53 pages • 1 hour read
Scott O'DellThunder Rolling in the Mountains
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1992A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
Red Coats
The Red Coats are a gang of Nez Perce boys who want revenge against the white settlers. They wear red blankets as coats to demonstrate their desire for white blood. The Red Coats contrast the Blue Coats, what the Nez Perce call the white soldiers. The Red Coats are a symbol of war and violence in the novel—particularly of how contagious the for revenge can be on both sides. It is the Red Coats who begin war with the whites at the edges of the Lapwai reservation, and the Red Coats who transform Swan Necklace from a gentle painter into a brave warrior. Though the Red Coats have good reason for their desire for blood, they are also foolish in their perpetuation of violence. In many ways, the blood the Red Coats desire to spill turns out to be the blood of their own people; in fighting, they bring destruction upon the Nez Perce.
Wallowa
Wallowa is the ancestral home of the Nez Perce. It is a symbol of the Nez Perce connection to homeland and of the idea of home as identity. Chief Joseph talks most explicitly about this connection when he tries to explain to Howard why he cannot leave Wallowa and how his name “Thunder Rolling in the Mountains” permanently binds him to the place. Chief Joseph and his people are defined by their connection to the land. Even their names come from their connection to Wallowa. At the end of the novel, Chief Joseph is devastated by his lack of connection to home—his inability to go home even results in his death of a broken heart. This signifies both identity and a relationship with the land, which O’Dell develops further when another leader describes Wallowa as his mother.
Rifles and Bullets
Rifles and bullets are symbolic of the violence that white settlers bring with them to tribal land. In a more literal sense, Native Americans steal and trade these weapons from white settlers, so gun violence is a direct result of the white settlers’ approach into tribal land. Symbolically, the power and violence that rifles bring with them result in more violence. Red Elk kills Swan Necklace because of a rifle—the drive for power and violence causes conflict and death even among tribes that should be cooperating with one another. The strongest indication of the power of the rifle is clear in Swan Necklace’s transformation from painter to warrior. After Sound of Running Feet gives him her rifle, he begins a transformation from a gentle and artistic man to a brutal and brave warrior. The violence that rifles bring is nearly impossible to control; it consumes Swan Necklace. Sound of Running Feet is only able to escape that violence when she puts the rifle down, symbolically releasing the influence of the settlers and embracing her tribe’s originally peaceful origins.
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