50 pages • 1 hour read
Follow the River
A 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
Ten Times Ten Song
Content Warning: This section includes discussions of wartime atrocities and physical and psychological suffering.
Mary makes up a song set to “the tune of an old favorite [Irish] ballad of her mother’s” to keep her spirits up during her time in captivity and on her way home (135). The lyrics, which appear throughout the story, are as follows: “But I’ll be home a-gain. O ten times t-en times ten a-way, I will O my Will, O my darrr-lin’” (135). This song is a motif that recalls travels home. During her trek back to Draper’s Falls, Mary sings the song to remind her of her goal: to return home to her husband. After Ghetel attacks Mary and is looking for her in the dark, Mary overhears Ghetel singing the ten times ten song as well, revealing the duo’s connection even in times of tension. When Mary is finally safe in the Harmon’s cabin, Adam overhears her chanting it to herself as a form of self-soothing. This demonstrates the song’s connection with the theme of Love and Faith as a Source of Strength.
The meaning of the song is first hinted at in Chapter 1 when Mary’s mother, Elenor Draper, tells Mary’s sons, Tommy and Georgie, that she came on a boat from County Donegal, Ireland, which is “ten times ten times ten” times as far across the water as the distance from their encampment to the mountains (12). In singing the song, Mary connects her own trek to her parents’ journey from Ireland to North America and the feeling of home. The final refrain of the song occurs when Tommy finally returns from living with the Shawnee. Mary greets him by saying, “Ten times ten times ten, Tommy-lad. O, welcome home, my son!” (397).
Mary’s Premonitions
Mary’s premonitions let her know when something bad is going to happen. When she heeds these premonitions, she is kept safe from harm; when she ignores them, she finds herself in danger. A motif throughout the text, Mary’s premonitions are a sign of her exemplary survival skills and can also be interpreted as a supernatural ability.
Mary’s first premonition occurs on the day of the raid. That morning, Mary has a bad feeling when Will leaves her to work in the fields. She tells him about it, and he “[passes] it off […] as the spookishness of a mother-to-be” (2). However, her premonition is confirmed when the raid occurs. During her trek home, Mary comes to learn to trust her premotions, such as her premonition about Ghetel looking for a weapon to attack her with, which likely saves her life. By contrast, when Ghetel disregards Mary’s premonition about a driftwood bridge, they end up losing the horse they had been riding. Mary’s premonitions also save her and Will from a second raid. While staying at Vass’s Fort, she has “strong presentiments” that it is about to be attacked and convinces Will to take her away, even if he finds her feelings somewhat ridiculous. This ends up saving their lives: Shortly after, Indigenous Americans attack Vass’s Fort, and everyone there is killed.
Food
Throughout Follow the River, food is a symbol of civilization and humanity, particularly when Mary and Ghetel are forced to survive on foraged plants in the wilderness. It connects to the theme of Human Fragility in the Wilderness.
When Mary is first introduced, she is cooking a rich rabbit stew, demonstrating the bounty of the Ingles’s farmstead and the quality of life she enjoys there. After being captured by the Shawnee, the captives are eventually fed the food Mary herself had been cooking the day before. The sight of the rabbit she had been cooking brings home her terrible circumstances and underlines how “the raid had so abruptly uprooted and scattered their lives” (694).
While camping at the Lick of the Giant Bones, Ghetel keeps Mary’s spirits up by reminding her of more civilized times, “tell[ing] Mary about the breads and strudels and snickerdoodles she had baked” (143). Ghetel’s passion for food eventually gives them the opportunity to escape back home as she convinces the Frenchmen to give her and Mary a tomahawk and let them search for food in the forest. While foraging, Ghetel and Mary escape with the tomahawk.
During Mary and Ghetel’s trip home, the search for food becomes all-consuming to the pair, especially Ghetel. At one point, while starving, they pretend that the disgusting roots and dried acorns they find are delicious, hot meals to remind them of their humanity. However, as the food becomes increasingly scarce, Mary and Ghetel lose their connection to their humanity and begin acting increasingly violent and unstable, highlighting the thematic connection between food and human bonds.
Unlock all 50 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features: