Week of March 19, 2007

Chapter Seven: In Which I Learn the Ways of Gods, Natives, and Monkeys:

Becoming an Idol:

My, to become the object of an adoring tribe! Hitty could certainly have been in worse circumstances. Here she is revered. She has her own temple of green leaves and bamboo shoots. She is set upon a "sort of" altar trimmed with pink hibiscus flowers. As soon as the flowers droop, they are replaced with fresh flowers. There are also offerings of fruit and shells. She let the natives do whatever they wished with her (like she had any choice in the matter), trusting that she would survive this experience and save Phoebe and the others.

The responsibility of saving the lives of Phoebe Preble and all the rest weighed heavily upon Hitty. If it had not, she feared the attention she was getting from all the natives might have very easily have turned her head. She certainly is being well cared for by the natives. I'm not sure why the Chief would remove her dress. Maybe because it was torn and dirty. Maybe because the natives didn’t wear clothes, he felt Hitty shouldn’t have to. Maybe he felt there was magic in the red letters on her chemise and that is why he didn’t remove it. At least she was spared her dignity to some degree anyway.

I bet the chief removed her dress because it was like the "foreigners" and not what he would think proper for someone to wear.

Although she was well cared for by the natives our Hitty does not like to sit on a shelf, even a bamboo and leaf one. She likes to interact with her people. She feels lonely when this doesn't happen.

I love the part when she's thinking "It is rather lonely to be a god for days on end." She almost sounds forlorn or wistful. I can just see her sitting there and all those natives bowing before her and doing things for her. It almost seems comical. The monkeys even seemed to be in awe of her and one in particular even brought her a gift of what she thought was a nutmeg.

I, too, thought that was a great line ("It is rather lonely to be a god for days on end"). Rachel Field was not above using a little humor now and again to make light of dangerous situations. Perhaps she was thinking of her young readers who might be quite frightened by the scary natives, and she didn't want to lose them (the readers, that is).

It was lucky the monkeys didn't doll-nap Hitty and take her into the trees. She might never have been found. Although Andy was such a good friend to Phoebe, perhaps he would have found her even there.

I like the way that Field has written Hitty as such a passive character--she is willing to let everything happen to and around her (as a doll, she has little choice) yet when you really think about it, she tries to effect her surroundings (the thump of her pegged feet in the church, pushing to the top of the crow's nest, etc.). She discovers early on that being worshiped isn't all it's cracked up to be!

I've noticed that Hitty is quite passive, and allows things to happen to her. Now, normally in a book, this would make the heroine boring---but since she is a doll, I think we accept her inability to affect her surroundings as much as a person could. So far, we do know she can feel the cold, smell, move her legs somewhat, see and hear, move her arms a bit (as she does in the crow's nest). She is unable to eat (nor does she need to) and she didn't suffer from motion sickness like Phoebe. Also, she doesn't feel pain, as the crows didn't hurt her. She can feel fear, pride, curiosity, anxiety, boredom, horror, loneliness, responsibility, envy, vanity and sorrow. She longs to be able to speak aloud, and declares she would have cried if she had been able, when they were rescued by the ship. It appears to me that she is 'maturing' as the story goes on!

What strikes me most is her sense of responsibility. You can almost hear her disapproval when Phoebe is careless. She yearns to protect her family. That combination of helplessness and sense of being responsible is a very childlike quality. They believe they effect events by how they think but are unable to make actions to change them.

What always strikes me about this chapter is not only does Hitty take responsibility for needing to rescue everyone, but that the other thing nagging at her is her state of dress and the berry juice she is decorated with!

Andy:

How brave was that of Andy to rescue Hitty from the natives? He must have felt a great affection for Phoebe, perhaps like a brother. He certainly spent a lot of time with her. It doesn't say where Andy the chore boy came from--I often wondered if he was an indentured boy, or maybe an orphan. The Prebles certainly had no qualms about loading him right onto the whaling ship with them, so it sort of lends itself to believing he had no other family.

I've wondered that myself. If he were apprenticed, I think they WOULD have just packed him up and taken him along, but I can't think what he would have been apprenticed to do without the Captain there all winter long.

I don't think he could have been apprenticed (as you say--what to?), but he could have been indentured, which would have just meant he had to work for them until a sum of money was paid off. (Usually passage money). But it seems more likely he was just hired from some poor family and lived with them, or was orphaned and lived with them in exchange for room and board. He is referred to as the 'chore boy', so it seems to me it would be most likely Capt. Preble hired him to help out on the farm while he was away--carry firewood, feed and take care of the horses, pick berries or whatever Mrs. Preble needed doing.

Yes, it would have been very irresponsible of Capt. Preble to leave his wife and only child for months at a time, especially over the winter, without someone to help them out while he was gone. What if one of them was injured or sick? Who would go for help? There was no mention in the book of any nearby relatives or neighbors the females could call on for help if needed. But on the other hand, although a young boy can do a lot of things to help, he is certainly not a replacement for an experienced adult male. The Old Peddler must have been a great relief and help to Kate and Phoebe the winter he spent with them.

I also think it must have been really hard to be the wife of a sailor, your husband leaving you for months at a time to struggle and deal with early American life.

Andy is called in the first chapter "the chore-boy". Perhaps he didn't have any family, or was given to a family who could care for him because his real parents couldn't. In my genealogy work, I have found in prior generations of my family, the children were split up and lived elsewhere because there just wasn't enough money to support them in the household.

Andy seemed to fit in and become part of the family. In Chapter 7, the Captain is angry at him, almost as though he would be if Andy were his son, for taking off from the rest of the group while they were making an attempt to escape the island, but Hitty knew the Captain was more worried than he was mad.

Leaving the Island:

The Captain made a good call when he decided to leave the island when he did. If they had stayed, it might have meant death by the natives eventually, and certainly when they found Hitty missing. I imagine he questioned that decision over and over in his mind when he thought they would never catch up with the ship or the ship might never see them. It must be an awfully big ocean when you are just a speck out there and trying to signal a ship from a long ways away.

It seems there is one cliff hanging scene after another . . . fire, natives, and then in this chapter trying to signal the rescue ship. Mrs. Preble had to sacrifice her last treasure, her beaver finery.

Yes--didn't you feel sorry for her? I like how Hitty was ready to go the final distance and give up her petticoat, but luckily she realized it wouldn't make much of a fire!

I think if Rachel Field were around, we would have lots of questions for her!! Maybe that is what a good book is supposed to do – not to give final answers as to what has happened or should happen, but to let your mind wander and think of all the maybes and what-ifs.

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