The words of Sarah
...and shot an Indian surely in the chest as if she was a crack marksman….as bullets went past one went smack through my skirts and took Ernest in the leg at the knee….Papa is firing away, Mama at his side runs to Ernest” (Turner 11-12). This quote shows how each member of her family is fighting for all their lives are worth. On the journey people became focused solely on what they each had to do every day; they separated and withdrew into themselves. When a tough situation came up, all came forward and supported each other. The second theme of the novel is that relationships grow as one drops his or her judgments and embraces a person as a whole. Sarah’s first impressions of Jack Elliot, a captain of the army leading the wagon train across the country, are only derived from when she sees him in battle and so concludes that his behavior is of that manner all the time; she believes him to be rugged, hard and fearless. Sarah says that she cannot love this man for he is all evil and not the right sort of a man for loving. “Here comes Captain Elliot riding like a madman, his horse almost on its head as he pulls up and lays that Indian man open with his sword. He has a pistol in the other hand and shoots another Indian at the same time…..He must be fierce and wicked and brave all at the same time,” (Turner 36). Later Sarah come to know Jack better through the journey and drops all judgments made of him. “I got a letter from Jack today. My Dearest, it began …and it ended with In deepest devotion, and it made me sigh to read those few tender words. I love Jack Elliot. Oh my soul, I do love him so…How could I have doubted myself?” (Turner 208). This quote shows how Sarah found through acceptance Jack’s inner beauty and sensitivity. Continue to keep enduring life even when it throws you a curve ball; later the rewards will become evident, is another theme. Sarah is in love with Jack, and him with her but the on thing standing between them is time. Time separates their meetings and seems to go by so fast when they are together. Jack going away so often is hard for Sarah to deal with when she feels that she needs him every second of the day. S...