48 pages • 1 hour read
Elizabeth George SpeareCalico Captive
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1957A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Dresses
Dresses symbolize transformation in Calico Captive. Miriam’s transformation from child to woman happens when she spends days leading up to the party at the cabin sewing a dress for herself:
In her own mind the bolt of blue cloth that James had brought in his pack had changed her into a different person. The dress that hung close to her head, waiting for the first rays of the sun to light it into beauty, symbolized the wonder of the past few days (13-14).
When Miriam wears the new dress, she feels like a woman, and Phineas tells her how he feels about her. However, Miriam’s transformative dress is destroyed by her journey, so it is just rags by the time she arrives at St. Francis. Miriam is transformed again when Felicité shares her second-hand dress with Miriam, and Miriam alters it until it is beautiful and so eye-catching that Madame Du Quesne is jealous.
Miriam uses her skills as a seamstress to make dresses for the Du Quesnes and then the marquise. These keep her and Susanna fed, clothed, and safe. In this way, the symbol shifts from the way that Miriam is transformed by dresses to Miriam transforming others and her own life through dresses; her sewing symbolizes her Survival and Resilience. Miriam receives cloth from the Marquise, which would allow her to create a dress for herself and, once again, transform into someone more beautiful and elegant. Instead—although it pains her to do it—she creates a wedding dress for her friend Hortense. This final dress, while it was not one Miriam wore, is the most transformative of all. It shows that the self-absorbed girl from New England who neglected to help others for her own benefit has matured.
Phineas Whitney’s Letter
In Calico Captive, Phineas Whitney’s letter symbolizes the devoted love of a true partner. His letter arrives midway through the novel, just as she is being tempted by the adventurous and exciting Pierre. In many ways, the letter is a reminder of who Miriam is not anymore.
But that small world had been shattered by sights and sounds beyond anything she could have imagined. Was it possible for her ever again to be the girl that Phineas Whitney remembered? Frightening as it was, she faced the real question. Did she really want to be that girl again? (214).
The girl Miriam was before she was captured loved Phineas, but she is changed and must grapple with what she wants now. Miriam holds onto the letter and looks at it often. Phineas’s offer of a shared future is in stark contrast to the marriage that Pierre offers, which involves luxury but not partnership. In the end, Miriam chooses to risk everything to try to return to Phineas and—she hopes—find her true love waiting for her.
Dances
Dancing is a crucial motif throughout Calico Captive, foreshadowing change and developing the theme of Cultural Clashes and Assimilation. Miriam’s story begins with dancing at the cabin in New England, where Phineas Whitney admits his feelings for her, and the very next morning she and her family are captured. Repeatedly, dancing returns at crucial moments throughout the novel. Miriam finally feels assimilated into French culture when she attends the ball with the Du Quesnes and dances with Pierre throughout the evening, but her success at the ball propels Madame Du Quesne to throw her and Susanna out of her home.
While dancing on May Day, Miriam realizes that she prefers the raucous and fast dances with other commoners to dancing at the ball she attended. This is an important moment for Miriam because it connects her back to her roots and the dancing in New England. She realizes that despite her appreciation of French culture, she does not prefer it to her own. In the same chapter, Pierre begins spending time with Miriam and she is torn between him and her loyalty to Phineas. Perhaps the most important dance in the novel is the final one, where Pierre uses Miriam to attempt to get revenge on Felicité and humiliate Miriam. Miriam rises to this and does not allow him to humiliate her, and instead she feels proud of herself and her heritage. That very same night, Pierre proposes to Miriam and she is once again met with the dilemma of choosing between two worlds.
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By Elizabeth George Speare
