83 pages • 2 hours read
Gary PaulsenThe Transall Saga
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1998A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Survivalist Courage and Intuition
Mark is established as an unusually capable 13-year-old in his decision to hike solo for a week across the Marauder Missile Range. He carries his own food, water, and equipment, and capably navigates his environment. These survivalist skills prove essential when a tube of blue light transports him to Transall, which he originally believes to be another planet, but is in fact a future Earth devastated by a deadly virus and nuclear war. In particular, Mark’s courage in facing deadly animals and people, and his intuition in establishing shelter, finding food, and deciding who to trust, save his life numerous times.
Mark uses the knowledge he gained from survival magazines in order to escape the buffalo-like creature and stinging insects, and natural hazards like quicksand. These escapes require not only a cool head, but courage in overcoming deadly obstacles with his limited resources. Mark is especially brave when he defeats the Howling Thing in order to save Leeta: “[W]hen it had lunged for him, Mark had instinctively raised the spear. The sharp point had gone through the animal’s heart, killing it instantly” (42).
Mark eventually uses his survival knowledge and instincts to make a safe shelter: “[U]sing a pattern he’d seen in an army survival manual, he wove the supple twigs into a loose mat and placed it on the floor” (26). He also knows to observe and document his surroundings: “[I]n the meantime, he would make circles, wider and wider every day, hoping to find the mysterious blue light” (24). He watches animals, such as the monkey-bears, to find potential food sources, correctly intuiting that their food will be safe for human consumption. This allows Mark to find the tree rocks, which provide essential food and liquid in his first days on Transall.
Mark’s intuition in following Leeta to her tribe ultimately allows him a better quality of life than his spartan existence in the jungle. He is taken in by the arrow people, and later becomes a free person within the Tsook after being enslaved. These tribes teach Mark more skills, grant him access to a wider range of food, and provide much-needed contact with friends and a love interest. It is only through these choices and events that Mark eventually makes his way back to his own time.
Creating a Safe Home in an Adversarial Setting
Throughout his time on Transall, Mark struggles to create a home in the adversarial setting. This desire for home comes from a place of immediate survival, and is also a step toward rediscovering the tube of blue light that brought him to Transall. Mark’s initial attempt at creating a safe home involves building a tree house in the safety of the trees above the reach of the buffalo-like creature. He lives here with Willie, a friendly monkey-bear, surviving primarily on a diet of rock trees. However, he is motivated to explore beyond this home when his encounter with Leeta and the Howling Thing leads him to believe that fellow humans exist on Transall.
Later, Mark must adapt to life with the arrow people—Leeta’s tribe—and then with the Tsook. Both of these adjustments are challenging to Mark, and require constant assessment of whether or not his values align with the people he’s living with; he continually assesses the safety of his various homes on Transall. When the arrow people raid a neighboring tribe, “[Mark] didn’t understand. These were supposed to be the good guys. The same friendly peaceful people who had practically adopted him the day before were now doing everything they could do to destroy this village and the people in it” (70). The arrow people and their village were initially a safe haven, but Mark resolves that “he couldn’t stay with these people. They were too different. They had wiped out a whole village as if it was a huge game” (72). Despite Mark’s eventual martial prowess, he remains nonviolent at heart and seeks a peaceful place to call home.
Mark’s plan to return to his solitary life in the jungle is interrupted when he is enslaved by the Tsook, forcing him to again assess his living situation. He is insulted by his enslaved status, especially when he is forced to wear “a heavy steel band around his ankle” attached to “a heavy iron bar” after he tries to escape (96, 94). When Mark attempts to escape a second time, his plan is interrupted by Rawhaz warriors; out of selflessness, he decides to return to the Tsook town to warn them of the incoming attack.
Ironically, Mark’s attempt to escape from the Tsook leads to him being set free and treated as an esteemed warrior. Finally, Mark finds a life that is satisfying to him: “Life in this world wasn’t so bad. He did what he wanted and went where he pleased. He was a Tsook warrior and in a few months he would have a wife. They could start a family” (227). It is at this point of acceptance, when Mark “had deliberately squeezed out all thoughts of his other life,” that he is transported back to his own time (227). In the Epilogue, the reader learns that Mark has readapted to life on Earth and become a scientist, determined to save his home from Transall’s fate (his once home).
Discovering Friends and Foes
During Mark’s time on Transall, he constantly assesses potential friends and foes among the planet’s animals and people. In his first hours on Transall, he is attacked by monkey-bears, who pelt tree rocks at him. However, one of the monkey-bears—who Mark names Willie—demonstrates that the tree rocks contain edible liquid and meat: “the monkey-bear waddled over, picked up the rock, inserted one of its razor-sharp claws in the middle and easily broke it open” (17). This demonstration teaches Mark to open the tree rocks with his knife. Despite their initial attack, Willie and the monkey-bears turn out to be friends, who aid Mark’s survival.
This encounter sets the tone for Mark’s relationships going forward—as Transall’s animals and people are often more than what they seem. When Leeta’s tribe, the arrow people, are introduced, they surround Mark and club him into unconsciousness. However, when Mark awakens, the tribe members smile at him, and he is fed and invited on the men’s hunts.
Similarly, the Tsook are originally characterized as cruel enslavers, who ruthlessly kill any prisoners who fall behind and throw raw meat on the ground for them to eat. Mark is among those treated with derision, and tries to escape twice. Despite his hatred for the Tsook and their treatment, he is eventually freed, and finds friends within the community—including Tsook leader Dagon and Sarbo, who perpetuated the cruelty toward the arrow people prisoners. Furthermore, he falls in love with Dagon’s daughter Megaan, who was the one who bought him on behalf of her father. Mark navigates complex power dynamics to find ways to both survive and sustain his life on Transall.
Another character who challenges the dichotomy of friend and foe is the Merkon. The Merkon attends Mark’s ceremonial induction as a Tsook warrior, bringing gifts and complimenting him: “I like you Kakon. You are not only brave, you are intelligent. You will make a fine warrior” (131). However, he later turns out to be a dangerous foe: The Merkon attempts to have Mark killed numerous times, and eventually attempts to kill Mark himself.
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