Where the Lost Wander

“I stare because self-preservation is easiest if you know exactly who and what you are dealing with.”

At the beginning of the novel, John Lowry is a loner who trusts very few people. His guarded nature is the result of both the slurs he has heard from Pawnee and white people about his mixed ancestry and the fact that he does not feel he belongs in either culture. His love for Naomi May will eventually help him to become more trusting and to let others into his emotional sphere.

“He is a boy without a family, Sarah.”

While John believes his stepmother, Jennie, doesn’t truly love him, her actions from the time when he comes into her household show that she does. Queried by her daughter about John’s racial identity, Jennie replies simply that John needs a family regardless of his part-Pawnee heritage. Over the course of the novel, John will be able to recognize that both Jennie and his father have always loved him.

“The more you love, the more it hurts. But it’s worth it.”

Jennie voices one of the novel’s major themes, the idea of The Power of Love, to John as he takes leave of her to embark on the journey with the wagon train. The words echo in John’s memory when he discusses the possibility of marrying Naomi with her mother, Winifred. While the couple will endure unimaginable losses and hardships that will for a time create a distance between them, their love does eventually heal their rift and prove triumphant in the end.