The Barren Grounds

Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | Middle Grade | Published in 2020

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Bridges

There are three different bridges that Morgan must cross in Misewa, all of which symbolize facing one’s fear and crossing over to the other side as a better person. The first is the tree bridge to get to Ochek’s trapline. This is Morgan’s first real test in Misewa, and she must learn to take the bridge one step at a time. To motivate and distract herself, Morgan focuses on Eli; it’s only when she takes her eyes off him that she loses her balance. This implies that Morgan must keep her eyes on those she loves to find out who she is. At this point, Morgan doesn’t know who she is, and as she tries to cross, she slips and almost falls into the canyon. Eli comes to save her, and she must accept Eli’s help to make the crossing.

Morgan next crosses the ice bridge on her journey to the Green Time. This time, Morgan wants to cross so she can help Ochek and Arik. As she stands on the precipice, she turns to Eli and says, “Nobody would blame us if we just turned around and decided to, like, live, you know” (147). However, Eli says their companions need their help, and Morgan’s love for Ochek and Arik outweighs her fear and carries her over the bridge.

The final bridge that Morgan crosses is another tree bridge, but one that she helps make by cutting down the tree. This new bridge symbolizes Morgan’s new knowledge of who she is and her ability to forge a new path now that she finally accepts herself.

Birds

Mason’s theft of the summer birds from Misewa, which plunged it into the White Time, sets up the book’s major conflict. The birds are a symbol of freedom, spring, and life; by keeping them in a sack for years, Mason opposes himself to all three, keeping nature locked up in a way that is unhealthy and abnormal. Just as birds are not suited to confinement and flightlessness, nature is not meant to be under the thumb of humans; when it is, it withers.

The quest that Morgan, Eli, Ochek, and Arik undertake aims to free nature and restore life to Misewa. As Morgan carries the birds, she reflects on this symbolism: “And [the bag was] weightless, like carrying air. How could something that kept an entire world alive be that way? She knew that birds were light, but it seemed a miracle to her” (205). The birds represent life (and nature’s live-giving properties), but they are fragile, as life itself is. Like the land, the birds must be taken care of and handled with care.

Moccasins

In the beginning of the story, Katie and James gift Morgan a pair of black Wool Tipi moccasins to mark the two months she has lived with them. The moccasins represent Morgan’s Indigenous culture, and Morgan not accepting them is her rejection of that culture, which she feels she doesn’t know: “I’ve literally been away from my home since I was a toddler. Being a kid with no real home? With no real parents? […] That’s my culture” (52).When Katie talks to Morgan about the moccasins, Morgan says she thinks they should have gone to Eli, who has “got himself figured out” (75). Morgan doesn’t feel like she can accept the moccasins because she doesn’t feel she is Cree in the same way as her foster brother.

When Morgan travels to Misewa, she decides at the last minute to take the moccasins with her because they are warm. All throughout her journey in Misewa, she wears the moccasins, and they keep her feet safe and warm on her adventures. When she returns to Earth, she wears them down to breakfast as a symbol of her acceptance of her heritage and identity: “Morgan looked down at her feet, where, in fact, she was still wearing the black moccasins. To Katie, Morgan had only had them for less than a day. But, oh, the places she had traveled in them” (242).