Pushing the Bear is a historical novel by Diane Glancy which explores the lives of the Cherokee in 1838/39 during their forced removal from their land along the Trail of Tears in the United States. The book was published in 1996 by Harcourt.Glancy, Diane. Pushing the Bear. San Diego: Harcourt, Inc., 1996.
Plot summary Pushing the Bear tells the story of Cherokee removal in the Trail of Tears. Diane Glancy weaves the story together through the voices of a variety of characters, the majority of whom are Cherokee Indians, but also through historical documents, missionaries and the soldiers who were responsible for guiding the Cherokee along the trail. Glancy describes the horror and tribulations close to thirteen thousand Cherokee Indians faced from the months of September 1838 to February 1839.
Maritole, a mother, wife, daughter and aunt, is the main voice in the novel. Her character reveals the thoughts of the women, the relationship between soldiers and those walking the trail, and the losses, both emotionally and physically, that the people suffered. Through the plethora of voices, Glancy is presents the knowledge of Indian Removal, with the perspectives of those who walked, suffered and died along the trail. After nine hundred miles of trudging through mountains, snow and water, the bitterness and pain experienced by the Cherokee is combined with their sense of helplessness and their sorrow over losing their connection with their land, their livelihood, their traditional gender roles, and their family.
The novel travels chronologically through each month and location along the Trail of Tears. Glancy taps into an emotional and horrific, but historically accurate account of what many now refer to as Indian genocide. In an interview with Jennifer Andrews for the American Indian Quarterly, Glancy tells Andrews that "the land had to give me permission to write. The ancestors had to give permission to write, too. For instance, I started off Pushing the Bear with one voice, and it wasn't enough. I had to go back and add her husband and everybody who had traveled with them on the Trail of Tears. It takes many voices to tell a story, and I think we carry those voices within us" (Andrews 651).
Synopsis of major characters
Maritole
Maritole is the protagonist and main narrator of the novel. She is a mother, wife, sister, aunt, daughter and neighbor. Throughout the novel, Maritole's struggles with her marriage and the unity of her family and her people, as well as her internal struggle for materialistic items and individuality. Maritole's time on the trail is constantly filled with a longing for her previous life in North Carolina and her grandmother's home in which she and her husband, Knobowtee, lived. Temptations and curiosities also rise between Maritole and a soldier, Sergeant Williams.
Knobowtee Knobowtee is Maritole's husband. He is angered and confused by the Indian Removal. His narratives give insight into his anger at treaties, or the written word, and at other Cherokee, mainly those from Georgia, who he believes caused the removal. Knobowtee's loss of power and frustrating helplessness stem from the fact that he can no longer farm the land, his main role as a man, resulting in his loss of masculinity. Knobowtee's reaction to all these problems is violence, hatred and separation from Maritole.
Sergeant Williams Sergeant Williams is one of the soldiers hired to help guide the Cherokee Indians across the Trail of Tears. While the novel depicts many negative views of cruel and unjust soldiers, it also gives views of sympathetic men, one of whom is Sergeant Williams. Initially described as the "man with blue eyes," Williams's name becomes more individualized as his character becomes more familiar and personal to Maritole. He provides her with food, clothing and warmth, resulting in an angered Knobowtee and ostracized Maritole. Their questionable relationship eventually leads to Williams's dismissal from his job.
Maritole's father Maritole's father travels the trail with his wife, daughter, son and extended family. While he remains nameless in the novel, Maritole's father represents hope for the Cherokee in the future. Many of his passages display a yearning for the old land, food and customs, yet he tries to bring calm and peace to his family and neighbors on the trail. Maritole's father understands that although much of their old life was taken, their family and unity is what is most important.
Reverend Bushyhead Reverend Bushyhead is a real historical figure, fully named Reverend Jesse Bushyhead. According to A Cherokee Encyclopedia, he "attended Reverend Evan Jones's Valley River Mission School in North Carolina and was ordained a Baptist minister in 1830" (Conley 45).Conley, Robert J. A Cherokee Encyclopedia. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico P, 2007. In the novel, Reverend Bushyhead travels the trail with his wife, who gives birth to a daughter, Eliza, on the trail. Bushyhead preaches to the Cherokee, gives them messages of hope, and fights for their treatment and protection.
Tanner Tanner is Maritole's brother. He tries to protect his family, especially his wife and two sons, as best as he can along the trail. Although he has a family to keep safe, Tanner joins the rest of the Cherokee men during the removal who were frustrated at the government, their loss of land, and the weakening of their masculinity. He sometimes conflicts with Knobowtee, his sister's husband, who results to acts of violence that stem from his anger and bitterness.
Luthy Luthy is the wife of Maritole's brother, Tanner, and mother of two sons, Mark and Ephum. Luthy aids in representing motherhood and the loss of power women experienced as they were taken away from some of their traditional roles in a matriarchal society. In some passages, a tone of jealousy and longing resonates within Maritole towards Luthy, who still has her children. Luthy lost her parents at a young age. She gradually weakens and is overcome with bouts of delirium.
Symbols in the novel
The Bear
The title and numerous passages throughout the novel allude to a bear, or bears, which the Cherokee feel themselves pushing against during their hardships on the trail. This imagery comes from an ancient bear story in Cherokee mythology. In this myth, bears cause a tribe of Cherokee, the Ani-Tsa-gu-hi, to turn to greed and individualism, thinking only for themselves and satisfying their hunger.Cherokee Bear LegendNative American Indian Legends – Bear Legend – Cherokee Maritole is the first to mention the bear, and states: "It was as if a bear sat on my chest all the way to camp. I felt air would not come into my lungs. It was a heavy grief I couldn't push away" (15). She also states that "the bear we pushed would not move away. Each day I felt his ragged fur" (80).
The true meaning of the bear does not come clear until page 176, the myth of the bear is summarized. The bear symbolizes both greed and a desire to protect oneself over the unity of the Cherokee people. The horrific hardships the characters face on the Trail of Tears change their priorities to self over the whole, displaying the lack of unification the Cherokee knew they would face in Indian Territory, or present day Oklahoma. In the end, Maritole specifically faces the bear, saying, "The bear had once been a person. But he was not conscious of the consciousness he was given. His darkness was greed and self-centeredness. It was part of myself, too. It was in all of us. It was part of being of the human being. Why else did we march? No one was free of the bear" (183). Glancy uses this imagery specifically to draw her audience into recognizing the break-up or segmentation that resulted from the Trail of Tears.
Corn Although the Cherokee people depended on all types of agriculture and natural goods for their livelihood, corn is mentioned throughout the text as being one of the most important crops for the Cherokee, at least those from North Carolina. Corn is particularly important to the Cherokee because of one of their ancient myths. Maritole narrates about this myth on page 4. She states: "Didn't the soldiers know we were the land? The cornstalks were our grandmothers. In our story of corn, a woman named Selu had been murdered by her sons. Where her blood fell, corn grew" (4). Maritole's father extends their need for corn by saying, "Corn! That's what we eat. We can't live without corn. It's our bodies. Our lives" (79).
Glancy's incorporation of the Cherokee connection with corn into her novel displays the loss of land and agriculture that the Cherokee experienced with their removal, but also the loss of their culture and beliefs. In the book Seven Cherokee Myths, author G. Keith Parker writes about the myth of Selu and the corn stating that Selu "knows she is to be the martyr and still plays the role of mother in seeking to give ongoing nourishment even after she is to be gone" (Parker 75).Parker, G. Keith. Seven Cherokee Myths. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2006. He continues by stating that "in the Cherokee context, the positive role of women, and especially the mother, is captured in this story. [. . .] It emphasizes not only the deep Cherokee connection to Selu as symbolic mother figure but also to corn as their basic source of nourishment for many centuries" (Parker 76). Thus, the importance of corn is woven throughout Pushing the Bear to symbolize what the Cherokee have left behind, both their matriarchal society and the crops they depended on for their livelihood. Each of these elements was crucial to the Cherokee way of living, therefore alerting the reader to recognize the extent of what was lost during Indian Removal.
Themes in the novel
Loss of masculinity
The Trail of Tears tore the Cherokee away from their homes and their culture, gradually weakening the gender roles that were embedded in the Cherokee culture. This disruption of gender roles caused confusion, frustration and bitterness for many of the people, as they felt helpless by not being able to perform their usual tasks. Knobowtee is the main character in the novel through whom Glancy reveals the emotional crisis of the failed masculinity experienced by the men. For example, Knobowtee says: "Women had the property, and that helped me decide to marry her. But I can farm. Yes, except I have no farm. I have nothing, again" (72). Maritole also notices Knobowtee's frustration at not being able to maintain his roles by stating: "His fields were gone, and he did not know who he was" (74).
Many men experienced this problem of not being able to fulfill their duties along the Trail of Tears, which Glancy points out through Knobowtee's thoughts and actions. Men were unable to protect their wives and their families from the cruelty of soldiers, hunger and extreme cold, making them feel weak and inept. In Carolyn Ross Johnston's book, Cherokee Women in Crisis, Johnston states that "because Cherokee men were unable to protect their families in the roundup by soldiers, they experienced a crisis of masculinity"(Johnston 57).Johnston, Carolyn R. Cherokee Women in Crisis. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama P, 2003. As a result of this "crisis," Knobowtee separates himself from Maritole, turns to violence, and is also caught staring at the legs of many of the young women on the trail.