Chapter 15: The Girl Catches Fish, Names the Forest, and Confronts Power

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

Still feverish and in pain, the girl enters the forest to escape the wind. She imagines her dead Dutch glassblower walking behind her and speaks to him aloud. At a river, she sees spawning fish and catches several, eating them greedily and smoking extra to carry. Her hunger and fever begin to ease. She realizes spring has arrived and observes her severely emaciated body. While resting, she starts naming trees, birds, and insects — calling a tree “Silver,” a bird “Virago,” a fly “Hellspeck.” As she names, she thinks about Adam’s dominion over creation and how the English colonists used naming to claim power over the land and its people. She recalls the child Bess and the mistress. She reflects on her own many names — Lamentations Callat, Girl, Wench, Zed — and on the glassblower’s name for her, “Mine-heleafda,” which felt closest to who she is. She tries to give herself a new name born of her struggle, but no name seems right. She continues walking through the wilderness nameless and unmastered.

Key Events

The girl leaves the open countryside and enters the forest.
She hallucinates the glassblower and talks to him, imagining a future of salvation and endless bread.
She hears the river’s harsh sound and discovers rapids filled with spawning fish.
She catches a fish with her knife and another, then smokes several to preserve.
Her fever breaks, and she sees that spring has fully come.
She gazes at her own body, shocked by its boniness and the strange hair covering her skin.
She names trees “Silvers” and other natural objects “Maiden-neck,” “Virago bird,” and “Hellspeck.”
She reflects on the power of naming, linking it to Adam, adults naming babies, and English colonists naming the New World.
She recalls Bess and the mistress, and mourns Bess’s death.
She considers her own names and attempts to rename herself but fails.
She walks onward, still without a name.

Character Development

The Girl: She moves from pure survival instinct to a more reflective state. Her fever lifts, and she gains physical strength from the fish. Intellectually, she begins to question the act of naming and its connection to power and colonization. She acknowledges her ignorance about nature and shows pride in what she has learned. Her grief over Bess and the glassblower surfaces, and she struggles with her own fragmented identity. The chapter ends with her determination to name herself, yet she remains in a state of suspended selfhood — nameless but unmastered.

Themes, Symbols, and Motifs

Naming and Power: The central theme. The girl discovers that naming makes things visible and confers dominion. She parallels her act with Adam’s naming and the English colonists’ imposition of names on the land and people. She realizes that one name takes precedence over another, turning the wheel of power.
Colonization and Dominion: The girl critiques colonial naming, recognizing that the Indigenous people already had their own names. She sees naming as a tool of domination used by adults over children and by colonizers over the land.
Hunger and Survival: Her physical hunger drives her actions. The fish provide both immediate sustenance and a resource for later. Her careful smoking of fish shows growing survival skill.
Spring and Renewal: The chapter opens with winter’s end and culminates in the girl’s recognition of spring. The season symbolizes new life and the possibility of change.
Memory and Grief: Flashbacks to Bess and the mistress highlight the girl’s loss. Bess’s laughter and the mistress’s words contrast with the girl’s solitary present. She forces herself to “put the memory away” to avoid being consumed by sorrow.
Identity and Naming: The girl’s list of former names — none feeling fully hers — underscores her fragmented sense of self. The glassblower’s term “Mine-heleafda” comes closest. Her inability to find a new name indicates that her identity is still in flux.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter 15 is pivotal for the girl’s psychological and thematic development. It is the first time she deliberately names the world around her, elevating her from a passive survivor to an active interpreter of her environment. Her meditation on naming as a colonial act makes the novel’s critique of English expansion explicit. The chapter also deepens her personal history with Bess and the glassblower, reinforcing the emotional weight she carries. Finally, her failed attempt to rename herself leaves her in a powerful liminal state: unnamed, unowned, and free from the names others have given her.

Study Questions and Answers

Why does the girl begin to name objects in the forest?
She finds that naming makes things “more visible” and gives her a sense of power. She becomes “drunk upon it” and links the act to Adam’s dominion and the English colonists’ use of naming to claim ownership of the land. For her, naming is both a survival tactic and a way to assert agency in a wilderness that has overwhelmed her.
How does the chapter connect naming to colonization?
The girl explicitly states that the Englishmen “believed they were naming this place and this people for the first time” and that this act conferred dominion. She notes that the Indigenous people already had names, but “one name takes precedence over another,” revealing how colonial naming erases prior knowledge and power. Her critique shows her growing awareness of the violence embedded in language.
What is the significance of the girl being unable to give herself a new name?
Her inability to find a name that “felt right” suggests that her identity remains unsettled. All the names she has carried (Lamentations Callat, Girl, Wench, Zed) were imposed by others or born of suffering. The glassblower’s name came closest, but he is dead. By refusing any ready-made name, she preserves her freedom; she is “unmastered” and open to becoming whoever she will be.