A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“What if he were gone, she thought suddenly. Could I bring it back, all by myself? A spasm of elemental panic gripped her, just for a moment, at the thought. Without Roger as her touchstone, with nothing but her own memories to serve as anchor to the future, that time would be lost. Would fade into hazy dreams, and be lost, leaving her no firm ground of reality to stand upon.”

After traveling back to the 18th century, Brianna has lost the independence she had in a later time period. She relies on Roger, as many women of the 18th century must rely on their men. Despite knowing who she’s been all her life, the time she lives in now has reshaped her identity. She feels that without Roger to affirm their modern experience, she will lose her ability to reconstruct it in her mind.

“My Son-in-law astutely observes that a Man’s sense of Morality tends to decrease as his Power increases, and I suspect that the Brothers Brown possess relatively little of the Former to begin with. It may be mere Hubris on my part, to assume that I have more. I have seen the corrosive Effects of Power upon a Man’s Soul—and I have felt its Burden, as you will understand, having borne it so often yourself. Still, if it is a choice between myself and Richard Brown, I suppose I must resort to the old Scottish Adage that the devil you ken is better than the devil you don’t.”

A letter from Jamie to Lord John explains why he has agreed to become an Indian Agent, against his better judgment. Jamie knows that with firm morality comes responsibility. He must take on more social responsibility than he cares to, in order to keep power out of the hands of more morally ambiguous men like the Browns. 

“I had noticed before that like some Protestants, Tom Christie regarded the Bible as being a document addressed specifically to himself and confided to his personal care for prudent distraction to the masses. Thus, he quite disliked hearing Catholics—i.e., Jamie—quoting casually from it. I had also noticed that Jamie was aware of this, and took every opportunity to make such quotes.”

The deeply rooted religious tensions between Protestants and Catholics, long part of the culture in Europe, are also present among the Scots in the American colonies. Although Christie and Jamie have survived terrible atrocities together, they still don’t trust each other due to their differing religious identities. Both claim ownership of the words in the Bible, albeit in different ways. 

“What I meant—you don’t act afraid of men. Most of the women from now do. You oughta act more afraid.”

A major theme of the novel is the dehumanization of marginalized people, such as Africans, Natives, and women. Donner’s admonition to Claire reveals that the discrepancy between modern times and the 18th century may not be as huge as one thinks. The sexism Claire experiences in this time, in which women have so little control over even their physical bodies, is extreme. Like modern sexism, however, it is enabled by a well-grooved mindset, which Donner displays here by advising Claire to act more submissive. 

“She did not look human, was the first thing he thought. Her body mottled black with bruises, her face unrecognizable, she looked like something strange and primal, an exotic creature of the forest pool. Beyond appearance, though, it was her attitude that struck him. She was remote, somehow, and still, in the way that a tree is still, even as the air stirs its leaves.”

In this quote, Roger observes Claire after she has been assaulted by the bandits. Their attempt to own and control her body have distorted her physically, but her mind and spirit are still hers, still autonomous. She has retreated into herself to later re-emerge, healed.

“Wily as snakes, the lot of us. Ye’ve only to look at Roger Mac to see how safe their time must be, him and the lass. A bit of a comfort, that […] To ken things will get better, I mean.”

Jamie observes that Roger Mac is not as wily or violent as men from his time. Rather than questioning the validity of Roger’s masculinity, however, he observes that Roger’s way of being a man reflects a safer future for all.

“Arch had said, O, chieftain. One word, and we stood in Scotland. It was easy to see the difference in attitude between Jamie’s new tenants and his Ardsmuir men—the difference of a loyalty of agreement and one of acknowledgement. This was different still: an older allegiance which had ruled the Highlands for a thousand years. The oath of blood and iron.” 

The devotion between Jamie and his Ardsmuir men is profound; Claire notes the depth of connection between those from the Old World. In addition to their deeply rooted familial allegiance, they’ve also survived extreme experiences together, which has bonded them further.

“Now is the time when we re-enter the womb of the world, dreaming the dreams of snow and silence. Waking to the shock of frozen lakes under waning moonlight and the cold sun burning low and blue in the branches of the ice-cased trees, returning from our brief and necessary labors to food and story, to the warmth of firelight in the dark. Around a fire, in the dark, all truths can be told, and heard, in safety.”

Here, Gabaldon uses imagery to build the motif of burning and rebirth after destruction. The natural cycles of the world are mirrored in human actions, much as the warmth gives way to winter. The fire of winter symbolizes truth in dark times.

“Against those considerations, though, stood the dangers of the present time, for the four horsemen of the apocalypse rode widely here; it was no trick to catch a glimpse of pestilence or famine from the corner of your eye. And the pale horse and its rider were inclined to show up unexpectedly—and often.”

Jamie speaks to Roger about the possibility of returning to modern times. In addition to foreshadowing the eventual departure of Roger and Brianna back to their time, it also comments on the inherent dangers of the 18th century. The biggest foe of the novel is, in fact, the time period in which it takes place and all the necessary (and unnecessary) violence therein.  

“[W]hen ye’re a man, a good bit of what ye have to do is to draw up lines and fight other folk who come over them. Your enemies, your tenants, your children—your wife. Ye canna always just strike them or take a strap to them, but when ye can, at least it’s clear to everyone who’s in charge.” 

Even a man like Jamie isn’t immune to ingrained adherence to violent standards. Spoken after the novel reveals a violent incident between he and Claire, his justifications for this violence are wrapped in a sense of duty and the immense pressure put on the oppressor in an oppressive situation.

“The mountains and the green wood rose up mysterious and wild around them, and the hazy sky unfurled itself over the hollow like angel’s wings, silent and sunlit. But not peaceful; never peace, not here.” 

This excerpt again shows Gabaldon’s use of imagery to describe the time period. While the landscape is beautiful and relatively untouched, it’s extremely dangerous. Warring factions of rebels versus loyalists, Native Americans versus colonists, and violent men versus peaceful ones appear constantly throughout the novel, indicating that 18th century America was a dangerous place with little peace, despite its beauty.

“In war, government and their armies were a threat, but it was so often the neighbors who damned or saved you.”

In war, it’s easy to see the enemy as an institution: an army, a government, a philosophy. In the end, individuals who create a movement also sway the tide. This quote shows the complicated intricacies of war and the inherent dehumanization therein. 

“I could see the brilliant bar of light advancing across the hand-hewn boards; had I an actual timepiece, I could have calibrated the floor like a sundial, marking the seams between the boards in minutes. As it was, I marked them in heartbeats, waiting through the moments until the sun should have reached the counter where my microscope stood ready, slides and beaker beside it.”

Something so simple as a clock is unheard of in the 18th century. Claire measures time with her heart; her balance of emotion and logic make her both an excellent doctor and a survivor.

“‘I left,’ he said simply, straightening up. ‘Turned away. Stopped being a Christian, being Scots. They took me to the stream, scrubbed me wi’ sand to take away the white blood. They gave me my name—Okwaho’kenha—and said I was Mohawk. But I wasna, not really.’”

A complex character, Ian turns away from his roots and adopts the Mohawk way, but in the end, he realizes he can’t change his race or his identity. Nonetheless, he is more than a Scot now and forever; his self-concept is informed by the theme of memory being the creator of humans, not time or place.

“‘I need a way to give them common ground, Bree,’ he said. ‘The women have it—the fishers’ wives sew and spin and knit and quilt wi’ the others, and if they privately think you or your mother or Mrs. Bug are heretics damned to hell, or goddamned Whigs, or whatever, it seems to make no great difference. But not the men.’”

Roger explains to Claire why he wants to create a Freemason society in Fraser’s Ridge, exploring the concept of men’s spaces and women’s spaces. Although white men are the ruling power, there are still pockets of privacy and empowerment for the marginalized to gather and communicate.

“Through the rain, I could see the big white stone that stood at the head of the spring, that gave the pool its name. Here it was that Jamie had shed his blood in sacrifice, and dashed it on that rock, asking the help of the kinsman he had slain. And here it was that Fergus had lain down, opening his veins in despair for his son, his blood blooming dark in the silent water. And I began to realize why I had come here, why the place had called me. It was a place to meet oneself, and find truth.”

Donner has told Claire about the time travel portals his mentor had discovered, but there are portals in everyday life, as well. This spot at the creek is one such portal: a portal of emotion, of memory, and of the existential mirror all seek in their quest for truth.

“‘I don’t belong here,’ I said softly. ‘Brianna, Roger…they don’t belong here. [Jemmy] should be watching cartoons on television, drawing pictures of cars and airplanes with crayons—not learning to shoot a gun as big as he is and cut the entrails from a deer.’ I lifted my face and closed my eyes, feeling the damp settle on my skin, heavy on my lashes. ‘But we are here, all of us. And we’re here because I loved you, more than the life that was mine. Because I believed you loved me the same way.’” 

This passage shows the difficulties of living displaced from one’s own time. Like Brianna worrying about losing herself without Roger to help cement her memories, Claire confronts her own feelings about living in a time that doesn’t belong to her. Ultimately, the bonds of love are far stronger than those of time, as is shown in the end of the novel when Claire once again chooses Jamie over her own time (and the rest of her family). 

“[I]n the wake of gossip following it, many of the new tenants would have known only that I had been abducted, assaulted in some scandalous fashion, and that men had died on my account. The mind of the times being what it was, I was well aware that an obscure sense of blame attached to the victim of any sexual crime—unless the woman died, in which case she became at once a spotless angel.”

Again, the similarities between modern times and the 18th century are considered. Victim-blaming in sexual assault is still being confronted and deconstructed in modern times. To see it displayed so violently in the past is to see how progress has been made, although not as much as one might hope.

“It dawned on me, listening to all this, that things had gone further and moved faster than I had expected. It was mid-July, but of 1775—nearly a year before a larger and more forceful version of the Mecklenberg Declaration would flower into an official declaration of independence for the united Colonies. And yet here was a Royal Governor, in obvious fear of open revolt.” 

The timeline of history makes things seem neat and orderly when viewed in a history book. Living it is a different story; here, Claire is shocked by how quickly the American Revolution has developed.

“I could not lie, even for the best of reasons; there was simply no place to go, nowhere to hide. I felt beset by whispering ghosts, their loss, their need, their desperate love pulling me apart. Apart from Jamie, apart from myself.” 

Claire’s ghosts haunt her in this passage, developing a prominent symbol in the novel. Her empathy and life calling as a healer have significant effects upon her mental well-being. To be of service is to separate herself from her own needs, at times, and to welcome in the spirits of those she seeks to help.  

“She would most emphatically have preferred the cargo hold, though her explorations—once free of land, she was allowed out of the cabin—had revealed the hold as a dark and comfortless hole, in which several hapless slaves were chained among a collection of boxes and barrels, in constant danger of being crushed should the cargo shift.”

Although Brianna is a victim of kidnapping, as a white woman, she still has better accommodations than the Africans who have been kidnapped to be sold into slavery. She thinks she would have liked being in her own space, out of Bonnet’s reach, but when she sees what it would be like, she realizes how much worse (and how much more dangerous) it is to be black in this time period, and how much less her life would be valued if she were. 

“That was true enough; a freed slave was compelled to leave the colony within 10 days or risk being enslaved again, by anyone who chose to take him; the vision of large gangs of free Negroes roaming the countryside was one that made the Council and Assembly shit themselves with fear.” 

This excerpt displays the legacy of racism being seeded in this time. Even freed slaves were in danger of being enslaved again, due to white people’s fear of those they so brutally oppressed—a profound glimpse into the root of modern America’s embedded, systemic racism.

“‘It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honors that we are fighting, but for freedom—for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.’ […] To this point, he had been dubious about the justifications of the revolution, and more so of its ends; he had been compelled to the rebel stand because of what Claire, Brianna, and Roger Mac had told him. But in the speaking of the ancient words, he found the conviction he thought he pretended—and was stricken by the thought that he did indeed go to fight for something more than the welfare of his own people.”

Here, Jamie quotes the Declaration of Arbroath on the brink of battle with the Loyalists. It is a significant moment for Jamie personally, as he’s been acting on autopilot for much of the novel, blindly trusting what Claire and the others have told him about the future. In recalling his Scottish roots and making them alive in the present, Jamie connects to the truth within himself, and the desire to fight for that truth.