What is the name of Matt's book in "The Sign of the Beaver"?
Matt had just two books in the cabin with him. He and his father had moved to the wilderness to build a cabin for the family. There had not been room for anything more than the necessities and a few other items as they traveled. Among the items were the books "Robinson Crusoe" and his father's Bible.
Both books play a role in the story but it is "Robinson Crusoe" that plays a larger role. The book provided Matt a tool for teaching Attean the alphabet and English language. Through the story of Crusoe, Matt was able to capture Attean's attention and entice him to learn English. Attean in turn, went back to his tribe and told the others Crusoe's story. Once the book was finished, Matt turned to his other book, his father's Bible, and began to read Biblical stories to Attean.
How is Matt described in The Sign of the Beaver?
Authors help readers understand their characters in...
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two different ways: directcharacterization and indirect characterization. When an author uses words and phrases that describe a character, it's called direct characterization. Some books use this technique more than others. Although direct characterization can be interesting if done well, most authors prefer to present their characters using indirect characterization—that is, by showing the reader what characters are like by how they act, what they think, and what other people say about them.
In The Sign of the Beaver, Elizabeth George Speare uses a narrative perspective known as third person limited. She tells the story from Matt's point of view, as if the reader is inside Matt's head. Because of this perspective, Speare doesn't provide many words or phrases that directly describe Matt. Those that do appear come from his own internal dialogue or from what others say about him.
We learn in chapter 1 that Matt, like the rest of his family, isn't one to "put things into words." In other words, he doesn't find it easy to express his feelings verbally. We also learn that he will be thirteen years old in two months. In chapter 2, we learn that he handles loneliness better than many people might:
For much of the day he was content to be alone . . . . He was like his father in that.
But loneliness eventually bothers him so much that "he was not so quick-witted as he should have been when unexpectedly someone arrived."
In chapter 3, Speare writes, "Perhaps he even became a mite careless." In chapter 6, Saknis echoes that thought by saying, "White boy very foolish to climb bee tree."
These descriptions aren't enough to tell us who Matt is. His bravery and compassion come through not in what Speare tells us about him via description, but in what she shows us about him through his actions.