Pushing the Bear: A Novel of the Trail of Tears

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1996

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-2

Chapter 3

Chapters 4-5

Chapter 6

Chapters 7-8

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Themes

The Importance of Community

Content Warning: The source text addresses themes of genocide, displacement, and cultural erasure. In addition, both the source text and this guide contain references to sexual assault and racist ideologies against Indigenous people.

The Cherokee people rely on their community to survive the Trail of Tears and reestablish their lives in a new territory. As they continue their forced journey, their interactions and private reflections illustrate the deep emphasis that their culture places on the health of all their people. In the novel, the Cherokee community prioritizes their spiritual beliefs to maintain a sense of community and connection to each other. During the time on the trail, Maritole remembers how her people “celebrated [their] new year with the Keetoowah fire in the fall” (165). The image of the fire represents warmth and renewal for the Cherokee Nation during the harvest. Similarly, when she remembers how they listened to the “legend of the phoenix, who rose from the ashes like [they] would in the new land” (165), Maritole suggests that the continued support of her community will allow them to persevere despite the hardships they must face. The symbolism of the phoenix injects a note of hope into the narrative, implying that the Cherokee Nation will maintain their collective identity and culture.

Not only do the Cherokee people discover connection through spirituality, but they also keep their language alive, passing their knowledge on to the younger generations. Significantly, Glancy incorporates the written Cherokee language into the novel and crafts conversations about the language barrier between the soldiers and the Cherokee people; this aspect of the novel illustrates the importance of maintaining a unified language for their community. During moments of need, the community members come together to support each other, such as when Quaty Lewis helps Maritole by interpreting the words of the doctor in Missouri. Additionally, when Knobowtee speaks aloud about his disdain for the soldiers, his action incites a dialogue with another Cherokee man about how the soldiers “cheat” the Cherokee Nation. This scene will eventually lead to Knobowtee to harness his anger and frustration and work to aid his people. Part of this process includes working with and relying on the community around him to develop a greater understanding of the actions he can take on behalf of the Cherokee people. By leaning on each other for support and inspiration, the Cherokee people place considerable importance on their community; having lost their ancestral land, their connections to each other and their determination to honor their heritage provides them with the strength to survive the Trail of Tears.

The Clash Between Indigenous Cultures and Governmental Policies

By introducing the resettlement policies that force the Cherokee Nation off their land, the United States government has actively perpetuated racist ideologies. For the Cherokee Nation, their prioritization of community and family is threatened when the soldiers come to force them off their land. Maritole narrates how the soldiers’ harsh treatment of the Cherokee people breaks apart families, stating, “Children had been separated from their parents by accident. Wives could not find their husbands” (11). The separation of families wounds the characters, and this shock and grief is demonstrated through Maritole’s frantic tone and her inability to find her parents. The new governmental policies do not account for how the Cherokee people live their daily lives, and no care is taken to keep families together. Furthermore, the continued pressure to convert to Christianity dismisses the validity of Cherokee belief systems. For example, Maritole reflects on her belief system and claims that her people’s “church was not a house” and “ had no walls” (95). With this viewpoint, the Cherokee commitment to living harmoniously with the land and maintaining balance with the Earth serves as their religious practice. However, the governmental policies do not respect the important role that the land itself plays in the foundational aspects of the Cherokee Nation.

Within the Cherokee culture, it is vital to maintain a balance between the people and their natural environment. Because the Cherokee people utilize the land and the natural world for survival, they believe in treating the Earth with respect. In Cherokee culture, “women [have] the property” (72), and their matriarchal society passes land down through the women in the family. However, the resettlement policies do not respect Cherokee claims to the land, and the displacement of the people from their ancestral homes constitutes the erasure of much of their culture. Without their land, Knobowtee claims to “have nothing” because he cannot farm or actively provide for his family. Because the Cherokee culture relies heavily on agriculture, the loss of their land directly affects their heritage and the way their society functions.

Not only do the Cherokee people rely on their land for sustenance, but they also connect with their ancestors through burying their dead. As they begin walking the trail, Maritole’s father thinks that he can “hear the ancestors murmuring beside [them] as [they] walked” (19). These contemplations imply that the ancestors are unable to fight against the soldiers due to the immense loss of the land and many of the people. Furthermore, Maritole reflects on the grievous loss of life and the spiritual displacement of their current situation, stating, “Lacey prayed for the spirits of the dead to find their way to the afterlife without burial” (96). These moments make it clear that the inability to practice their rituals and traditions affects how the Cherokee Nation interacts with their ancestors. By forcing the Cherokee people off the land, the United States government interferes with generations of practices that make up the Cherokee culture.

Storytelling as a Form of Remembrance and Healing

Throughout the novel, the characters engage in the tradition of oral storytelling to pass down Cherokee history and heritage. The use of storytelling occurs on two different levels, for just as the characters tell stories to each other, Glancy tells the story of the Trail of Tears as a broader attempt to preserve Cherokee history and culture. Many of the characters worry about losing their culture and heritage with the forced removal to new territory, so they tell each other stories on the trail to motivate each other and to preserve their traditions. For example, Quaty Lewis tells Luthy’s sons about the “Trickster Turtle” so that the boys will remember the story and pass it down to their own families. The novel also includes the story in both Cherokee and English, which helps to perpetuate the traditional Cherokee legend. Likewise, the use of the story about the bear helps Maritole to recognize that “no one was free of the bear” (183), and this idea ultimately helps her to persevere through the hardships of the journey. The use of these and other stories allows the characters to connect and maintain a sense of collective identity.

As the characters tell stories to keep their community alive, they also discuss the importance of storytelling and how their stories came to be. By engaging in these conversations, the Cherokee characters reflect on their culture and educate the younger generations about the importance of storytelling to their culture. For example, the basket-maker believes that the baskets in which they carry their food “hold meaning” just like their traditional stories. Similarly, Luthy claims that “the spirits gave [the Cherokee] the stories” (154). The conversation around storytelling allows the Cherokee people to keep their culture alive despite the United States government’s attempts to displace, devalue, and discard them. Although Luthy disagrees with the basket-maker’s assertion that “the idea for weaving baskets come from the sky” just like their stories (153), the discussion allows the women to reflect on their ancestors and their beliefs, thereby reconnecting with their heritage during a time where their culture is being stripped from them.

Glancy’s novel therefore continues the tradition of storytelling in Cherokee culture, and the story is meant to immortalize the survival and perseverance of the Cherokee Nation on the Trail of Tears. When talking to Williams, Maritole emphasizes that she “couldn’t make him understand that each word told its own story when it wasn’t with others” (122). In this moment, Maritole reveals the importance of each word along with the stories themselves, for each word has intention and purpose, just as the stories do. Throughout the novel, Glancy utilizes traditional stories and songs and even incorporates the written Cherokee language to preserve the people’s heritage.