Hattie Big Sky

“I stood watching the train a bit longer, picturing Charlie patting the pocket where he’d placed the wishing stone I’d given him. He was the one who’d taught me about those too. ‘Look for the black ones,’ he’d told me. ‘With the white ring around the middle. If you throw them over your left shoulder and make a wish, it’s sure to come true.’ He threw his wishing rocks with abandon and laughed at me for not tossing even one. My wish wasn’t the kind that could be granted by wishing rocks.”

This quote introduces the symbol of the wishing stone, which Larson uses to symbolize Hattie’s dreams. Hattie’s flashback of Charlie using the stones to wish for his dreams to come true leaves Hattie with a happy memory of him, even though she finds it difficult to wish for things as easily as he does.

“The war—and our enemies—were far away, like Charlie now in France. Surely Mr. Hanson understood that. Besides, couldn’t he smell the cinnamon and apple perfume wafting out from Perilee’s basket? I think even President Wilson would’ve been tempted.”

Witnessing anti-German sentiment leaves Hattie feeling confused. Until this moment, Hattie had compartmentalized the war from her life on the home front, and she does not understand why other people do not do the same. Her confusion is represented through her hypothetical question, and Perilee’s innocence is made manifest in the olfactory image of sweet smells.

“I wanted to start fresh in Montana, not owe anyone anything. That way, they couldn’t remind me of it, like Aunt Ivy and all the other relatives that I’d lived with.”

This quote emphasizes the theme of Community and Isolation. When Hattie arrives in Montana, she isolates herself because she fears people hurting her like they have in the past. Hattie’s belief that she must do things on her own without help from other people stems from her desire to prove herself and show that she can prove her claim alone.

“The shack—oh, it was a shack, no poetry of home and hearth allowed—was a flimsy cage, keeping me in and very little else out. […] I told you, Aunt Ivy would say […]. Nothing good would come of this Montana mania. She’s living worse than our hogs.”

When Hattie arrives at Uncle Chester’s house, she feels immediately discouraged. The dilapidation of the shack increased her loneliness. Rather than viewing the house as her escape from the world, she uses a metaphor to compare it to a cage. While Hattie’s opinion of the home changes over time, her fears that she will not be able to do what she set out to do materialize for her at this moment. Hattie shows that she still cares about what Aunt Ivy thinks of her, even if she does not respect her opinion because she desperately wants to prove her wrong.

“I thought about all the articles Uncle Holt had read aloud. Awful stories about starving Belgians and cruelties of war. Unbelievable stories. But it was the Huns who were responsible. The Germans over there. Not here. Not people we knew. ‘I don’t know. But it wouldn’t be required if there wasn’t one.’ I held out my hands, helpless. ‘Would it?’” 

This quote connects to the theme of American Identity and Patriotism. Even after Perilee tells Hattie about the injustice that Karl must face to register as German, Hattie still tries to find a reason for it because she believes in the impartiality of the government. In reality, the fact that Karl must register as an “alien enemy” reveals the xenophobia present in the government, even if Hattie is not ready to admit it.

“How to explain to these two children the longing in my heart for what they had? To be part of a family. To have a place to call home. Better leave it all unsaid.”

Despite Mattie and Chase’s trust in Hattie from the start, she still holds them at arm’s length when she first meets them. Hattie’s main desire is to become part of a family, but she does not realize that this can become possible through her relationship with the Mueller family. Instead, Hattie envies Mattie and Chase because she thinks that they have the one thing in life that she will never be able to have: a family. Her feeling that her wish is impossible is represented through her hypothetical question here, which she feels she cannot ask in real life.

“I read that that funny little dachshund dog is now to be called a ‘liberty dog.’ Can you beat that? There is even talk here of outlawing speaking any German at all.”

This quote emphasizes the absurdity of the citizens of Vida changing aspects of language to hide the fact that certain words have German origins. Although Hattie finds the example of the “liberty dog” ridiculous, she alludes to something more dire: banning the German language in America completely, which foreshadows the Council trying to prevent the minister from preaching in German.

“But I do wonder, as he does, what harm it is for our neighbors to worship God in their native language. Sometimes I do not know what to think.”

Hattie feels confused about who to believe when she arrives in Vida. Despite her confusion, Hattie does not understand why the citizens of Vida would think it is right to ban the German language, especially when the German immigrants in the area are using it to worship God. This statement highlights the way native-born Christian Americans and German immigrants are similar, as they worship the same God.

“I thought again […] [a]bout folks who called sauerkraut ‘liberty cabbage’ in order to swallow it down with their supper. And of Charlie doing his duty, eager to finish off a German or two. I thought about all the fences that get built in this world—the ones that divide folks and tear them up, like the actions of the Kaiser and his henchmen, and the ones that bring folks closer together, like this stretch of fence Karl Mueller had built for me.”

Hattie uses the metaphor of fences in the world that come between people over their differences. While Hattie knows that the war has split people apart, she marvels at the fact that Karl Mueller has brought her closer to her community because of his generosity in helping her with her farm.

“The war gives them all the reason they need. […] All this fuss about where people are from. Seems like how they live now that they’re here should be what matters.”

Leafie’s comment causes Hattie to reflect on the absurdity of the Council of Defense judging the German immigrants based on where they were born. Leafie points out that many people in Vida may have already had xenophobic beliefs, but she believes that the war gave them a reason to express these harmful beliefs. This helps Hattie realize that she should take people at face value and judge them on their character, rather than making assumptions about them based on their country of origin.

“‘My mama always said piecing quilts is like making friends.’ She kept her eyes on the scissors as she cut up a piece of blue ticking. ‘Sometimes the more different fabrics—and people—are,’ she said, ‘the stronger the pattern.’”

Perilee’s extended metaphor about quilting being like making friends highlights the symbolic nature of quilts in the novel. Since quilting brings Perilee and Hattie together as friends, Perilee’s words cause Hattie to reflect on the beauty of having different friends with varying perspectives to create something new together.

“Someone practical like Perilee might tell me it was only the buffalo grass, warmed to sweetness by the spring sun. But it was more than that; it was the smell of home. Of a place to belong.”

As Hattie starts her first harvest and sees some success with her farm, she feels hopeful. Rather than letting the beauty of Montana mesmerize her, Hattie knows that what really speaks to her is the fact that she has finally found a place that feels like home. Since Hattie has searched for a place to belong her whole life, she basks in the relief of finally feeling at home.

“Every man must do his duty, I’d written. What is the small sacrifice of leaving one’s family? Think of those Belgian babies and starving Frenchman. It seemed so easy to tell nameless, faceless men to march off to war. But to tell Elmer Ren, with a sick wife and too many children and his life tied up in 320 acres of Montana prairie, that he must leave all behind…that was a different story.”

As Hattie sees the reality of the government forcing men like Elmer to enlist in the war, she understands why people have differing perspectives on what is their patriotic duty. Hattie knows that without Elmer, his family would suffer, and they would lose their land. Hattie realizes that there is nuance in the complexities of war and that someone choosing not to enlist may have valid reasons. Hattie reflects on her previous belief that enlisting in the war is a small sacrifice to pay as she realizes that she did not understand the complexities of what she believed before she saw the incident with Elmer play out.

“As I thanked my neighbors at the end of the day, I felt as if I was at a funeral. And in a way it was. A funeral for a dream. How could months of work be destroyed in a few minutes?”

Hattie experiences devastation after the hailstorm wipes out her crops. Her comparison of losing her crop and feeling like she is at a funeral foreshadows how she will attend Mattie’s funeral later in the novel. Larson incorporates this comparison to show how Hattie will understand that the loss of material possessions does not compare to the loss of a loved one.

“I took a cup of coffee and sat on my front steps, staring at that great expanse of Montana sky. A few short months ago, I’d seen it as a magic carpet, carrying me to my dreams. Now this sky held no promise.”

Hattie loses all hope after Mattie dies, represented in the destroyed metaphor of the magic carpet sky. This moment signifies her realization that grief causes people to lose their perspective on life, especially with things that they used to enjoy. While the Montana sky used to give Hattie joy, now it only reminds her of what she has lost, and she finds it difficult to find a purpose again.

“Maybe I could’ve rallied myself. Before. But Mattie’s death had upended me; I couldn’t get my footing. It was enough of an accomplishment to write my final installment for the Arlington News. I had no idea how to settle my accounts. And no heart for it either.”

Hattie’s grief over Mattie makes her lose her motivation. For the first time since she arrived in Montana, Hattie does not bolster herself to complete a task. Instead, she accepts that she will not prove her claim and that she will never see Mattie again. Her diction here, which includes several sentence fragments, reflects her scattered mind.

“I sat, quiet and alone. No tears. No shaking my fist at God. Nothing but a heavy stone in my chest that used to be a heart filled with dreams and possibilities. There should be fireworks, at least, when a dream dies. But no, this one had blown apart as easily as a dandelion gone to seed.”

Hattie feels herself returning to the person that she was before she found a home. She feels discouraged that she allowed herself to dream about her life in Montana because she feels that dream die within her. Larson uses the simile of a dandelion blowing away in the wind to emphasize how Hattie’s dreams feel scattered and out of reach.

“Perhaps there was no escaping my role of Hattie Here-and-There. Perhaps that was my fate in life. My call. Trouble was, while I might be able to talk my head into such a thought, my heart wasn’t buying any of it. My heart wanted a place to belong. A home of my own.”

Despite Hattie feeling herself return to her role of “Hattie Here-and-There,” she realizes that she cannot return to the person she was before because she understands what it feels like to belong to a home (378). Hattie realizes that she will continue searching for a new home until she finds it because she knows that it is possible for her.

“‘You are my sister of the heart,’ she said. ‘Geography can’t change that.’ I leaned in to her. ‘I know, I know.’ But I would’ve given anything to change the geography separating Seattle from Montana.”

Perilee’s parting words to Hattie emphasize how the value of friendship does not change even when people are not close together. Perilee’s promise that she will continue loving Hattie despite her change in geography highlights the bond between the two women and comforts Hattie with the knowledge that they will always be friends.

“She studied each and every inch of it. I didn’t mind the scrutiny; this was my best effort. Every stitch was tiny and true. The center of each block was a square of chambray, for Montana’s never-ending sky. That square was bordered with sawtoothed triangles, forming smaller squares. There I’d used some of the brown gingham to capture this broad prairie. Opposite each brown triangle was a splash of color, something that reminded me of our little magpie, all bright and full of life.”

The description of the quilt that Hattie makes for Perilee signifies the memories that they have built together. Hattie’s use of color symbolizes the memory of Mattie, Perilee’s “magpie,” and how her memory will live on in the stitches that Hattie created.

“Maybe, just maybe, if you stand on the steps of my home…you will catch loose memories on the breeze. Listen—do you hear Chase rescuing me from the pump handle? Mattie scolding Mulie for tearing her new dress? Leafie nursing this neighbor or that? […] It won’t take you long, standing there, to understand what I mean about that sky, the endless and aloof Montana sky.”

Hattie’s description of her home in her letter to Charlie signifies the way that she will miss Montana. Despite the sadness, she knows that her home holds memories in the same way that her mind does, and she wistfully hopes that Charlie will pick up on some of these memories when he visits Vida without her.

“I have to laugh at myself, already looking through rose-colored glasses. Don’t think I could ever forget the smutchy odor of a burned barn, or the vinegary scent of fear of folks born in the wrong country, or the achingly clean perfume of paraffin-dipped crepe paper flowers. The blessing is that these heartbreaks are but a few of the patches in my prairie year quilt.”

Despite Hattie’s happy memories of Vida, she reminds herself of the pain that she faced in that place, whether through the anti-German sentiment or the loss of Mattie. Hattie’s ability to hold the memories of sadness and happiness together in her mind when she thinks of Vida shows her character development. While she used to think in terms of black and white, by the end of the novel, she sees the world with nuance and a new perspective. The idea of the world moving forward after the war here is embodied in her using the German-derived adjective “smutchy," which comes from the word “schmutzig,” meaning “dirty.”

“I didn’t want anyone to see me off at the station. I’d arrived alone and wanted to leave that way. Settling myself on the train seat, I couldn’t help but smile.”

Hattie’s decision to mirror her arrival by leaving alone symbolizes her self-confidence. While before, Hattie came alone out of necessity, now Hattie leaves alone because she knows that she is strong enough to face any hurdle.