Anne tells her aunt Lydia that she misses her children. Were you surprised by Lydia's reaction and her advice?

Anne tells her aunt Lydia that she misses her children. Were you surprised by Lydia's reaction and her advice?

Lydia didn't want to hear that Anne missed Solace and Thomas, but admitted that she had suspected as much. Her reaction wasn't surprising because she was a compassionate woman--she sympathized with Anne. "Truly my heart bleeds for you." When she advised Anne that perhaps they were better off being raised with the Cheyenne, given they "are Indians," Anne was offended and defended her desire to find them. I also felt, that as the obedient wife to a difficult and controlling master, she didn't want to provoke him, nor lose Anne as a beloved member of the household should she pursue the subject of her children.

I think Lydia's response that they "are Indians" reflects the idea that Indians aren't like the rest of us. She sympathized with Anne as much as she could, but would these half-breed children really ever be welcome in her home? Had those children been 100% white, everyone's response to Anne's pleas for her children would have been much different.

Not really, look at what she was married to - a very difficult, controlling, god fearing husband. What would he do if she provoke him by supporting Anne and drive to find them.

Nope, wasn't surprised given who she was married to & how she had chosen to accept rather than push back when her husband made decisions.

This would have been a common response from whites during that time but not only during that time. In 1940 when my mother married my father, who was part Cherokee, one of my mother’s aunts was horrified that she would do such a thing. You will still find prejudice by some people against Native Americans in areas where there are larger populations of tribal members.

No I wasn’t. My heart ached for Anne and her children. Lydia reflected the attitude of the day towards Indians, didn’t matter that they were children AMericans of the time though of Indians as savages and animals. I was hoping that the children would have appeared again towards the end of the story.

I think Lydia had a lot of compassion for Anne; however, Lydia knew if Anne was going to have a chance at starting over, she would stand a better chance as a virgin then as a women that gave birth to two half Indian children.

I basically agree with Cynthia. It just slipped out but Lydia was very different than Josiah and had suspected, with empathy, that Anne had children from her capture. The prejudice against Indians at that time was terrible, as was the white man's fear of them. I think that Lydia just couldn't understand the maternal love that Anne had for her children, even to the extent of Anne being willing to return to her captors.

Not really surprised. Considering the times she felt the children would never be accepted by the white people. She also knew her husband would never want them in the family.

I wasn't surprised at all at Lydia's response. I believe that she was sympathetic to Anne's yearning for her children, but because the children were half-Indian they would be outcasts, not only in white society, but within their quasi-family. I would have been fearful to bring the children into Josiah's household; I believe he would have either beaten the children to death or have killed them.