The Main Themes of Out on the Pampas by G.A Henty

Out on the Pampas, by G.A Henty is the tale of an English family of six (Mr and Mrs. Hardy, Charley, Hubert, Maud, and Ethel), who decide to immigrate to Argentina, to start a new life. The family once in Argentina settle on a large property. During their life in Argentina the family have many exciting and scary adventures which include scary and somewhat violent encounters with the local Native Americans. The family also meets many new characters, and also make friends. At the end of the book Mrs. Hardy and her daughter return back to England, but Mr. Hardy and their two sons remain in Argentina for a while longer to manage the farm and cattle herds. What I will be writing exactly in this report is: the main themes from the novel, I will be getting into each theme, why I think it is a theme in the story, show some examples from the story that shows the theme, and which theme out of the themes I will be writing about I believe is the biggest out of them all.

The First Main Theme: Courage 

Courage is a theme that is shown throughout the book especially when the family is dealing with the Native Americans. Some examples of courage as a main theme in the book are: when Mr. Hardy and his two sons are fighting off the Native Americans and protecting their family and property. Near the end of the book Ethel becomes captured by the Native Americans, during this situation Ethel is very brave and displays a lot of courage even though she could be killed at any moment, also her family displays much courage, instead of giving up and losing all hope the family remains calm and very courageous, and the final example, the choose of giving up their comfortable life in England and starting a new one in a wild and new country is also a very brave thing to do, and accomplish. There are more examples of courage in the book but these were  the examples that stood out to me the most.

The Second Main Theme: Faith

Faith like Courage is a theme that is shown many times in the story, this is because the Hardy family’s faith is often put to the test especially in a bad situation such as when they are getting attacked by the Natuve Americans. A few examples of this in the story are: when the family is being attacked by the Native Americans, even though Mrs. Hardy and the girls are not the ones fighting and defending against the the Natives they do play an important role because they have great faith that Mr. Hardy the two boys will be successful in warding of the Native Americans, and that they will return home alive, also Mr. Hardy and the boys have great faith in this situation. Another example is when Ethel becomes captured, even though the family could despair and give up on finding her, they instead have great faith that she will be alive and that they would be able to rescue her successfully, also Ethel has great faith in this situation because she has faith that her family will find and rescue her, and the final example is the fact that the family has decided to give up their comfortable life in England to live a not so comfortable one, because they have faith that they will gain something very valuable from the experience of this new life is a quite impressive example of faith. There are more examples of this but again these situations stood out to me the most.

The Third Main Theme: Strength Within the Family

The final main theme that I noticed in the story is strength within the family.This theme is very obvious more so than the first two themes. Some examples of strength within the family as a theme in the story are: the way the Hardy’s work together as a team, especially when they want to get a job done or fix a bad situation. Mr. and Mrs. Hardy are very supportive and caring for their children but also firm and strict, which helps lead their children into becoming responsible young adults, also their children are supportive and helpful to their parents. And finally the Hardy family, even though they work hard they always leave time for some fun and enjoyment for the family. There are more examples of this but these again were the things that stood out to me.

Conclusion

What theme do I believe is the biggest theme out of the three? In my opinion I believe the theme, strength within the family is most seen throughout the story, because the main characters in the story are a family, and the story is about a family, so I believe that strength within the family is the biggest theme out of the three. Probably some may disagree with me but that is normal since people have different opinions and do notice different themes in stories than others. 

What I thought of the story: did I like it, or dislike it? Well Out on the Pampas though it is very well written and has a pretty interesting story it is definitely not the best book I have ever read for a few reasons. One the story began to drag halfway through the story, two, like most G.A Henty books the plot is very predictable, which is disappointing for me because I love good plot twists, and three, even though the section on the family’s encounters with the Native Americans were very interesting(probably the most interesting part of the book), it got a little dull since it seemed that the encounters with the Native Americans were the only really exciting parts of the story, but that’s just me. In this report I wrote about the main themes from the book Out on the Pampas. The main themes that I noticed while reading the story were, courage, faith, and strength within the family. I listed the areas in the story that the theme was most noticeable and obvious. Before getting into the themes I gave a short summary on the story itself. This is my report on the themes from Out on the Pampas.