Paulsen’s stated intent with this novel was to expand the reader’s understanding of the conditions of frontier life. He says in the Author’s note, “I wanted readers to understand what it was really like to live on the frontier at that time, with virtually nothing—no money, no electricity, no towns, few neighbors—nothing but your strength.” This motif is carried out throughout the novel: Note, for example, the days Samuel goes without clean water and the lack of cleanliness or medicine involved in treating his head wound. Stability is the highest many of the novel’s characters aim for, and Samuel contributes to that pursuit with his skills as a hunter; he provides the meat for most of the people in their settlement.

The reader can observe, too, the scarcity of the many goods we take for granted in modern life. As one informational passage informs us, “a single rifle—something every frontier family needed, something that was an absolute necessity—might take a year or more, and a year’s wages, to get from one of the rare gunsmiths, located perhaps miles away” (25). Shoes, too, were hard to come by; Samuel explains that he has had to adjust his walk to accommodate for the scarcity of shoes.