Nathaniel: The Settler’s Dream in Appleseed

Overview

Nathaniel is the human brother of the faun Chapman and the central settler figure in Matt Bell’s Appleseed. He embodies the manifest‑destiny ideology that drove European expansion across North America—a conviction that the wilderness exists to be cleared, planted, and transformed into orchards, farms, and eventually cities. The novel traces Nathaniel from an ambitious young man planting apple nurseries in the Ohio Territory to an aging, bitter alcoholic haunted by his brother’s fame and his own complicity in ecological destruction. Though he loves Chapman, Nathaniel never fully accepts his brother’s faun nature, and his inability to see beyond human dominion ultimately isolates him.

Plot Role

Nathaniel is the primary human agent of settlement in the chapters set in the historical frontier (chapters 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 23, 26, 29, 32–47). He and Chapman travel from Pennsylvania into the Ohio Territory, planting nurseries from seeds. Nathaniel dreams of a land “perfected through draining, clearing, and mining” (chapter 15), and he repeatedly articulates a creed of human ownership and stewardship. He is the brother who shoots Chapman (chapter 20) and then, ten years later, saves his life by performing surgery to remove the bullet (chapter 23). As the frontier becomes settled, Nathaniel watches Chapman become the legendary Johnny Appleseed while he himself remains poor and unknown, a reversal that fuels his resentment and drinking. He dies in his sleep after a final planting expedition to Indiana (chapter 42).

Motivations and Traits

Nathaniel’s driving motivation is to make his fortune through apple trees so that he can eventually marry and raise a family. He believes that his labour is righteous because it brings order to chaos—a view rooted in the Christian doctrine of dominion reinforced by the Bible stories he recites around campfires (chapter 6). He is practical, stoic, and determined; he survives decades of gruelling travel, poor food, and repeated disappointment. Yet he is also prideful: he resents that Chapman, whose labour he considers secondary, attracts folk‑hero status (chapter 38). His love for Chapman coexists with a wish that the faun had died at birth, a secret he drunkenly confesses (chapter 38). Nathaniel’s characters are shown through action: he clears land relentlessly, barters for supplies, lies about Chapman to ditchdiggers (chapter 12), and, when his brother is shot, risks his own life to save him (chapter 23). His stoicism cracks only under the pressure of obscurity and age.

Chronological Arc

Nathaniel’s arc spans roughly forty years. He begins in his prime, “sure of his place, a plower of fields, a planter of seeds” (chapter 3). He and Chapman travel west, planting nurseries and deferring his dream of a family. The pivotal event occurs in chapter 20 when he accidentally shoots Chapman. For the next ten years (chapters 23–26), he plants alone, grieving and believing his brother dead. When Chapman reappears (chapter 23), Nathaniel is shaken to discover that Chapman can shift into human form—a power he had never suspected. They resume their partnership but the relationship is strained by jealousy and the growing fame of “Johnny Appleseed.” Nathaniel becomes sickly, drinks heavily, and dies in chapter 42 after one last planting trip to Indiana. His final moments are peaceful; Chapman buries him under the nursery and plants seeds over the grave.

Relationships

The central relationship is with Chapman. Nathaniel loves his brother but regards him at first as a useful oddity—a creature whose animal senses guide them through the trackless wilderness. After the shooting, a deeper bond forms: Nathaniel performs surgery, carries guilt, and keeps the bullet as a charm (chapter 38). Yet he cannot fully accept Chapman’s faun nature and later wishes he had been killed at birth (chapter 38). Their brotherhood is “often tenuous” (chapter 38), defined by mutual need and resentment.

With the Worth family—Jasper, Grace, and especially their daughter Eliza—Nathaniel finds a surrogate home. He winters at their homestead for several years (chapters 29, 32, 38). Eliza becomes a kind of niece to him, but he never marries or has children of his own. His relationships with other settlers are transactional: he sells trees but is often cheated (chapter 26). The one person who truly understands him is Chapman, and even that understanding is incomplete.

Key Decisions and Consequences

1. Choosing to travel west with Chapman (chapter 3): This decision commits Nathaniel to a life of itinerant planting rather than immediate settlement. It brings him a decade of companionship but delays his domestic dream indefinitely.

2. Shooting Chapman (chapter 20): Whether accident or subconscious act of betrayal, the shot nearly kills his brother and sends Chapman into a ten‑year “flicker.” The consequence is guilt that Nathaniel carries for the rest of his life, and a permanent fracture in their trust.

3. Performing surgery to remove the bullet (chapter 23): This action saves Chapman’s life and allows their partnership to resume. It also reveals Chapman’s ability to shape‑shift, a new element that unsettles Nathaniel.

4. Refusing to accept his own obscurity (chapters 38–42): Nathaniel could have taken pride in his labour, but instead he seethes at Chapman’s fame. His resentment leads him to drink, fall ill, and die embittered.

5. Giving up cider and returning west for one last planting (chapter 42): In his final act, Nathaniel agrees to travel with Chapman to Indiana and plant a nursery. He dies that night, perhaps reconciled but certainly exhausted.

Theme and Symbol Connections

Nathaniel is the human face of manifest destiny and colonization. Every cleared acre, every nursery, every “horizon‑busting orchard” he plants contributes to the extinction of wolves, bison, and native ecosystems. His story illustrates the theme of climate change and ecological destruction—the novel explicitly connects his work to the later environmental collapse seen in the John and C‑433 chapters.

The apple tree itself is a symbol of both hope and harm. For Nathaniel, it represents profit and civilization. For the land, it represents an invasive species that replaces native flora. The bullet he carries in his pocket (chapter 38) symbolizes his guilt and the permanent mark of his violence against his brother.

Nathaniel’s relationship with Chapman also embodies the brotherhood and betrayal theme. He loves Chapman but cannot accept him fully; his attempts to “tame” the wilderness mirror his attempts to make Chapman more human. The shooting and later surgery become a literal and figurative bond of blood.

Finally, Nathaniel’s life becomes a caution against the technology and nature dichotomy. His methods—clear‑cutting, monoculture orchards, grafting—are early forms of the industrial agriculture that Earthtrust later perfects. The novel suggests that the desire to control nature always ends in destruction.

Character Questions and Answers

1. Did Nathaniel truly love Chapman, or did he only use him for practical purposes?
   The evidence shows a complicated love. Nathaniel keeps the bullet he dug from Chapman’s chest as a charm (chapter 38), and he risks his life to perform surgery. At the same time, he drunkenly says he wishes Chapman had died at birth (chapter 38). The novel presents his love as real but corrupted by jealousy and human pride.

2. Why did Nathaniel shoot Chapman in chapter 20?
   The novel does not explicitly state his intent. The shot is fired from a distance after Chapman has fled witches, and Nathaniel is unaware it is his brother. However, Nathaniel’s later guilt suggests he may have subconsciously aimed at the “monster” he feared. The text leaves the answer ambiguous.

3. How does Nathaniel’s character reflect the theme of manifest destiny?
   Nathaniel repeatedly dreams of “taming the wilderness for civilization—grand cities and farms” (chapter 3). He recites a creed of dominion and views the land as a resource to be used. His life’s work directly causes the ecological losses the novel mourns.

4. Why does Nathaniel resent Chapman’s fame as Johnny Appleseed?
   Nathaniel planted the same trees, endured the same hardships, yet Chapman became the legend. He feels invisible and cheated (chapter 38). His resentment is a consequence of the gulf between his own labour and the stories that society values.

5. Does Nathaniel ever achieve his dream of a family and wealth?
   No. He dies poor and childless, buried under an apple nursery in Indiana. The dream of a settled home with a wife and children is deferred so often that it never materializes—a direct result of his commitment to the planting life and his inability to settle down.

For more about the novel’s plot and meaning, see the ending explained and questions and answers.