A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32

“That is what life’s all about—changes going on every minute.”

At age 82, Catherine Hall, who journals an important time in her teen years in the novel, writes these words to her great-granddaughter and namesake. With these words, she articulates one of the novel’s major themes, that Joy and Sorrow Unite Humanity. Everyone experiences both emotions and must accept change as life’s only constant. This is the lesson she learns during the year 1831, with which most of the journal is concerned.

“These be the thoughts of my heart: that I may remain here for ever and ever […] also that I may train myself to want to do what I am asked to do.”

A Gathering of Days is a bildungsroman, a novel that shows a young character’s journey toward maturation. Consistent with genre conventions, Catherine’s world is centered on her family and her closest friends as the story begins. She has no desire to leave home and simply wants to be obedient toward her neighbors. As she grows and changes in the course of the story, she will not only reconsider The Nature of Obedience but also embrace change. The story will end with her leaving the family farm.

“‘Turn him out and turn him in,’ is Father’s prompt reply.”

Father—Charles Hall—is speaking here of the need to turn in a runaway “bound boy,” that is, a young man who is serving a contractual period of indenture. He is a stickler for the letter of the law and disregards his brother’s argument that a man might have good reason to run.