Bound For Oregon

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1994

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-16

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary

Content Warning: The novel contains anti-Indigenous biases and offensive stereotypes. The source text also uses racist slurs and offensive language about Black and Brown Americans.

The novel opens in the winter of 1852. Mary Ellen Todd lives with her family in Arkansas. One night, she wakes up to the sounds of her father Abbott Todd and mother Angelina Todd talking downstairs. She tries to wake her little sister Louvina, but Louvina doesn’t move. Mary Ellen eavesdrops on her parents discussing whether they should move to Oregon. Mary Ellen has heard this conversation before, and many neighbors and strangers have been talking about how beautiful and rich the Oregon valleys and soil are.

Tonight, Father is talking to his cousin Will and the neighbor George Kimball. The men are sharing stories they’ve heard about the dangers of the journey west. Mary Ellen feels scared when she hears them mentioning Indigenous Americans attacking pioneer families and killing women and children. She doesn’t understand why Father would want to move when they have a nice home in Arkansas. Not long ago, they left their old home in Indiana to escape the ague sickness. Their lives have been safe and good in Arkansas since. Cousin Will also reminds Father that the journey west would take six months. Father doesn’t seem as worried as the men think he should be.

Mary Ellen starts to worry that if they move, she’ll have to leave Grandma. Grandma has taken care of Mary Ellen since her biological mother died. They also have a good school and meetinghouse in Arkansas. She continues listening as the men discuss the blizzards on the plains and the fates of other travelers. Then Mother notices she’s awake and tells her to return to bed.

The next morning, Mary Ellen lies under the quilt Grandma made her and listens to her baby sister Cynthia laughing below. She remembers everything she heard the night before. Then she wakes Louvina to go do their morning chores.

While Mary Ellen works, she sings hymns she learned at the meetinghouse. John Ragsdale, the 15-year-old boy “who [does] chores for Father” (6), teases her for getting the words wrong (6). Throughout the rest of the morning, Mary Ellen studies her home, feeling sad that she might have to leave. Then, she visits Father in the barn where he’s doing his pottery. She watches his big hands direct the clay on the wheel and interrupts him to ask if they’re really moving. He confesses that he’s considering it and tries to explain why. He tells her not to worry, and she tries to trust him.

Throughout the next few weeks, “the talk of Oregon” continues in the neighborhood (11). Then one night, Father asks Mother if she thinks they can make it to the West. She looks nervous but says they can. The girls also agree, including Mary Ellen.

Chapter 2 Summary

Mary Ellen’s family starts preparing for their journey. While helping out, Mary Ellen thinks about everything she’ll be leaving behind. She’s saddest about leaving Grandma. When she told Grandma about Father’s plans, Grandma was sad, too. Mary Ellen thought she’d join them in Oregon soon enough, but Grandma seemed hesitant to agree. Mary Ellen hates the idea of parting with her forever. After her mom died, Father remarried. His second wife died, and he then married Angelina. Mary Ellen has tried to like her but also doesn’t want to forget her mom. Sometimes Grandma tells Mary Ellen she looks like her mother, which makes her proud.

One day, Father buys a new whip and Mary Ellen tries to snap it, but it’s too heavy. Inside, Mother tells Angelina she and Louvina can make small drawstring bags to keep their dolls for the trip.

On Mary Ellen’s ninth birthday, Father brings home a new wagon. Seeing it makes Mary Ellen excited about the journey for the first time. However, she worries that they won’t be safe traveling alone. Other neighbors planned to go but backed out when they heard the stories about the trip’s dangers. She tries to be brave like Grandma. Grandma has told her stories about her life in Pennsylvania and the fears she faced as a young woman.

Over the following days, Mary Ellen watches Father prepare the wagon and harness. One day, John’s mother stops over and asks Father to take John with them. He wants to go, and she has too many children to care for already. Father agrees.

The night before leaving, Mary Ellen can’t sleep. She and Louvina wake early and help prepare the wagon. Then the whole town comes out to say goodbye. It’s hardest for Mary Ellen to say goodbye to Grandma. Once they leave, Mary Ellen starts crying.

Chapter 3 Summary

The Todds stop for the night and make a campfire after a long day of traveling. Mary Ellen feels sad and lonely but cheers up when Father starts singing and points out the stars overhead. In the wagon, she curls under Grandma’s quilt.

The Todds continue their trek. The days are long, and Mary Ellen quickly tires of playing dolls with Louvina in the wagon. Then she realizes that she can jump down from the wagon and run behind it without hurting herself. Mother scolds her for tearing her dress and being unladylike, but Mary Ellen feels better.

The days pass and the Todds eventually cross into Kansas and head towards Independence, Missouri. In Independence, they plan to join a wagon train so that they won’t have to cross the plains alone.

Mother lets Louvina and Mary Ellen walk and run behind the wagon during the day, but she also insists they wear bonnets and hand mitts so that they don’t get too much sun. Louvina obeys, but Mary Ellen doesn’t like or understand these rules.

Three weeks go by. Two days before reaching Independence, a thunderstorm hits near the wagon at night. Mary Ellen curls under her quilt to feel safe. Father comforts her and her sisters, too.

Chapter 4 Summary

The Todds reach Independence. Mary Ellen is overwhelmed by all the wagons, people, and activity. However, she’s also grateful for the excitement. Then the Todds meet Thomas, Martha, and David Grant. Martha tells Mother that they’ve moved many times as she doesn’t like settling in one place.

The Todds stay in Independence for a few days and get to know their fellow travelers. One day, Mother tells Mary Ellen to bring some custard to a sick girl named Lucinda. Another day, a man’s dog attacks the Todds’ dog Rover. Mary Ellen watches in amazement as Father handles the incident without getting upset. When John returns to their camp, they tell him what happened and laugh together at the story.

Chapters 1-4 Analysis

The first four chapters of the novel are devoted to world building. The main character and first-person narrator, Mary Ellen Todd, acts as the narrative guide. The way Mary Ellen sees her life and experiences directs the narrative action and tension. In Chapters 1 and 2, Mary Ellen is living in Arkansas with her father, mother, sisters, and grandmother. Mary Ellen is happy with this life, as she is safe with her family. There is also a “schoolhouse just two miles down the road” and a “meetinghouse, where [they sing] hymns each Sunday” (4). Mary Ellen believes that this world is safe and controlled and therefore feels reluctant to leave it when she overhears her parents discussing the possibilities of moving to Oregon. Father’s desire for The Pioneer Experience and Spirit, born out of a longing for familial prosperity and safety, disrupts Mary Ellen’s peaceful life and causes her to experience fear, sadness, and uncertainty.

For as long as Mary Ellen can remember, she has relied upon her father to keep her safe. Father’s desire to start a new life out west therefore doesn’t align with Mary Ellen’s childhood longing for comfort and safety. Her life has already been defined by loss and uncertainty, and she therefore feels afraid of “making such a dangerous journey” (3). She lost her biological mother and her stepmother in a short timeframe. She also had to leave her old home in the past. Therefore, the journey west feels more dangerous and daunting than exciting to nine-year-old Mary Ellen. Mary Ellen’s worries about The Challenges of Migration create narrative tension and make the narrative atmosphere ominous and fearful. In Chapters 1 and 2, Mary Ellen is caught up with worrying about the possibilities of leaving her home, grandmother, friends, and town. At the end of Chapter 2, she and her family end up heading out on the Oregon Trail. The start of their journey therefore foreshadows a new series of conflicts in Mary Ellen’s life.

After leaving her Arkansas home, Mary Ellen’s internal concerns change. She is now worried about what the trip will hold and how she and her family will survive in the wilderness alone. After their first day of traveling, for example, Mary Ellen sits by the fire with her family feeling “a little shiver of loneliness” (26). She has yet to adjust to being “outside beneath the dark sky and towering trees instead of inside [her] snug house” (26). The repeated images of the night sky throughout Chapters 3 and 4 are symbolic of openness and possibility, as well as of danger and the unknown. Mary Ellen doesn’t know what the trip will bring. She wants to believe that her and her family’s migration west will give them the beautiful, happy, and rich life her father has spoken about. However, these hopes coexist with Mary Ellen’s fears of all the dangers she has heard that pioneer families have encountered in the past. Therefore, the narrative conflicts are both internal and external. The Todd family will indeed encounter challenges along their journey. As a result, Mary Ellen will also encounter emotional challenges as she learns to respond to her new and changing environment.

The Todd family’s arrival in Independence develops the novel’s explorations of The Importance of Family and Community to Survival. When the Todds leave Arkansas, they are leaving their friends, family, and neighbors behind and venturing out into the wilderness alone. Their arrival in Independence is an important plot point in their trek because they “don’t want to be traveling alone” once they reach the wild prairies (31). The bustling Independence environment also calms Mary Ellen’s restless spirit. Although the town is overwhelming and filled with unpredictable people and activities, Mary Ellen “like[s] the excitement” (37). Her response to Independence conveys her character’s need for community and friendship. She likes being surrounded by other people because these relationships make her feel safe and brave. The family’s experience in Independence therefore foreshadows the relationships the Todd family will make in the coming chapters as they strive to survive their unpredictable western migration.