The Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter (published 1953) tells the story of a boy raised by Indians in Colonial New England who must come to terms with his dual nature upon reaching his teen years. After being kidnapped from his Pennsylvania fields during a raid, John Butler has been renamed True Son and trained and loved by his Indian mother and father, Cuyloga. As the novel begins, True Son must be returned to his white community because of the terms of a peace deal. Now he must figure out where he truly belongs. Is he really one of the “despised” whites?
I liked that this novel was backwards from stereotypical books that mention Native Americans. The main character was fearful and disparaging of the white people, including their way of life, their diet, and their looks. He was a white person who had been raised to despise white people. Truly, the white people in his family were horrific. Since True Son’s father had been killed during an raid, which is when True Son was taken, the uncle was a part of a rabid anti-Indian group and spouts hateful rhetoric, even before True Son/John who is now expected to live in his birth family’s home and hear the vitriol. I don’t blame True Son for his disgust for awful Uncle Wilse. The inner conflict also feels very real: how can one raised in nature ever feel satisfied being restrained on a farm, living among the violent “Paxton boys” who are known for injuring
In the end, however, there is much to be desired about The Light in the Forest. I have loved Richter’s writing (at least, The Trees series is my experience and I’ve loved that), and this one is well written. But because it is written by a white man living in 1950s, I know there is much to be desired in this book. How did native families take in a white prisoner? Would they have had a “ritual” to replace his “white blood” with Indian blood? True Son’s conflict upon returning to white civilization was poignant and touching. Would his native “cousin” have followed? Did “scalpings” really happen so frequently? They are throughout the book, done by both whites and natives. Did natives really children who were in the wrong place at the wrong time? Would they have really expected True Son/John to be able to betray his white family? Would True Son/John have felt compelled to save his racist uncle?
Because the author is not someone with a native heritage, I can’t feel comfortable with this book. As I said, it provides an interesting and sad look at the conflict a child would feel having been raised by Indians out of his white home. However real such a conflict may have been, it is not clearly realistic. I’d never claim to know how Lenni Lenape would have treated white prisoners, nor would I know how they would have gone to war. I feel I can’t trust Richter’s interpretation either, since he lived in an even less “researched” white world of writing. In this book, the white people are even more “savage” and violent than the Native people. But neither group is exculpated and I am sincerely uncomfortable with the depictions of the Natives, even when they appear in a “good” light.
See also the review by American Indians in Children’s Literature blog. I always want to confirm my suspicions before I approve of a fictional book about Native Americans written by a white, non-Native author. I was not surprised by Debbie’s summation of the book from just the first chapter.
