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46 pages 1 hour read

Jean Van Leeuwen

Bound For Oregon

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1994

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Themes

The Pioneer Experience and Spirit

The novel explores the early American drive for adventure, freedom, newness, and autonomy by way of the Todd family’s journey from Arkansas to Oregon in 1852. The Todd family has a comfortable life in Arkansas before they head west. For this reason, nine-year-old Mary Ellen Todd can’t understand why her parents would want to leave their home and make such a difficult journey. Abbott Todd, or Father, is the novel’s archetypal guide and leads the family throughout this venture west. The novel also uses him as a mouthpiece for the pioneer experience and an embodiment of the pioneer spirit. It is his desire to make a new and better life for his family that inspires the Todds’ journey and that helps Mary Ellen understand their move and embrace the pioneer life.

The core of the Todd’s decision to brave the Oregon Trail (and the decision of many other families to do the same) lies in a desire for prosperity and enrichment. Pioneers like the Todds talk about “the beautiful valleys of rich black soil, the outstanding timber and water, the mild climate that could not be beaten anywhere” (1). These promising facets of the Oregon countryside are tempting to Father and spur his eagerness to relocate. Like his fellow countrymen and settlers, Father is willing to brave the “endless plains” and “difficult mountain ranges” to have an idyllic life out west (3). His determined, resilient, and courageous spirit therefore ushers Mary Ellen and her family away from their home and out into the uncharted American territory. Previously having moved to escape an epidemic and find safety, the Todd family is again uprooted to ensure their success and long-term happiness in a seemingly better, safer place.

Mary Ellen’s first-person point of view provides a window into a child’s perspective of the pioneer experience, especially as defined by the Oregon Trail era. Initially, Mary Ellen is terrified when she hears her parents, cousins, and community telling stories about all of the dangers they might face on their journey west. The “jumble of fears” she feels includes “snowstorms, school, poetry, Grandma” (10). She therefore must learn to rely upon her father’s innate pioneer spirit in order to survive the trip. In Chapter 1, she sees “the far-off look in his eyes” as he talks about their upcoming journey, the preparations they’ll make, and the life they’ll have at the end of it (10). What she detects in Father’s face in this scene is his longing for newness. Over the course of the months that follow, Mary Ellen does experience complex emotions inspired by her and her family’s pioneering ventures. However, these experiences also teach her how to be brave, how to build community, and how to maintain hopefulness. She creates close relationships with others, develops a more empathetic nature, and discovers a love for land and animals. The novel uses her perspective to bring light to the ways in which this era imbued children with a spirit of survival.

The Challenges of Migration

The challenges that Mary Ellen and her family face along the Oregon Trail gradually contribute to her self-discovery and coming of age. Mary Ellen is just nine years old when her parents decide to leave their home in Arkansas and make the “long and difficult journey” out west (10). Throughout their roughly six months of traveling, they venture “across rivers and deserts and high mountains” (10). At times, the journey is easy and smooth, and Mary Ellen delights in the surprising landscapes and people she and her family encounter. However, the journey also forces Mary Ellen into terrifying, unpredictable, and unfamiliar conflicts that force her to grow up. These migration challenges are metaphors for Mary Ellen’s coming of age conflicts. With each conflict that she overcomes, she learns something new about herself and develops a new understanding of the world around her.

Mary Ellen’s venture from Arkansas to Oregon inspires many conflicts between her internal and external worlds, and these conflicts more broadly represent the challenges migration posed to those taking the treacherous route to Oregon. Her first-person point of view narration reveals Mary Ellen’s true thoughts and feelings about her experiences. For example, before the family leaves, her “mind cloud[s] over again with doubts” and she worries about being “all alone out on those plains, just one small family in one wagon” (18). She wants to trust her parents but has difficulty dismissing her fears. She often channels her grandmother’s spirit throughout the trip to overcome her internal hesitations and her external obstacles. At the same time, Mary Ellen is a complex character, and her emotions often live in conflict with her surroundings. Thunderstorms, unfriendly passersbys, famine, and sickness repeatedly threaten her state of mind and cause her to ask questions about what she and her family are doing and why. These facets of Mary Ellen’s internal experience reveal the ways in which migration experiences like the Todds’ challenged pioneers’ mental and emotional states, as well as their physical safety.

Mary Ellen gains a new outlook by the time she and her family settle in Oregon. Throughout the journey, Mary Ellen has learned how to have empathy for others, how to believe in herself, how to take advice from family and friends, and how to rely on her faith for strength. The novel uses Mary Ellen’s regard for baby Elijah to show how much Mary Ellen has grown. She not only welcomes the baby but is eager to help care for and protect him. Her migration experiences have therefore matured her and helped her to see herself as a strong and capable young woman.

The Importance of Family and Community to Survival

Bound for Oregon explores the ways in which family and community connections help the individual to survive by way of Mary Ellen’s evolving relationships with her loved ones throughout their trek from Arkansas to Oregon. The Todd family members and their good friends maintain close relationships with each other, which give them the mental and emotional strength to survive their journey west.

Mary Ellen’s relationship with her father is particularly important to how Mary Ellen overcomes conflicts and develops internal resolve. Father is a loving and gentle man who Mary Ellen has relied upon to protect her throughout her difficult childhood. She therefore trusts him to tell her when she and her family are safe and when they are not. Their migration west complicates this loving familial dynamic, because Mary Ellen begins to question Father’s decisions over the course of their journey. The Oregon Trail introduces a string of unexpected and unfamiliar obstacles that Mary Ellen isn’t always sure they will survive. However, Father maintains a trustworthy and steady character even when he does things that surprise Mary Ellen. In Chapter 3, for example, he reminds his family that “God is just as near to us here as He is at home” (27). He comforts them with Bible verses and hymns throughout the journey, revealing that the source of his resilience is often his Christian faith. Father has an innately strong-willed character, too, which Mary Ellen learns from over time. Father consistently shows love and gentleness to his daughters and to John Ragsdale. He “trie[s] to calm [their] fears” whenever they’re worried or upset (69). He also takes care of Angelina Todd, or Mother, and prioritizes her health and safety when she is pregnant and when she gets discouraged. His actions encourage Mary Ellen and her siblings to be loving, kind, and empathetic to one another, too.

In turn, the Todd family offers love, acceptance, and help to all of the other pioneers that they meet along the way. They don’t abandon other families when they want to take a different route, as when Father decides to travel with the Clarks and McReynolds. They don’t leave a character like Thomas Grant behind when he gets lost while out hunting. They share their food with others, as when Mother urges Mary Ellen to offer custard to the sick girl in Independence. In these ways, the Todd family’s close relationships with each other allow them to build community with their fellow pioneers. The novel therefore suggests that the individual doesn’t simply survive with determination, but with good-will, camaraderie, and love. The characters’ close bonds are what gives them the resilience to withstand and overcome great danger.

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