The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1990

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Narrator’s Note-Part 1, Chapter 7

Part 1, Chapters 8-12

Part 2, Chapters 13-15

Part 2, Chapters 16-Appendix

Character Analysis

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Themes

The Barriers of Class

Over the course of her journey, Charlotte learns that the class system of which she is a part suppresses good people and props up bad ones. At first, most of the men on the ship are scary to her, both because of their gender and their class. Charlotte initially struggles to make friends, but she surprises herself by befriending Zachariah, an elderly Black sailor who wants to help her protect herself from whatever mishaps may occur on the trip. At first, she dismisses his words of warning.

She also makes friends with the captain, a man of her class who treats her as befits her status, even parading her around the ship for all to see. He promises to protect her from any untoward actions of the crew. He speaks ill of his men, however, and treats them disrespectfully, explaining to her that they quickly become lazy and incompetent unless harshly controlled.

Charlotte soon learns that he is using her simply to spy on the sailors. When she reveals to him a conspiracy against him, he suppresses the mutiny harshly, killing the leader and whipping Zachariah, apparently to death. Charlotte’s horror at all this gives her second thoughts about the captain; it only gets worse when he steers the ship into a hurricane in an attempt to make more money, murders his own first mate, and pins the murder on her.

She talks the men into accepting her as a fellow sailor, and she learns that, far from being incompetent and shiftless, the men work hard, protect each other, and never slack off in the face of the ocean’s constant dangers. Her judgment is replaced by respect. Her friendship with Zachariah grows despite his difference from her. Zachariah’s race also separates him from the other crew members, but they also respect him as a good, wise, intelligent, and skillful crew member.

It becomes clear to Charlotte that the system of organized cruelty and suppression onboard is wrong, and that the idea that the working class is inferior is false. The men suffer unfairly simply because they’re not in a position to fight back effectively, and Jaggery holds them to standards he doesn’t have to live up to.

In America, Charlotte reunites with her family and she looks at her father with new eyes based on her experiences. He treats his servants with the same iron cruelty as did Jaggery his men. He also treats Charlotte as a girl who must comply with his arbitrary standards and dismisses what happened to her on the ship. She runs away and rejoins the crew of the Seahawk, where she and the others treat each other with hard-won respect.

The sea voyage thus takes Charlotte from snobbery to compassion, and from complicity in her own class’s arrogance to friendship and respect for hard-working people she defends with her life.

Challenging Gender Roles

Charlotte begins the voyage as a proper young girl and ends it as a strong, independent-minded sailor. She makes this journey in the face of, and because of, the captain and her family’s disapproval. She learns that she can do things permitted only to men, and that what matters most is her willingness to work hard and well.

During the first few days of the voyage, Charlotte fears that the men might take advantage of her, but she discovers that they have no such interest. Perhaps it’s because they’re cowed by the captain’s fearful reputation, but she soon learns it’s also because they’re decent people who are too busy trying to keep a ship running smoothly, and consumed by their quest to overthrow the captain, to bother with taunting or abusing a girl.

Sensing that she might need them, Zachariah gives her a knife, a pair of sailor’s trousers, and a sailor’s blouse. Charlotte wants nothing to do with the knife, but even the captain suggests she keep it. She doesn’t change into the sailor’s uniform until the captain angrily throws her on the mercy of the crew. At that point, she begs the men to take her in, and they do so, teaching her everything a person must know to master the business of sailing.

Before long, her skin is sunburnt, her hands and feet are callused, and she can climb the rigging with the best of them. One day, she climbs among the sails and gazes out across the ocean: “And there I was, joyous, new-made, liberated from a prison I’d thought was my proper place!” (130)

Hard work, long hours, and hurried sleep challenge her, and she begins to understand that what counts isn’t her gender but her commitment to the job. Zachariah points out that “you, a girl, and I, an old black man, were unique to the sea” (208); what’s common, though, is that they both care about their work. Her heroism during the hurricane helps her to realize that she can handle anything a man can.

Captain Jaggery tries to convince the men that, as a woman, she’s an inappropriate, “unnatural” presence among the crew. When she arrives home in America, her father and mother disapprove of her tan face and callused hands, and she’s punished for behaving onboard as if she were entitled to be other than a dainty, proper girl. The disapproval of these three adults, the ones she most respects, tears a hole in her belief that what matters is to be respectable. Instead, she decides to respect herself and pursue the life she wants. Her transformation from obedient girl to self-reliant young woman gives her the confidence to make her own decisions and not simply obey the dictates of the men in her life.

Transformation and Growth

Before the voyage, Charlotte has no cares other than studying and being a respectable young lady. Finding herself alone on a ship and without adult supervision, Charlotte is ready to faint from fear, but she soon realizes she must take charge of her situation and make her own decisions. By the end of the voyage, she has become self-reliant, coolly confident, and well able to take care of herself. But first, she must overcome old attitudes and transcend a child’s dependence on adults.

Unprotected by family or friends, Charlotte searches for allies. Zachariah, who wants only to protect her, she likes but doesn’t fully trust due to his differences from her. Captain Jaggery, gentlemanly and friendly, promises his protection but manipulates her. For a while, she accepts both and, in the process, begins to learn the difference between what people say is good and safe and what is actually good and safe.

Zachariah’s advice is sound, but Charlotte’s attitude prevents her from appreciating his wisdom. On the other hand, Jaggery’s advice puts her at risk in the service of his selfish ends, but she trusts him instinctively because he’s one of her class. Two months later, her feelings have reversed: She trusts Zachariah with her life and must escape Jaggery’s attempts to kill her. Her understanding of the difference between appearances and reality, between respectability and character, makes great strides.

Unable to resolve the conflict between her early admiration for Jaggery and his atrocious behavior toward his crew, Charlotte alienates both him and the men. She finds a way to recover the crew’s respect and protection by offering to join them as an additional hand onboard. She then works hard to acquire the skills of a useful crew member, and she becomes diligent and competent, traits highly respected in adults. She also demonstrates heroic bravery during the hurricane. Charlotte discovers that she can solve problems, take care of herself, and contribute greatly to others.

Charlotte learns nearly a lifetime of wisdom in two months: “For a brief moment I caught a distant vision of myself as I had been before the Seahawk, before this tumultuous voyage. Was it days or years that had passed since?” (155) However, at her home in America, she discovers that her parents want to fold her back up into childhood and punish or cajole her into becoming a dainty and unassuming female. She’s experienced too much real life, and too much success of her own, to go back to a childhood she has outgrown.