themes:
Volume 2, Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Rosa and Hope:
Rosa and Hope are foils: they share many early biographical details, but they end up in different circumstances that lead them to develop wildly different temperaments. In Volume 2, Chapter 7, the narrator describes how Rosa's mother,
dying soon after her birth, committed the child to some charitable sisters of the order of St. Joseph. Her father on his death bed, seized with pangs of remorse, exacted a promise from his sister, the Lady Lunford, that she would receive the orphan under her protection. The lady performed the promise à la lettre, and no more. She withdrew the unfortunate Rosa from her safe asylum, but she kept from her, and from all the world, the secret of their relationship, and made the dependence and desolateness of the poor orphan, a broad foundation for her own tyranny.
Hope, like Rosa, is orphaned at an early age. Hope, like Rosa, is placed in the care of a paternal aunt when her parents die. Hope's aunt brings her to the loving Fletcher family at the direction of her mother's will. Hope's mother knew both her daughter and Mr. Fletcher, and she was able to make the best arrangements for Hope.
Rosa's father, on the other hand, abandoned her in life. His last "loving" act for her is to ask the Lady Lunford to care for her. Though he may have had good intentions, his primary interest is soothing his own conscience. He does not take the time or effort to get to know Rosa or his sister very well, and he consequently fails to realize that the arrangement will go poorly. Whereas Mr. Fletcher loves Hope even to a point that borders on obsession, the Lady Lunford honors her commitment to Rosa only "à la lettre" (to the letter). Rosa was at least safe with the nuns, if not happy, but the Lady Lunford takes Rosa out of this safe situation and turns her into a target for "her own tyranny," or abuse.
To understand what the narrator is saying about Rosa, it is useful to consider a comment the narrator makes at the end of the chapter about how Magawisca is happier in prison than Sir Philip is with all his external power:
Magawisca could scarcely have been made happier if Everell had achieved her freedom, than she was by the certain knowledge of his interposition for her.
This line makes clear that Magawisca's happiness comes from the feeling that she is loved and that Everell will stand up for her. Rosa later describes the feeling of never having been loved, and her biographical details support this notion. Hope, on the other hand, has never felt unloved. Her confidence that she is lovable is what gives her the strength to consider allowing Esther to marry Everell, and to let Faith stay with Oneco instead of returning to the Puritan world. As a foil for Rosa, Hope makes it clear that Rosa was not fated from birth or even from the time her parents died to become a murderer or misanthrope. Rather, chronic abuse and a lack of love is what leads her in the end to kill herself and Sir Philip.
Related Themes:
Volume 2, Chapter 14
Explanation and Analysis—Faith and Magawisca:
Faith and Magawisca are foils, representing parallel yet opposite outcomes of cross-cultural kidnapping. In Volume 1, Chapter 2, Mrs. Fletcher asks if Magawisca is tired from the journey to Bethel:
“My foot,” replied Magawisca, “is used to the wild-wood path. The deer tires not of his way on the mountain, nor the bird of its flight in the air.”
This is Magawisca's first introduction in the novel. Mr. Fletcher has described her as an American Indian "servant" who was taken to Boston and placed in the service of Hope and Faith's family. Magawisca makes it clear in this line that she is effectively enslaved, and that she belongs on the "wild-wood path" among her own people rather than here among the white settlers. Faith's kidnapping and marriage to Oneco is at the heart of the novel's plot, but Magawisca's kidnapping kicks off the narrative. In fact, Mononotto kidnaps Faith in retaliation for, among other things, Magawisca's kidnapping.
Both Magawisca and Faith develop close interracial friendships with boys around their age while in captivity. Magawisca confides in Everell about the Mystic massacre that resulted in the deaths of so many in her community, including her mother and brother. Faith, meanwhile, develops a bond with Oneco. This bond in fact begins in the Fletcher home, before Faith is ever kidnapped. In Volume 1, Chapter 3, Martha Fletcher writes in a letter to her husband that
Oneco hath always some charm to lure [Faith's] waywardness. He bringeth home the treasures of the woods to please her—berries, and wild flowers, and the beautiful plumage of birds that are brought down by his unerring aim.
Oneco, Magawisca's brother, has also been kidnapped by white settlers and placed in the Fletcher home. Oneco and Faith's relationship is essentially a younger, gender-swapped version of Magawisca and Everell's relationship.
Mononotto takes all four of them back after the raid on Bethel, but their fates diverge from there. Mononotto plans to execute Everell, and Magawisca intervenes on his behalf. In the process, she loses her arm to Mononotto's hatchet. Everell, though, is allowed to escape back to his people. Later, there is some question as to whether Everell might marry Magawisca. But neither of them really believes this is possible. In Volume 2, Chapter 14, Magawisca tells Everell and Hope that
“My people have been spoiled—we cannot take as a gift that which is our own—the law of vengeance is written on our hearts—you say you have a written rule of forgiveness—it may be better—if ye would be guided by it—it is not for us—the Indian and the white man can no more mingle, and become one, than day and night.”
Magawisca's arm itself is a physical scar representing the suffering American Indians have endured because colonists have stolen "that which is our own." She cannot "mingle" with white people because it is "not for us," meaning American Indians, to forgive.
But Magawisca is not hopeless. She suggests that "it may be better—if ye [white settlers] would be guided by" the "written rule of forgiveness" Christians preach. And in fact, this is what Faith seems to do. Whereas Everell goes back to the Puritans because of Magawisca's sacrifice, Faith and Oneco remain with Mononotto. She and Oneco are allowed to foster their friendship and later courtship in peace, and Faith seems to offer herself up as a trade for what Mononotto has lost. She represents a renewed possibility that Mononotto will have biological grandchildren. Whereas Magawisca's arm represents the trauma surrounding her relationship with Everell, Faith and Oneco's relationship seems to represent a healing wound.
Related Themes:
