A Lion to Guard Us

Amanda’s Journey From Childhood to Independence continues after her mother’s death as she must transition from an older sister figure to a maternal one. Her siblings are too young to know how to cope with the loss of their mother, and they look to Amanda for guidance. However, Amanda struggles in this role and feels lost. The path was clear when her mother was alive, but now all the decisions are hers to either make or not make. The journey to adulthood is not linear; she, too, is a child grieving her parent, and she isn’t sure how to connect with her siblings anymore. She initially uses her work to distract herself, but this only further isolates her from her siblings. She uses storytelling to apologize for her behavior and reassure them, centering themselves as protagonists in a tale about Resilience and Youth.

With this, Amanda transitions from being lost and uncertain about the future to having a clear plan: “We are going. We are!” (22). However, she is still a child and doesn’t know how to navigate the social complexities of her society. Both Mistress Trippett and Cook are antagonists who attempt to thwart her plan to get her family to America. Cook does so first by trying to prevent Amanda from finding the Virginia Company, exercising her influence as an authority figure. When Amanda does go to the House on Philpot Lane and tries to book passage, she realizes they need an adult chaperone and money. Mistress Trippett has confiscated Amanda’s mother’s money, attempting to keep the Freebold children in her household as free labor, another way the family is oppressed by their poverty. Amanda’s naivete shows through when asks Mistress Trippett for the money, not understanding that she has no intention of giving Amanda the money.

In the final confrontation between Amanda and Mistress Trippett, their social differences are highlighted. Amanda has nothing: no money and no power, other than her boldness to ask for what is hers. In contrast, Mistress Trippett has wealth, demonstrated in her red silk gown and fine furnishings. She also has power: her fainting spell disrupts the whole household and draws the doctor’s immediate attention, in contrast to Mistress Freebold’s slow, isolated convalescence. In the end, the Trippetts’ power is total over Amanda and her siblings, and Randolph throws them out of the house with no concern for their well-being. Without shelter or employment, the children—including two under 10 years old—are bound to starve, highlighting how deeply the class divide enforces poverty in this society. This sets the stage for Amanda’s continued determination to reach America, reinforcing The Imagined and Real “New World” as an opportunity for social mobility and finding a home.