Pushing the Bear facts for kids
1996 first edition cover of Pushing the Bear
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| Author | Diane Glancy |
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| Cover artist | Murv Jacob |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Native American Fiction |
| Publisher | Harvest American Writing, Harcourt, Inc. |
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Publication date
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1996 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| ISBN | 0-15-600544-1 |
| OCLC | 38317667 |
Pushing the Bear is an important historical novel by Diane Glancy. It tells the story of the Cherokee people in 1838 and 1839. During this time, they were forced to leave their homes and travel a long, difficult journey known as the Trail of Tears in the United States. The book was published in 1996.
Contents
The Story of Pushing the Bear
Pushing the Bear shares the sad and challenging journey of the Cherokee people on the Trail of Tears. Diane Glancy tells the story through many different voices. Most of these voices belong to Cherokee individuals. But you also hear from historical papers, missionaries, and even the soldiers who guided the Cherokee. Glancy describes the terrible hardships faced by nearly thirteen thousand Cherokee people. This difficult time lasted from September 1838 to February 1839.
Maritole is a main character in the book. She is a mother, wife, daughter, and aunt. Her thoughts help us understand what the women felt. She also shows the relationships between soldiers and the people walking the trail. Maritole's story reveals the many losses the Cherokee suffered, both emotionally and physically. Through all these voices, Glancy helps us learn about the forced removal of Native Americans. We see the journey through the eyes of those who walked, suffered, and died. After walking nine hundred miles through mountains, snow, and water, the Cherokee felt deep sadness and pain. They also felt helpless, losing their connection to their land, their way of life, their traditional roles, and their families.
The novel follows the journey month by month and location by location. Glancy shares a very emotional and historically accurate account of what many now call a terrible tragedy. In an interview, Glancy explained that she needed "permission" from the land and ancestors to write the book. She started with one voice, but it wasn't enough. She realized it takes many voices to tell such a big story.
Main Characters in the Story
Maritole
Maritole is the main character and narrator of the novel. She is a mother, wife, sister, aunt, daughter, and neighbor. Throughout the book, Maritole struggles with her marriage and keeping her family and people together. She also has an inner struggle about wanting things for herself and her own identity. While on the trail, Maritole constantly misses her old life in North Carolina. She especially misses her grandmother's home where she and her husband, Knobowtee, used to live. She also feels curious about a soldier named Sergeant Williams.
Knobowtee
Knobowtee is Maritole's husband. He is very angry and confused by the forced removal of his people. His parts of the story show his anger at written agreements, called treaties. He is also angry at other Cherokee people, especially those from Georgia, who he believes caused the removal. Knobowtee feels powerless because he can no longer farm his land. Farming was his main role as a man, so he feels he has lost his strength. Knobowtee often reacts to these problems with anger, hatred, and by pulling away from Maritole.
Sergeant Williams
Sergeant Williams is one of the soldiers hired to guide the Cherokee people. The novel shows that some soldiers were cruel. But it also shows sympathetic men, like Sergeant Williams. At first, he is just called the "man with blue eyes." But his name becomes known as Maritole gets to know him better. He gives her food, clothes, and warmth. This makes Knobowtee angry and causes Maritole to be looked down upon by some. Their complicated relationship eventually leads to Williams losing his job.
Maritole's Father
Maritole's father travels the trail with his wife, daughter, son, and other family members. He is not named in the novel. But he represents hope for the Cherokee people's future. Many of his thoughts show he misses the old land, food, and customs. Yet, he tries to bring calm and peace to his family and neighbors on the trail. Maritole's father understands that even though much was lost, their family and unity are most important.
Reverend Bushyhead
Reverend Bushyhead is a real person from history, whose full name was Reverend Jesse Bushyhead. He went to a mission school and became a Baptist minister in 1830. In the novel, Reverend Bushyhead travels the trail with his wife. She gives birth to their daughter, Eliza, during the journey. Bushyhead preaches to the Cherokee, gives them messages of hope, and fights for their fair treatment and protection.
Tanner
Tanner is Maritole's brother. He tries his best to protect his family, especially his wife and two sons, on the trail. Even though he has a family to keep safe, Tanner joins other Cherokee men who are frustrated. They are angry at the government, losing their land, and feeling less like men. He sometimes argues with Knobowtee, his sister's husband, who often acts violently because of his anger.
Luthy
Luthy is the wife of Maritole's brother, Tanner. She is also the mother of their two sons, Mark and Ephum. Luthy helps show what motherhood was like and how women lost power. They were taken away from some of their traditional roles in their society. In some parts of the book, Maritole feels a bit jealous of Luthy, who still has her children. Luthy lost her parents when she was young. She slowly becomes weaker and sometimes gets confused.
Important Symbols in the Novel
The Bear
The book's title and many parts of the story talk about a bear. The Cherokee feel like they are pushing against this bear during their hard times on the trail. This idea comes from an old bear story in Cherokee myths. In this myth, bears cause a Cherokee tribe to become greedy and selfish. They only think about themselves and their hunger. Maritole is the first to mention the bear. She says it felt like a heavy grief she couldn't push away. She also says, "The bear we pushed would not move away. Each day I felt his ragged fur."
The true meaning of the bear becomes clear later in the book. The bear stands for greed and wanting to protect oneself more than the unity of the Cherokee people. The terrible hardships on the Trail of Tears changed what was most important to the characters. They started thinking about themselves more than the whole group. This shows the lack of unity the Cherokee knew they would face in Indian Territory, which is now Oklahoma. In the end, Maritole directly faces the bear. She realizes the bear represents greed and selfishness within everyone. Glancy uses this idea to show how the Trail of Tears broke up the Cherokee community.
Corn
The Cherokee people relied on all kinds of farming and natural foods to live. But corn is mentioned often as one of the most important crops, especially for those from North Carolina. Corn is very important to the Cherokee because of one of their ancient myths. Maritole tells this myth early in the book. She says, "Didn't the soldiers know we were the land? The cornstalks were our grandmothers." In their corn story, a woman named Selu was killed by her sons. Where her blood fell, corn grew. Maritole's father also says, "Corn! That's what we eat. We can't live without corn. It's our bodies. Our lives."
Glancy includes the Cherokee connection with corn to show what they lost. They lost their land and farming, but also their culture and beliefs. The myth of Selu and the corn shows the important role of women, especially mothers, in Cherokee culture. It also highlights the deep connection the Cherokee had to Selu as a mother figure. Corn was their main food for many centuries. So, corn in Pushing the Bear symbolizes what the Cherokee left behind. This includes their society where women had important roles and the crops they needed to live. These things were vital to the Cherokee way of life. The book helps readers understand the huge losses during Indian Removal.
Main Ideas in the Novel
Loss of Identity and Roles
The Trail of Tears forced the Cherokee away from their homes and culture. This slowly weakened the traditional roles for men and women in Cherokee society. This change caused confusion, frustration, and sadness for many people. They felt helpless because they could not do their usual tasks. Knobowtee is the main character who shows the emotional struggle of men losing their traditional roles. For example, Knobowtee says, "Women had the property, and that helped me decide to marry her. But I can farm. Yes, except I have no farm. I have nothing, again." Maritole also sees Knobowtee's frustration. She notes that "His fields were gone, and he did not know who he was."
Many men faced this problem of not being able to do their duties on the Trail of Tears. Glancy shows this through Knobowtee's thoughts and actions. Men could not protect their wives and families from cruel soldiers, hunger, and extreme cold. This made them feel weak and unable to help. As a result, Knobowtee separates from Maritole. He becomes violent and is also seen looking at other young women.
Because of the removal, every part of the Cherokee's life was disrupted. This had a big impact on the people, who felt lost. Knobowtee sums this up by telling Maritole's father, "I'm tired of losing." Glancy shows through Knobowtee's struggles that when the Cherokee's roles, which were tied to their land, were questioned, their whole culture was questioned too. Knobowtee's feelings of helplessness reflect what all Cherokee people felt. They were stripped from their land and, therefore, their culture.
The Power of Spoken Words
Throughout the novel, Glancy talks about language, especially spoken words versus written words. One example of spoken language is when Glancy includes Cherokee words in the story. For instance, there is a song written completely in the Cherokee language. It has no translation except for its title. By including songs and Cherokee words, Glancy shows readers a language that was once strong but is now mostly lost. At the end of the novel, where the Cherokee alphabet is included, Glancy says the language "can be viewed as holes in the text so the original can show through." The Cherokee language, which readers likely don't understand, also helps show the language barrier the Cherokee faced with white soldiers.
Pushing the Bear is interesting because it values spoken words over written words, even though it is a written novel itself. For the Cherokee people, speaking and telling stories was a very important part of their culture. This is why Glancy includes so many different voices in her story. One character, Lacey Woodard, says that "the voice carried power. What was spoken came into being." She notes that even a Christian minister talked about God creating the world with his voice. She asks if the white man was just learning this, while the Cherokee had always known the power of the word. Through these ideas, the book compares written and oral words. For the Cherokee, the white man's written words meant treaties they couldn't understand and broken promises. Glancy shows the power of spoken language, which was so important to the Cherokee. She compares it positively to the negative impact of the written word introduced by the white man.
The Importance of Land
For the Cherokee people, land is connected to many things. This includes family, heritage, and gender roles. Ancestors are tied to the land because it was often passed down through generations, usually through the mother's side of the family. The Cherokee Indians depended on the land for hunting and farming. They did not create borders that people couldn't cross. Indian Removal took the Cherokee away from their connection to nature. This caused feelings of loss and hopelessness that are always present in the novel. For example, Maritole's father says, "I could hear the ancestors murmuring beside us as we walked. [. . .] Something bigger was happening here. I knew it now. Even the ancestors had no power. They could only walk unseen beside us." This shows that the Cherokee's ancestors, who are connected to the land and believed to protect the living, could no longer help their families once they were taken from their land. It also shows that these people connected land with power. Being taken from their homes made them feel powerless.
As the Cherokee people walked further from their land and home, they also began to question their beliefs. For example, it was important to the Cherokee that people be buried in the ground when they died. But on the trail, this was almost impossible, as many people died daily. Maritole says that Lacey Woodard, a woman on the trail, "prayed for the spirits of the dead to find their way to the afterlife without burial." Because they could not follow traditional burial customs, the Cherokee wondered if their old beliefs would still work in their new homeland. Glancy purposely includes many characters' thoughts about land. This helps her audience understand that Indian Removal did more than just move the Cherokee. It also changed their beliefs and their connection with nature. As Maritole states, "We had been cheated out of our land just as the Cherokee who had volunteered to go earlier. Families had been lost."
Naming and Identity
Glancy pays special attention to the names of some characters in the novel. She gives them names that are symbolic and show their personalities. While many characters have special names, this is most clear with Maritole and Knobowtee. For example, Knobowtee's name sounds a lot like the English word "nobody." This reflects his feelings of powerlessness and uselessness on the trail. Knobowtee fails in his roles as husband, father, protector, and provider because he was removed from North Carolina. As a husband, he separates completely from Maritole on the trail. He stays mainly with his mother and siblings. He often criticizes Maritole for her actions. This leads her to say that he "seemed a stranger to [her]." When Maritole tells her husband that their child will die, he says, "The better for her." Each of Knobowtee's actions in the novel shows his inner struggle. He struggles with losing power, his anger at white people, and feeling betrayed by other Cherokee. All of this makes him feel like a "nobody."
Similarly, Maritole's name sounds a lot like the word "marital," meaning related to marriage. This highlights her roles as a mother and the importance of women's roles in Cherokee society. Maritole first takes care of her own child on the trail. Then she helps her brother's wife, Luthy, care for their two sons, Maritole's nephews. Cherokee women's traditional skills became even more important during the journey and when they arrived in Indian Territory. They needed these skills to survive. However, the removal also weakened some aspects of women's independence. On the Trail of Tears, women faced more hardships than men, especially if they were pregnant. Glancy gives Maritole a name that sounds like "marital" to show this character's desire to fulfill her roles as a mother and wife. These roles were common for Cherokee women before the removal. So, characters are given important and symbolic names to show the struggle with and loss of identity that many Cherokee faced on the Trail of Tears.
Cherokee Beliefs and Christianity
One of the themes Glancy explores in her novel is Cherokee spiritual beliefs versus Christianity. With characters like the missionary Reverend Bushyhead, Glancy shows the influence of Christian ideas on those walking the trail. At the same time, she shows how the Cherokee questioned, but tried to keep, their own spiritual beliefs. Many characters talk about their beliefs in ghosts, spirits, and old religious practices. But they often speak with more doubt than they would have before the removal. For example, Maritole's father remembers how he "made a trap to protect [his] cabin." He used a mockingbird's brain in a gourd and buried it by his door. This was a traditional Cherokee practice for protection. Yet, Maritole's father says, "the soldiers came anyway. Now we were walking," showing his doubt about Cherokee spirituality.
While many Cherokee in the story try to hold onto their religious beliefs, they also become curious about Christianity. For instance, both Christians and Cherokees believe that creation happened through spoken words. Lacey Woodard points this out when she says that "what was spoken came into being. Even Reverend Mackenzie talked of the Great Spirit creating the world with his voice." The occasional similarities in beliefs led many Cherokee people to become interested in Christianity. This was especially true when their ancient practices could not help their situation. Even Knobowtee, who is against everything linked to white culture, wonders, "Weren't all things possible according to the Christians? [. . .] Listen to Bushyhead. Even Maritole thought it was true." Glancy shows her audience the confusion the Cherokee faced about religion on the trail. This highlights even more effects the removal had on these people.
The Importance of Storytelling
Storytelling and oral traditions were, and still are, a very important part of Cherokee culture. This is how these people passed down their history and traditions. Stories explained how things were created, taught good ways to behave, and helped children and adults learn from their elders. Glancy includes the importance of storytelling to Cherokee people. She also shows their worry about losing their stories because of the forced removal. This is seen through many of her characters' thoughts. For example, Quaty Lewis, a woman on the trail, tells Luthy's children a story about a Trickster Turtle. Luthy says that Quaty "spoke first in Cherokee, then English, word for word through the story. 'So you won't forget,' she said." Quaty is trying hard to teach the younger generations the importance of storytelling. She fears they will lose this tradition after the removal.
Glancy also creates a character called the Basket Maker. She specifically helps share Cherokee ideas about stories. The Basket Maker makes up her own stories, which some people don't approve of. But she says that "the trail needs stories." In another part of the book, a man tells her, "You women have to talk so you make a story. You have to have something to carry yourself in. What are we without something to say?" Many Cherokee people believed that stories came from ancestors. They worried that the forced removal would end this tradition. But Glancy shows through the Basket Maker how important it is to tell stories orally. It is a way to preserve the truth of history. It is also a way to keep parts of the Cherokee culture alive despite the Trail of Tears. The novel itself is one big story, told through many voices. This strengthens Glancy's idea that this tradition is necessary.
How Accurate is the History?
Glancy makes Pushing the Bear feel real and trustworthy because she sticks closely to historical facts. Many of the experiences her characters face in the novel are things that real Cherokee men and women went through on the Trail of Tears. For example, one reviewer noted that Glancy "read widely about and traveled closely along the trail." She adds real details, like using axle-grease to soothe children's chapped lips. Glancy also tells the reader that many white farmers would charge the Cherokee money to cross their land.
Besides small details, Glancy also includes detailed maps at the start of each chapter. These maps show the route the Cherokee followed towards Indian Territory. This makes the journey more real and visual for her readers.
Some characters in the novel are real historical figures. These include Reverend Bushyhead and Chief John Ross. Instead of just using character voices, Glancy also includes stories from The Cherokee Phoenix newspaper. She also includes Reverend Bushyhead's list of supplies for the mission, and other historical documents.
Finally, Glancy includes bits of the Cherokee language in the text. She also provides a full alphabet and a poetic translation at the end of the book. All these historical elements help give the reader a consistent and reliable account of the Trail of Tears.
