60 pages • 2 hours read
Shelley PearsallTrouble Don't Last
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Flying, Birds, and the Sky
Throughout the novel, images of flying, birds, and the sky symbolize the much-sought concept of freedom. When convincing Samuel to run away with him, for example, Harrison claims that Black people can fly in the free sky. This is not literally true, but it does metaphorically imply that they will be able to embrace a life of freedom beyond the United States. As they journey on, Harrison and Samuel are frequently compared to birds to further emphasize this symbolism. Additionally, bird calls are used to communicate with members of the Underground Railroad. This symbolism suggests that people escaping enslavement and those who aid them resemble birds flying in pursuit of freedom. However, Samuel is sometimes frustrated at the necessity of hiding, and he envies the actual birds, who are free to fly around and sing without fear of persecution. This complicates the notion of “freedom” and suggests that although he and Harrison are free of the Hacklers, they are not really “free” until they can reach a place that does not carry the risk of being recaptured and enslaved once again.
Similarly, the imagery of the sky symbolizes the different attitudes that Samuel and Harrison have about freedom throughout the text. For example, at the beginning of their journey, Harrison imagines how beautiful and open the free sky will look, illustrating his optimism about his free future. However, later in the journey, Samuel has a terrible nightmare of Harrison being buried in the night sky, which symbolizes his fear of losing Harrison and having to experience freedom without him. Harrison also compares the stars in a quilt to the people he has lost over the years, and this moment symbolizes his own grief at having to face freedom without his loved ones. The novel therefore suggests that even the ultimate reward of freedom is a bittersweet prize in the absence of loved ones who are lost to enslavement or death. However, Harrison’s last words in the novel emphasize the fact that freedom in any form is something to celebrate, despite its limitations. As he says to his grandson, “Whoooeeee, Samuel…Look up. Look up at this beautiful free sky” (230). This image also invokes that of free-flying birds, creating a two-fold symbol to drive home the thematic importance of freedom in the novel.
Lakes, Rivers, and Ponds
Lakes, rivers, and ponds paradoxically symbolize both freedom and the various obstacles that Harrison and Samuel must overcome on their journey. Two of the major borders that they cross involve large bodies of water. The “River Jordan” (their euphemism for the Ohio River) separates Kentucky from the “free” state of Ohio. By dubbing it the “River Jordan,” the characters imbue the river with a spiritual, holy significance, as in their minds, it provides passage to “freedom.” Additionally, it also serves as a code name that provides a degree of secrecy amongst formerly enslaved people and members of the Underground Railroad. However, the river is not as miraculous as the name suggests because Ohio is disappointingly similar to Kentucky due to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which effectively eliminated the protections that so-called “free” states could legally provide to freedom seekers. The “River Jordan” therefore symbolically complicates the notion of “freedom,” as Samuel and Harrison don’t gain freedom all in one fell swoop. Instead, they gradually gain greater degrees of freedom as they move north.
To cross from the United States into Canada, Samuel, Harrison, and Ordee Lee must also cross Lake Erie at the end of the novel. As one of the Great Lakes, Lake Erie resembles an ocean, and it is not always possible to see land on the other side. Samuel recalls Lilly’s words: “When we go on to the Promised Land someday, Samuel, we is gonna leave this old, tough world behind and not see any more land until we get up there in the clouds” (216). Lake Erie therefore takes on a spiritual, holy significance because of its implicit comparison to the path that leads to the promised land. Lake Erie’s physical size, compared to the Ohio River, also represents the greater degree of freedom that Samuel and Harrison will attain once they cross into Canada, where the Fugitive Slave Act does not apply. In this way, water symbolizes not only freedom itself but also the obstacles that must be overcome on the way to freedom.
Harrison’s freedom is also symbolized through the Canadian ponds that he freely fishes in at the novel’s end. Additionally, his memory of being punished for fishing in the plantation owner’s pond as a child symbolizes the obstacles he had to overcome to ultimately reach freedom. Throughout the novel, Harrison dreams of having his own pond where nobody will accuse him of “stealing” or take his fish. He does not find this in Ohio, but he does find it in Canada.
The Gray Yarn
The gray yarn symbolizes Hannah’s desire to reunite with her son, Samuel, and to be free of the Hacklers and other enslavers. At first, this is just Hannah’s desire, but ultimately, she makes it her reality, just as she used to spin clothing for the Hacklers out of yarn. As Harrison explains to Samuel,
Your momma said if she ever got herself free, she’d send us a roll of gray wool yarn. ‘That yarn be my sign,’ she told us, because all her hands did is weave and spin for the Old Mas Hackler and his wife, and gray was the color of their no-good, worthless heads (168-69).
Spinning yarn into clothing entails taking something lackluster and turning it into something much more impressive. On a symbolic level, Hannah accomplishes this by transforming her situation of enslavement and rendering herself free. Furthermore, she even “spins” Samuel and Harrison into her “web” by alerting them of her freedom and her physical location, and as a result, they go to her. Hannah’s “sign” is not just the yarn itself but the name of the town where she now lives in Canada. The yarn also illustrates the group effort behind finding freedom; although the characters do not achieve freedom alone, they help each other in covert ways and ultimately work together to escape enslavement.
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