46 pages • 1 hour read
Kirby LarsonHattie Big Sky
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Community and Isolation
Throughout the novel, Larson focuses on the important distinction between community and isolation. Hattie longs to find community with a family relationship, yet she discovers that the support of her neighbors gives her the sense of belonging that she misses in her life. As Hattie learns that homesteading life relies on the kindness and support of neighbors, she realizes that she must accept help from those around her if she wants to survive.
Larson shows the theme through Hattie’s character development as she navigates life in a new place where she arrives as a stranger. While Hattie arrives in Vida with the perspective that she does not want to rely on anyone for help anymore, she soon learns that this individualism will not get her far. Hattie’s desire to be independent stems from her frustration that she used to rely on Aunt Ivy. Yet, Hattie realizes that asking for help does not mean an admittance of failure. While Hattie holds onto her individualism for a while, she realizes that approach will only lead to further alienation. Since Hattie feels alone in her life already, she knows that she does not want to continue down that path. However, Hattie also learns that isolation in homesteading life leads to death. Without the help of her neighbors, Hattie knows that she would not have survived her first winter in Vida. Instead, she learned to swallow her pride and take advice from other people. By the novel’s end, she leaves her friends with gifts to show her gratefulness for their help. Rather than admitting to a failing in her nature, Hattie learns that accepting help from those around her only builds her up instead of tearing her down.
Hattie’s main goal in finding community stems from her desire to fill the void that losing her parents left in her life. However, Hattie finds the community that she looks for in her connections with her neighbors. As Perilee and Leafie serve as mentors to Hattie, she realizes the importance of learning from the wisdom of others. More than anything else, Hattie internalizes Leafie and Perilee’s wisdom about trusting herself. This knowledge allows Hattie to grow into the self-reliant, independent woman that she thought she would be able to become alone. However, Hattie learns that the beauty of her inner strength comes from the fact that she learned it from the people around her as much as from developing it on her own.
American Identity and Patriotism
The novel examines both positive and negative aspects of American identity and patriotism during World War I. Before she arrives in Vida, Hattie assumes that everyone around her has the same view on patriotism that she does. Yet, Hattie learns that patriotism during wartime is partly defined through financial commitment. She also discovers that anti-German sentiment in Vida expresses itself in open violence and xenophobia against German immigrants.
In Vida, Hattie encounters the public expectation that all residents will financially support the war effort through the purchase of Liberty Bonds and war savings stamps. She first commits to the purchase of Liberty Bonds at great expense to herself, only to discover that she is also expected to show her patriotism through the purchase of war stamps. When she commits to less than is expected, she is bullied into increasing her pledge, which demonstrates that even a good cause can be manipulated by those in power.
As Hattie becomes integrated into Montana culture, she also learns about the extreme views of American nationalism, especially from the Council of Defense. The Council of Defense’s decision to burn Karl’s barn and their attempt to burn Hattie’s barn terrify her because she realizes that the Council will resort to violence to intimidate people into accepting their views on patriotism. Hattie connects this experience to her chores of fencing because she realizes that metaphorical fences “get built in this world—the ones that divide folks and tear them up” (120-21). While Hattie can understand the desire to support the troops in the war, she does not understand why the Council believes that this also means that they should tear down the community that they have at home. This extremism terrifies Hattie, especially as she sees how it affects her friends. Hattie learns that no one is safe in the war, not even Perilee’s children. When Hattie hears about the attack on the German church because they are worshipping God in their native tongue, she finally realizes the extent that this form of “patriotism” will lead people toward believing that the peaceful act of worship is a sign of treason because of the language that they choose to use.
Despite the fear that the Council of Defense raises in Hattie, she finally takes a stand against them when she sees them attacking Mr. Ebgard. While she believes that they would not harm Mr. Ebgard severely, she realizes that she must intervene because no one else will. While Hattie wishes that there was someone around who would tell her what to do, she realizes that if she wants someone to help Mr. Ebgard, she will need to do it herself. With this moment, Hattie proves that she does not align with the Council's understanding of patriotism. Instead, she believes, like Karl, that American patriotism relies on the fundamental beliefs about equality and free speech. Without these elements, Hattie realizes how quickly the people around her fall into similar patterns of authoritarianism that troops like Charlie are sacrificing themselves to combat in Europe.
Resilience in the Face of Adversity
Hattie’s decision to travel to Montana to prove her claim as a young single woman is a major risk, bringing her to both a region of the country and a lifestyle that she is unfamiliar with. This choice shows that Hattie believes in the inner strength that grows from overcoming hardship. Through her experiences on the prairie, she realizes that facing adversity does not always mean that she can overcome it but rather that the most important element of facing challenges is the inner strength that she gains along the way.
Although Hattie does everything in her power to plan for a good harvest, she finds herself frustrated with the lack of rain and her inability to do anything to fix it. While Hattie prays for rain daily, she knows that there is nothing she can do to control the circumstances. The hailstorm crushes Hattie’s dreams when it demolishes her crops. Even though her friends try to comfort her, Hattie wonders to herself how “months of work could be destroyed in a few minutes” (341). Hattie tries to put her struggles into perspective as she reminds herself of everything that Charlie must face in the war, yet this does not take away from the sting of failure that she feels. Nonetheless, these obstacles don’t cause Hattie to give up. She keeps trying to prove her claim, relying on the community she’s built for help when she struggles alone. In this way, Larson asserts that resilience is not just pushing through a situation as an individual; knowing when to call on others is its own form of strength.
The biggest adversity that Hattie faces in the novel comes from the grief she experiences over Mattie’s death. Hattie hates that she once thought that the worst thing that could happen to her would be to not prove her claim. However, Mattie’s death shows Hattie the reality that people are always more important than material items. Hattie falls into a state of depression after Mattie dies because she does not understand why God would take her from them. The loss puts Hattie’s life into perspective as she realizes that the only thing that she truly cares about is community. When Hattie loses her claim, she knows that she would rather focus on helping her newfound family than grieve the loss of her land. Hattie’s challenge in the novel is finding the will to continue in her life, even when she feels hopeless. Yet, Hattie proves the significance of inner resilience when she decides to move to a new city and start over. Rather than allowing her grief to overwhelm her, Hattie takes both her grief and joy and decides to hold them together in her memories, using the power of her community to give her confidence to leave Montana and start a new adventure.
