48 pages • 1 hour read
Elizabeth George SpeareCalico Captive
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1957A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Survival and Resilience
The novel illustrates that survival and resilience are challenging, particularly during wartime. Miriam and her family struggle to survive after they are kidnapped by Abenaki warriors and marched to St. Francis. Miriam has heard of the horrors done to English captives by the French and by the Indigenous people, but she finds that neither the Abenaki nor the French are what she expected. Through Miriam’s attempt to survive first her capture by the Abenaki and then her imprisonment by the French in Montreal, she becomes a more resilient young woman. The ways that Miriam must survive change when her captors change, but her resilience builds through her journey.
Although Miriam faces real threats to her survival following her capture, her own biases make the experience even more traumatic. Miriam is terrified of the Abenaki warriors at first: “Glancing up at their paint-streaked faces, Miriam could see no sign at all of any mercy” (20). Her culture has raised her in extreme bigotry, and it is not until she has first-hand experience that she understands the reality. Miriam experiences physical hardship, particularly on the march from her home to St. Francis, but the hardship she experiences is shared by the Abenaki warriors. The Indigenous men share the little food that they have equally and do not harm any of their prisoners. Miriam has been taught to hate all Indigenous people, but she must admit that she and her family have not been mistreated. Even when running the gantlet, Miriam and her family are not harmed and are instead adopted into Abenaki families. A young Abenaki man even offers marriage to Miriam; though she declines angrily, the offer illustrates how Miriam has triumphed over her circumstances.
Miriam’s survival shifts from physical to social when she enters the Du Quesne household in Montreal. While her physical needs are met and she is given clothes and food, she must survive intricate social norms that she’s unfamiliar with and learn a foreign language. Miriam meets this challenge, learning French and even becoming a friend to Felicité Du Quesne. However, Miriam misunderstands her perilous position, and she angers Madame Du Quesne, who casts her and Susanna out. It is through Miriam’s wits and talents as a seamstress that she is able to keep her sister and herself alive. Miriam is given the opportunity to live in luxury as Pierre Laroche’s wife, but she chooses to return to a life that will be filled with challenges and struggles to survive. The reader can infer that the resilience she has learned through her captivity will allow her to meet any future challenges she might face with grit and determination.
Cultural Clashes and Assimilation
Calico Captive suggests that cultural clashes can lead to assimilation, but total assimilation is not ideal, because it erases identity. The novel offers many examples of cultural clashes and various levels of assimilation. Miriam clashes with and rejects the Abenaki culture, refusing to accept the necklace that Mehkoa gives her when he proposes. In contrast, Miriam’s nephew Sylvanus is immediately enthralled with the Abenaki warriors and is quickly assimilated. In his assimilation, he loses his English identity and when Miriam sees him again, he does not speak English or remember her. Pierre points out that Sylvanus is living a wonderful life, but Miriam cannot wrap her mind around that possibility. She only abandons the idea of capturing Sylvanus because she cannot keep him contained or fed.
Calico Captive grapples with cultural conflict and assimilation but never reaches a conclusion satisfying for a modern audience because Miriam’s bigotry comes out at many moments. In particular, her hatred of Indigenous Americans and her belief that the English and French are superior remain throughout the novel. The only character that questions her assumption of her superiority to Indigenous people is Pierre, but he is not portrayed sympathetically throughout the novel so the argument falls flat.
While Miriam is not interested in Abenaki culture, she adores French culture: “It was all wrong, Miriam knew. All her life she had been taught to despise this mysterious evil called Popery” (129). Despite how Miriam was raised, she enjoys the fashions and lifestyle of the French in Montreal, and she emulates them at every opportunity. Miriam becomes disillusioned when Madame Du Quesne turns Susanna and Miriam out, but while she does not live in luxury, she still idealizes the wealthy nobles in Montreal.
Once in Montreal, Miriam is therefore shocked to learn that the French look down on her in much the same way that she looks down on Indigenous people. Miriam attempts to mimic them and learn the language, but her English heritage is still held against her. It is only when Miriam is faced with the nobles while dressed poorly that she sees them more clearly. When Miriam is reminded of her name—Miriam Willard—she regains her self-worth. When she does, she is able to see through the frivolity:
Who were these people anyway, these beruffled, sophisticated creatures who behaved like savages? Not one of them had ever faced an Indian gantlet. Not one of them had ever done an honest day’s work in return for the food that ruined their fashionable figures (247-48).
In this moment, Miriam realizes that there are deep flaws to the French culture she idealized and value in the Puritan culture she’s abandoned. Pierre’s proposal allows Miriam the opportunity to join the nobles and become one of them, but she chooses to leave for England instead. Ultimately, Miriam rejects complete assimilation. While she has built relationships with several people in Montreal, she instead chooses a life of hardship with her loved ones back in New England.
The Value of Listening to One’s Heart
Calico Captive explores the value of listening to your own heart, while also examining how feelings can mislead. As the novel opens, Miriam trusts her sister’s judgment more than her own. It is only as she overcomes more challenges, and as Miriam must take charge to ensure her and Susanna’s survival, that she begins to trust her own judgment. Much of Miriam’s character growth is learning to listen to her own heart, rather than allow others to dictate what she should do.
While feelings are important, the novel also shows that they can be misleading. When Pierre spends more time with Miriam, she begins to forget about Phineas Whitney, whom she had been so devoted to. Even though she keeps the letter he sent close, she cannot imagine him as clearly as she once could. She begins to imagine a future with Pierre instead of Phineas, but when Pierre finally offers her this future, she realizes she was mistaken. While Miriam imagined that Pierre would bring her on his trading adventures, he intends to leave her in an opulent home and travel without her. Instead of a partnership, she would have a lonely marriage of extreme wealth.
Despite the unappealing marriage, other characters encourage her to accept and remind her of how lucky she would be to marry Pierre. By this point, however, Miriam has a firmer sense of who she is and what she wants. She realizes that “[s]he had only to keep silent and every costly thing she had learned to value would be hers. Then why did the thought of Pierre’s return set her heart thudding with dread?” (260). While Miriam’s feelings misled her into believing Pierre offered her the life she wanted, her heart ultimately guides her in the right direction.
Miriam has misgivings about marriage to Pierre, but it is only when she realizes that she may have lost Phineas forever that her feelings for him return. Miriam had forgotten Phineas in the excitement of Pierre’s courtship, but suddenly she remembers him perfectly. Miriam thinks, “I shall not lose courage, my love, she spoke to him silently. Now that I am sure. Wait for me—just a little longer” (272). While Miriam is misled by her feelings for Pierre, her heart ultimately leads her to choose to risk an uncertain future for the chance at a true partnership with Phineas.
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By Elizabeth George Speare
