The Courage of Sarah Noble

“The darkness was all around her, but through the branches she could see one bright star. It was comfortable to look at.”

This night is the first time Sarah and her father must sleep outdoors rather than in another settler’s home. Sarah tries to find comfort to allay her fears of the forest and the arduous journey, in general. She wants to maintain her courage, and so she actively seeks ways to ease her concerns by focusing on what feels familiar and uplifting. The one star she sees symbolizes her desire for familiarity and comfort as well as her ability to find it regardless of what is happening around her.

“Sarah needed to keep up her courage, for she and her father were going all the way into the wilderness of Connecticut to build a house.”

Sarah’s inaccurate ideas about the “wilderness” she and her father will traverse and the Indigenous people they will invariably meet are the reasons she needs her courage. Although the land John Noble purchased has already been cleared and some people live close to it, Sarah has learned to fear from her mother, who insists that Sarah will need to be brave. This quote is a good example of how white colonists’ paranoia and xenophobia informed their treatment of Indigenous people, such as the Schaghticoke.

“An owl, Sarah. He is telling you goodnight.”

Sarah’s father anthropomorphizes the owl that Sarah hears making a strange sound in the forest nearby. In this way, giving the owl the ability to wish Sarah a pleasant sleep, he makes it seem familiar and kind rather than scary.