83 pages • 2 hours read
E. B. WhiteThe Trumpet of the Swan
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1970A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “The Cygnets”
Later that evening, the swan hears a small sound coming from the eggs, and the next morning, she notices some movement under her body. She concludes that a little cygnet might be wiggling its way free and continues to patiently wait. Meanwhile, the cob keeps watch, gliding around the island in wait and feeling “poetical and proud” (26). The swan is more straightforward and practical, while the cob is grandiose and professorial. That afternoon, to their joy, their first cygnet is born.
The next morning, Sam fixes himself an early breakfast and leaves his father a note saying that he will return in time for lunch. He packs some supplies and hikes out to the pond to observe the swans with a pair of field glasses. The swan correctly notes that binoculars are used to magnify what a person is looking at. Although Sam does not understand what they are saying, he is content to be in the swans’ company and is delighted when he sees a baby cygnet emerging from beneath its mother’s feathers.
After an hour, once all five cygnets are exploring outside the nest, their parents decide to take them for their first swim. As they head to the water, the cob gives his children a speech that points out the marsh’s environmental features and warns of various dangers. The swan calls her children over and each cygnet jumps into the water. With the cob in the lead and the swan bringing up the rear, they swim in a line over to where Sam is sitting.
Four cygnets greet Sam with a “beep” and the fifth, which cannot beep, pulls one of Sam’s shoelaces untied (32). The cob and his wife, feeling protective, lead their children back to the safety of the nest. Sam returns to his campsite and he and his father fly back to Montana the next day with plans to return to Canada in the fall. Though he documents his encounter with the cygnets in his diary, Sam does not tell his father about the swans. He then ends his diary entry with the question, “I wonder what I’m going to be when I grow up?” (34).
Chapter 5 Summary: “Louis”
A few weeks later, the swan is the first to notice there is a difference with the cygnet they call Louis. Although the cob has not noticed anything that looks out of the ordinary, the swan points out that Louis has yet to make any sounds. The cob becomes deeply concerned by the possibility that he has a “defective” child (36). The swan is not alarmed, but agrees that it will be an issue when Louis eventually falls in love. She reminds her husband that it was his “wonderful voice” that attracted her, which appeals to the cob’s vanity and reminds him of their courtship.
The swan suggests that they keep an eye on Louis, but the cob immediately begins to make plans that will enable his son to, in some way, “make a lot of noise” (38). The next morning, he talks to Louis away from the others, while Louis anxiously waits for his father to get to the point. First, the cob tests Louis’s ability to beep. When no sound materializes, he tells his son, “I guess it’s no use. I guess you are dumb” (40). Seeing Louis’s distress, the cob explains there are two meanings for the word “dumb” and tells Louis that while he may have a speech defect, he is sure Louis will “overcome it, in time” (42).
The cob advises Louis to take advantage of the situation, to become a good listener, and most importantly, to enjoy life. He then promises his son that he will help Louis acquire a trumpet. Louis is somewhat reassured by his father’s words, but he is still “frightened at being different from his brothers and sisters” (43).
Chapter 6 Summary: “Off to Montana”
With the end of summer, it is time for the swans to fly south to Montana in search of warmer weather and a steady supply of food. The cygnets, with the exception of Louis, vocally express their concern at this unexpected change. In response, the cob assures them that Red Rock Lakes is a haven for swans. There, they will have plentiful food, warm springs, and games every day. Louis and his siblings listen in amazement, but are concerned at having to learn to fly.
At this, the cob tells his children that while flying consists of the takeoff, ascent, and leveling-off, it is also “largely a matter of having the right attitude […] and good wing feathers” (46). He describes in detail how “exalted” swans feel during flight and outlines all the practical steps involved during a demonstration (47).
Louis worries that a swan with no voice might not be able to fly, and that he might die of starvation over the winter. However, this worry is for naught. After the cob’s demonstration flight, the family swims to the end of the pond and, to his great relief, Louis is the first of the young cygnets to take flight. After half an hour, the swans return to the pond and celebrate their success. The next morning, the family, led by the cob, takes off for Montana and trumpet as they pass over Sam’s campsite.
Sam tells his father that the swans were Trumpeters, but still holds back from telling the whole story of his encounters with the swan, cob, and cygnets. Instead, in his diary, he wonders what it must feel like to fly at night, whether he will ever see the swans again, and how a bird knows “how to get from where he is to where he wants to be” (52).
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
Sam perceives the natural world as sacred. In Chapter 4, after approaching the pond quietly and “keeping company with these two great birds in the wilderness” (29), Sam is perfectly happy and at ease. Later, when the cygnets hatch and Sam meets them for the first time, it is a moving experience that he vows to “never forget” (34).
Sam’s diary question, “I wonder what I’m going to be when I grow up?” (34)—a question with no clear, correct answer—raises a key theme that will play an important role for Sam and Louis throughout the novel. At the same time, the open-ended thoughts that Sam asks in his diary are another private space that the novel hints children could create for themselves, where they can ask, weighted, and wrestle with serious questions.
The birth of the cygnets also reveals the differing parenting anxieties of the two swans and highlights their gendered parenting styles. Whereas the cob is overcome with “poetical and proud” feelings, the swan is focused on practicalities and “the proper thing to do” (26-27). The cob takes on the pontificating persona of a parent who speaks at rather than with his children. He lectures his cygnets on features of the swamp to admire, dangers to avoid, and instructions to keep in mind when taking flight (31, 47). He is a cob of action and thinks of ways to help his son. He is also somewhat insensitive, as when he calls Louis “dumb” (40-41). In contrast, the swan provides only a few short sentences before modeling actions for her children (30). She is the first to notice Louis’s inability to talk, and advises waiting a few years before taking action. While the cob sees his children as an extension of his own ego, the swan is more concerned about her children’s future happiness.
Louis’s disability colors the way he perceives his world. It will become the defining characteristic of his young adulthood, and what all else is measured against. When his voicelessness is discovered, Louis bewails the unfairness, repeating the thought “[f]ate is cruel” (43). His disability pushes him to try harder than his siblings to be the first and best to fly or to splash water (49, 43)—he is eager to avoid appearing limited in more than one way. While he does not have the ability to speak, he puts pressure on himself to be the best in everything else.
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By E. B. White
