SuitabookThe codfish musket
Agnes Danforth Hewes
- Reading
- Read together if useful, pausing to unpack the period’s political and frontier setting. You could discuss what Dan knows at each turn, while leaving room for the book’s ending and historical perspective to emerge.
- Themes
- Arms and frontier conflict: A gang is described as selling guns to the British, who are arming Indigenous people, while American trappers are terrorised. The plot connects illicit arms dealing with danger on the frontier, but does not establish the story’s judgement of the people or events involved.
- Duty and discovery: Dan investigates a theft, becomes Jefferson’s secretary and is sent to deliver a message to Lewis and Clark. The outline places Dan in roles involving investigation and official responsibility; it does not show how his choices are judged or what the mission achieves.
- Worth knowing
- How violence is depicted, and how much detail it receives, remain unclear.