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Chapter 1
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
After two or three days, Matt decides he enjoys living and working alone. His father isn’t around to tell him how to do chores, so Matt can do them how he likes. Matt spends his days chinking the cabin with clay from the creek, felling trees, stacking wood, and learning to keep his fire going. He must carry water from the creek to water the corn patch, but since the water feeds the weeds as well as the corn, he constantly pulls weeds. The crows and other wildlife also menace the corn patch.
Now that Matt has gotten into the swing of things, being alone feels like a grand adventure. The work he must do makes him feel adult and capable, especially since he gets to choose how and when he does his chores. However, note that Matt is still doing exactly what his father told him to do. He’s not yet confident enough, or mature enough, to start making his own choices.
Themes
All the work makes Matt hungrier than he’s ever been, so to preserve the flour, he relies on his gun. He’s no longer in awe of the gun, which he takes out daily to shoot rabbits or ducks for dinner. Matt isn’t confident enough yet to shoot a deer, but he promises himself he’ll shoot one soon.
Matt’s growing comfort with his father’s rifle points to his growing maturity, though he’s definitely still a child. Indeed, his choice to not try shooting deer reads as mature and respectful of his father’s wishes: that, he believes, would constitute shooting at things willy-nilly and wasting powder.
Themes
Matt is happy, though he does worry about Native Americans. He’s not afraid, as his father was told that there hasn’t been an attack since the last treaty with the tribes. But Matt often feels like someone is watching him, and he can’t forget the horrible stories. He remembers his father telling him to greet any Native Americans like he would a minister, as they value respect above all else. Matt even saw his father greet a Native American man once with a solemn wave—but how is Matt supposed to be respectful to a shadow?
Matt might say he’s not afraid, but he certainly seems at least apprehensive to meet any nonwhite people in the woods. This reflects his youth, his immaturity, and more than anything, his status as a white settler. Though Matt’s father has encouraged Matt to see Native people as people, Matt doesn’t see them as people yet. Rather, they’re “shadows” that seem to haunt him.
Themes
Still, Matt is now used to the stillness and to the forest. He can identify animals by the sounds they make, and none of them scare him anymore. Most of the time he’s content on his own, but he misses having someone to talk to. He even wishes he could talk to his sister Sarah, though he mostly ignored her back home. Because of all this, Matt is slow to respond when someone arrives.
Becoming an adult often entails developing an interest in people besides oneself. Matt begins to do this here as he wishes to talk to Sarah—suddenly, he’s mature enough to see her as a possible companion. This chapter ends on a cliffhanger, suggesting that Matt will meet someone and readers should expect the worst.
Themes
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