The Sign of the Beaver is a Newbery Honor Award winning book written by Elizabeth George Speare. It's about a boy named Matt who befriends an Indian named Attean and they work together to survive after Matt’s father left to go bring back the rest of his family. Matt first meets Attean when his grandfather makes a treaty with Matt, Attean hunts for him, while he teaches Attean. On the first meeting Attean leaves early because he thinks it's stupid, but over time they bond after Attean teaches Matt how to make bow and arrows, fishing hooks, gum, and other things. Then he earns the trust of other Indians after he was invited to a feast for helping him kill a bear, and while saving his dog. At the end of the story, Attean had to leave with the rest of his tribe as settlers were taking over their land, Matt was offered to come with them but he stayed as he still wanted to wait for his family although they were supposed to be back months ago. In the end Matt’s family does come back and they are reunited, unfortunately Matt never saw Attean again. This book involves conflicts, problem solving, and friendship.
First off, why is the title called “The Sign of the Beaver”? The story revolves around Matt and Attean so why isn’t it about them? The purpose of signs is to represent an object or person, or to tell the person something about something else. And in the story, they use their special beaver sign to tell someone that they are on their territory. The beavers that are found near the tribe’s village are the tribe’s representative animals, so that's why their sign is a beaver. The result of the Beaver Tribe unfortunately, forced them to leave their territory, and home. Now that the Beaver clan has left their former home the story ends because Attean leaves. Therefore the beaver clan was a large part of the book and because a beaver sign represented them, instead of writing “The Beaver Clan”, they wrote “The Sign of the Beaver”.
If you have studied American History, you know that settlers came from Europe to the US where they settled and kicked Indians or Native Americans off their land. This is the same conflict that happened in the book. Attean stated that when he was younger, his mother was killed because the white men wanted her skin, his father wanted revenge but he got killed too, and that's why his grandmother hates white men. They were at war as the settlers needed more land but the land belonged to the Native Americans and they weren’t willing to give it away. The Native Americans protect their land by placing the marks. But that clearly doesn't help as the men continued hunting on their land destroying their food, making unfair treaties, and killing the Native Americans. In the end they never solved their conflict unlike Matt and Attean.
This brings us to our next theme; problem solving. As stated before, Matt and Attean got off to a rough start as Matt was a young boy who never met an Indian, and Attean was a stubborn Indian boy who hated white folks. This was their conflict, but conflicts can be solved using friendship. The 2 boys show many signs of friendship throughout the book, for example they do activities such as hunting together, they learn, share, help, respect, and relate to each other. Attean teaches Matt how to craft tools and in return Matt teaches him English, and Attean respects Matt’s decision when he decides to stay in Maine by calling him “White Brother”. Another way to solve conflicts is by understanding each other's beliefs and cultures. Matt and Attean were able to relate to each other when he read a story from his father’s bible that was similar to an ancient story told in Attean’s tribe. If only the white men and the Indians worked together they would not be at war.
The Sign of the Beaver is a book about conflicts, how to solve them, and friendships. The story is about Matt and Attean and their friendship, they don’t like each other in the beginning but in the end they become great friends. Throughout the story the boys show signs of friendship while they are together. They learn from each other and help each other, and when Attean is leaving and Matt decides to stay behind, Attean’s grandfather admires his responsibility and maturity. While on one of their adventures in the forest, Attean opens up about the Indian’s poverty, the Indians were at war with the white men and his parents were killed at war. So unfortunately the Beaver clan had to leave in the end, and the book revolved around the Indian’s too so the book was called “The Sign of the Beaver” because that was what represented the tribe. The Sign of the Beaver is an amazing book about Matt and Attean’s friendship making it a very popular book and an enjoyable one.
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