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Chapter 23
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
Matt stands and looks up at the sky. He tells the dog it’s going to snow. So far, Matt has been lucky: it’s only snowed a little bit, and nothing has stuck. Things seem different today, though. It’s almost Christmas, though Matt doesn’t remember how many days are in each month and is sure he’s forgotten to cut a notch some days. Still, he tries to stop thinking about his mother’s Christmas pudding. The dog follows Matt as Matt gathers extra firewood. And sure enough, that afternoon, the snow starts and continues overnight. By morning, the snow is up to the door’s latch and Matt can barely get it open.
In many ways, Matt has come of age over the last few months that his family has been gone. While he once scoffed that he’d never lose track of time, he now admits in a matter-of-fact tone that he’s almost certainly done just that—maturely accepting that he doesn’t know everything. Further, Matt reads as totally prepared for this storm as he makes sure he has enough wood to last. Unlike the first week or so that he was alone when he let his fire go out, he’s not going to be caught unprepared.
Themes
Matt carves a piece of firewood into a shovel of sorts and steps out into the snow with his snowshoes. They take some getting used to, but when he gets the hang of it, Matt checks his snares and walks around with the dog, who frolics in the snow. Matt realizes that he, too, is happy. He returns to the warm cabin, makes a supper of acorns and boiled pumpkin, and reads Robinson Crusoe by the fire.
It’s telling that after Matt acknowledged the racist problems with Robinson Crusoe and after he came to respect Attean, he still finds it satisfying to curl up with the book now. He still finds comfort in a book where a settler tames nature and enslaves Native peoples—suggesting that Matt has in no way abandoned his settler mindset, despite everything he’s learned.
Themes
