What is the main symbol in The Light in the Forest?
There are many important symbols in the book, but the most important one is the forest. The title indicates this. The forest symbolizes freedom to True Son. He has been captured by the Delaware Indians from his White family, where he lived from age four to eleven.
The forest also...
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contains a duality. It is True Son’s struggle to decide which civilization he wants to be a part of. Will he be an Indian, or return to the life of the White Man?
True Son had thought nothing could approach the joy of hunting in the forest. But now he felt contentment in the deep summer days of the village. (p. 153)
In the end, True Son decides he is better off in the forest than among the Indians or the White Men. He chooses his own path.
What does the forest symbolize in The Light in the Forest?
The forest symbolizes freedom to True Son. It represents the nature-focused lifestyle of his adoptive Indian tribe.
True Son was kidnapped by the Delaware Indians when he was four years old. He has completely internalized the Delaware Indians’ values by the time the book starts when he is fifteen. When he is in the forest, he is free.
When True Son is forced to return to his biological home among the White Men, he finds it confining and depressing. The White Men wear heavy and uncomfortable clothes and ugly shoes. They live in annoyingly closed houses away from nature. He cannot understand this way of life.
Perhaps the Ruler of Heaven and Earth had imprisoned him to make him value the freedom when he got out. Never even along the Tuscarawas had he tasted such savor in the open trail, the sweet air, the green forest. (p. 83)
True Son only feels happy and free when he is in the forest. He feels at home, and comfortable there. Therefore the forest represents everything he has lost. It symbolizes freedom, which for him also means returning to his Indian life.