The Sign of the Beaver

Though the only thing Attean is to give Matt in return for teaching him how to read is food, the two begin to spend time together in the wilderness, where Attean teaches Matt Indian ways of...

When Attean comes to visit Matt for the last time, he brings gifts from his grandfather Saknis, his grandmother, and himself. Matt in turn gives a gift to Attean. Attean's grandfather Saknis sends...

In the book In the Sign of the Beaver, seba is the Indian word for tomorrow. The word seba first appears at the end of Chapter 6. Matt has foolishly tried to get honey from a honeycomb, and is...

In The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare, young Matt is left to watch over the family cabin in Maine while his father returns to Massachusetts for the rest of their family. Matt's life...

The close friendship that develops between Matt and Attean becomes an education for both of them. As well as teaching Matt crucial survival skills, Attean also gives him an unprecedented insight...

Attean's method, the Indian way of making signs to show their way in the woods, is much more subtle than the method Matt's father uses. Matt recalls that when his father wanted to mark his path...

Before he leaves, Matt's father gives Matt his heirloom silver watch and his own rifle. In Chapter One, Matt's father tells Matt that he will be gone for six weeks or more. He tells Matt to count...

Ben is not a savory-looking character. He is fat and slovenly-looking, "heavyset, the fat bulging under a ragged blue army coat...his face...almost invisible behind a tangle of reddish...

In Chapter 8, the one thing that makes Matt change his approach to teaching Attean is that his original method fails to interest the Indian boy. Matt initially begins the English lessons by...

Matt's father has gone back to Massachusetts to bring back Matt's mother and siblings, and during that time, Matt must "stay behind and guard the cabin and the corn patch" they have built...

Elizabeth George Speare's novel, The Sign of the Beaver, is about a young boy named Matt Hallowell who moves to Maine with his father to settle down. The Hallowell's family is split up because...

The climax of The Sign of the Beaver occurs when Matt must make the choice of whether to stay at his family's cabin and wait for them to return or to join Attean's tribe and travel to a less...

Elizabeth George Speare's novel The Sign of the Beaver is the story of Matt Hallowell and Attean. This story is an early tale of the conflicts between the white man and Native Americans. In chapter...

The first survival skill Attean teaches Matt is how to snare rabbit and other small game. He creates a simple noose out of roots and arranges it on a stand of forked saplings. Attached to the...

The Sign of the Beaver is told from the point of view of a narrator who speaks through the voice of just one character. This means that the novel is told from the third person limited point of...

Attean is fascinated by the story Robinson Crusoe, but he becomes upset when Friday bows to Robinson Crusoe and calls him "Master". The idea of anyone being so willingly subservient to a white man...

When Matt asks the stranger, who gives his name only as "Ben", if he is traveling to the river, Ben replies, "Not likely. I'm keeping as fur off from that river's I can, till things quiet...

Matt's mother persuades Matt and his father to take a small keg of molasses with them on their trip to Maine territory in the book Sign of the Beaver. Matt's father would have preferred not to take...

Authors help readers understand their characters in two different ways: direct characterization and indirect characterization. When an author uses words and phrases that describe a character, it's...

Even though neither Matt nor Attean wanted to together at first, in keeping the terms of the "treaty" set by Saknis, both boys learn to respect each other, and eventually become friends. Matt is...

Matt is not sure why he finds it hard to trust Ben at first, but he seems to have a keen sense of who means him harm and who only wishes to help. He shows this later in the book when he realizes...

The movie version of Sign of the Beaver was originally entitled Keeping the Promise. It is interesting because it focuses on different things than the book. A lot more emphasis is given to the...

Attean makes it quite clear that he dislikes reading lessons and does not want to go to Matt's place to learn to "read the white man's signs", yet he keeps coming back, day after day. Matt...

Matt earns Attean's complete respect by essentially doing nothing. Winter is coming, and Matt's father has not arrived; Attean's grandfather Saknis has invited Matt to accompany the tribe to their...

When Matt's father returns with their family and sees how well Matt has taken care of things in his absence, he tells him, "You've done a grown man's job, son...I'm right proud of you". These...

I would argue that Matt's main problem in chapter 2 is that although he is relishing being alone, he has a constant feeling that he is being watched, and this naturally leads to some feelings of...

Matt learns a number of things when Attean takes him to the beaver wigwam. It is the first one that he has ever seen, and he is startled to discover that with their tails, the beavers make a sharp...

Prior to Chapter 19, when Matt attended a feast at the Indian village after helping Attean kill a bear, Attean's grandmother was not happy with his presence. Attean's grandmother hated the white...

The deal or agreement that Matt and Saknis came to was precipitated by the encounter they had when Matt was injured. After disturbing a beehive looking for honey to eat, he fell from a tree into a...

By chapter three Matt has been alone at the cabin for some time. He has learned to adapt to his situation and become somewhat comfortable with his solitude. Though survival will be difficult, he...

Matt is angry at himself because he has allowed his father's rifle, with which he had been entrusted, to be stolen from him. He had had a hunch that Ben, the stranger who had invited himself to...

In The Sign of the Beaver, Matt was the one who found himself indebted to his Indian friend, Attean. On the other hand, in Robinson Crusoe, it was the "brown savage" (Friday) who found himself...

In exchange for teaching Attean how to read, Matt learns some important survival skills from his Indian counterpart. The first thing Attean teaches Matt is how to hunt rabbits. In Chapter 9, Attean...

In The Sign of the Beaver, the main character, Matt, is saved from a bee swarm by a Native American man. As repayment, Matt tries to teach the man's grandson, Attean, to understand English. Matt...

When Matt visits the Indian village for the second time, the women are busy preparing food. Although he knows that Attean is "scornful of...squaw work", Matt is curious, because, unlike his Indian...

The land adjoining that of the Beaver hunting grounds belongs to the Turtle Clan. The Indians have a system of coexisting on the land based on mutual respect. They mark their hunting grounds with...

In The Sign of the Beaver, the rising action begins when Matt Hallowell is returning home from dinner with Attean's tribe. He hears the whining of an animal in pain and finds that Attean's dog has...

At the end of Chapter 11, Attean offered Matt a treat that Indians enjoy. As they made their way through the forest, "...he stopped, whipped out his knife, and neatly sliced off two shining gobs...

I believe that the five most important incidents in the story The Sign of the Beaver include the following - Matt is left alone to take care of the family's settlement in Maine Territory while his...

Attean begins his manhood ritual when he kills the bear that was attacking Matt and him. This is a sign to his grandfather that he is old enough and skilled enough to begin the ritual. During the...

In the Sign of the Beaver, white settlers are beginning to encroach on indigenous people's territory in the area which the U.S. settler state has called "Maine". As the world of whiteness begins to...

In order to be able to take his place among the men in his tribe, Attean must discover his manitou. According to Attean, every Indian boy must have a manitou, which, in English, might be called a...

Attean's Grandmother "hate(s) all white men" because white men caused the deaths of both Attean's mother and his father. Attean tells Matt that his mother was shot when she went out looking for...

The first encounter Matt and Attean have occurs when Matt is injured attempting to retrieve honey from a beehive. Since Matt has fallen out of a tree, he is partially unaware of who has rescued him...

Matt won Attean's respect in a very unexpected way. When Attean invited Matt to leave with his tribe, Matt refused. Even though both Saknis and Attean reiterated their joint desire to have Matt...

Matt's mother had insisted on traveling to Maine because she didn't want to miss spending Christmas together with Matt. More than anything, she wanted to make sure that Matt didn't have to spend...