46 pages • 1 hour read
Joan W. BlosA Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1979A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Nature of Obedience
Throughout her journal, Catherine struggles to understand what true obedience means. As she moves from a childlike wish to be more obedient to adults to a deeper understanding of self-reliance, her view of obedience reflects her personal growth and ever-widening view of the world.
In just her second journal entry, Catherine expresses the wish to train herself “to want to do what [she] is asked to do” (5). Later in Chapter 1, she resolves to “assay such tasks and virtues” that will increase her father’s pride in her (8). This desire for obedience to those in authority is tested, however, when the self-liberated man writes in her lesson book asking for help. She knows her father’s opinion that people like him should be turned in, and she flounders with the question of what is right. Cassie’s initial disapproval adds to her confusion. Ultimately, after Cassie changes her mind and says, “Kindness must be the highest virtue” (28), Catherine decides to help the self-liberated man. She is still struggling with the concept of obedience at this point, discussing it openly with Cassie, but she no longer believes that it means absolute submission to authority. This reflects the journey of the man, too, who has decided to liberate himself from authority.
After Cassie’s death, Catherine comes to a new understanding of the meaning of obedience. It requires “discipline of will” (122), not giving up her will. In other words, she now thinks that obedience proceeds from within, not from the pressure of outside forces. She has begun to look to herself for her understanding of what it means to be a good person. When she buries one of the pieces of lace sent by the fugitive for Cassie, she says that she tells nobody what she has done because she knows that it is right.
Finally, as the journal draws to its close, she says that it now appears to her that “trust, and not submission” (139), defines obedience. The novel suggests that one is only obligated to be obedient to those who deserve it; it is transactional, not unilateral or self-defined.
Acceptance of Hardship Versus Action
In rural New England of the 1830s, death and hardship could be as unpredictable and arbitrary as the Wiley Slide, a landslide that killed a family fleeing from their home. As some characters preach acceptance of hardship, others try to take action to prevent it. Ultimately, the story shows that a balance of acceptance and action is needed in order to endure hardship.
Hardships abound in the novel. In Catherine’s life, the nearly simultaneous deaths of her mother and infant brother four years before the start of her journal loom over every part of her daily life as she fulfills her mother’s role in the home. Other tragedies include a woman suddenly being gored by a cow and a man’s ear being blown off by a firecracker. However, the characters have very different reactions to these hardships. Some, like Father and Mrs. Shipman, take the view that country folk must “learn to accept else they will surely be broken” (111). Mrs. Shipman equates acceptance with faith after Cassie’s death.
Ann, in contrast, searches for ways to prevent hardships. Whereas Charles maintains that it is necessary to celebrate the Fourth of July with fireworks, Ann protests their violence and potential to burn and maim. When Cassie falls ill, Ann tells Charles that “you have to fight Death” and sends to her bookseller for a book of remedies (108).
After Cassie’s death, Catherine thinks that both Mrs. Shipman and Ann are wise but that they confront hardship in very different ways. She laughs a little at her stepmother’s belief that books can solve everything, yet she also finds it hard to believe that “[w]hat we call Providence” (119), meaning the power of God, can deprive people so cruelly. She is reaching the understanding that one can both accept hardship and act against it. This understanding is expressed in the phrase from which the book takes its title: “This year, more than others, has been a lengthy gathering of days wherein we lived, we loved, were moved; learned how to accept” (139). Blos suggests that life must be active and lived to the fullest, despite whatever comes one’s way.
Joy and Sorrow Unite Humankind
As Catherine matures, she grows to understand that life holds both joy and sorrow and that these experiences are universal. This understanding marks her growth from a self-absorbed child to a wise young woman. Catherine must experience a great deal of both joy and sorrow herself before she can accept that they are both part of life. Three major changes in her life move her toward this understanding.
Near the beginning of the journal, in the second entry, she expresses the wish that she may remain “for ever and ever” in the house built by her father and that “no harm [may] come to those [she] love[s]” (5). Soon, however, the self-liberated man enters her life, creating distress and prompting soul-searching for her. When she helps the man, she empathizes with his sorrow and realizes that sorrow connects them.
The arrival of her stepmother creates another fissure between Catherine and her father and moves her toward maturity. After Charles announces the news that he is going to marry again, Catherine expresses her disapproval in small ways, wondering if May is a good time to marry and why he needs a new jacket for his wedding. On their wedding day, she writes in her journal that she will not call Ann “Mother.” Ann’s steadfast support of Catherine eventually wins her over, and her world widens again to accept a wise and gently affectionate stepmother. “Good times and ill each have their place” (99), she tells Catherine. Catherine, however, must experience sorrow personally before she can embrace this concept.
Cassie’s death is the third and final major event that moves Catherine toward a new understanding of life. At first absorbed in her grief, she comes to understand that others have suffered more, like the Wiley family, all of whom perished in a landslide. From understanding the suffering of others, she proceeds to the realization that the experience of sorrow is universal. When she hears about Nat Turner’s rebellion, she thinks about those who mourn the slain as strangers whose grief others can share.
Catherine expresses her hard-won understanding openly in an entry for October 30, 1831. When her father praises her choice of the Mariner’s pattern for her quilt, he remarks that everyone “travel[s] in danger or voyage[s] uncharted seas” (135). He is referring to both the self-liberated man, now safe in Canada, and Cassie. At first, it seems odd for Catherine to think of them together, but then she writes, “I do now believe we all are joined, where ever we are, what ever we do” (135). She considers that not only does everyone experience joy and sorrow, but a full life must also include both. She expresses this idea as she closes her second letter to her great-granddaughter: “Life is like a pudding: it takes both the salt and the sugar to make a really good one” (143).
