Sees Behind Trees

Gray Fire is an older member of Sees Behind Trees’s community known for his solitary lifestyle. His name refers to his stealthy movements, which he later explains are designed to mask his limp. When Gray Fire was younger, he was the fastest runner in the community, but he had to cut off his toes to escape the “beautiful place” after being caught in a trap set by his sister, Otter. After losing his ability to run, Gray Fire withdrew into himself, avoiding Otter and everyone else. When Gray Fire strikes up a friendship with Sees Behind Trees, other members of the community, including Sees Behind Trees’s uncle, Brings the Deer, are envious since Gray Fire is highly respected. Only Sees Behind Trees sees the true Gray Fire, who is still defined by his childhood experience.

When Gray Fire found the beautiful place, he was already isolated from the community, which no longer allowed him to participate in races. Otter notes that his running created a rift between her and Gray Fire, as well. Running to the beautiful place allowed Gray Fire to test himself against nature, as he wanted to outrun “night,” but cutting off his toes removed both his ability to run and any chance of attaining the peace he had found in the beautiful place. From that point forward, Gray Fire’s only goal was to return to the beautiful place, which he does with Sees Behind Trees’s help, only to disappear into the lake.

Gray Fire is a sage figure, acting as a mentor and teacher for Sees Behind Trees, but he also exemplifies the dangers of obsession and hubris. His hubris leads him to linger in the beautiful place, as he believes he can run home easily, and his obsession with the place prevents him from developing further as a person. As such, Gray Fire is in some measures still “immature” when he embarks on the journey with Sees Behind Trees, and he fails to account for his own responsibility as Sees Behind Trees’s mentor by abandoning him. Gray Fire’s ultimate lesson to Sees Behind Trees is that Sees Behind Trees should not live like Gray Fire has. For both the reader and Sees Behind Trees, he offers a cautionary tale about the importance of taking accountability and moving forward.

The weroance, whose name is Otter, is Gray Fire’s twin sister and the chief of Sees Behind Trees’s community. Though chiefs who are women are more commonly called weroansqua in the Powhatan Confederacy, Dorris uses the masculine “weroance,” perhaps as an indication of Otter’s skill in the traditionally masculine practice of hunting. Otter was the best hunter in the community as a child; she describes how she would hunt by willing a deer to be in front of her, after which a deer would appear for her to kill. Otter’s skill is critical to her character, as she suffers the same hubris as her brother; she overestimated her own skill when she trapped him with the intention of rescuing him, only for him to cut off his toes instead. In this context, Gray Fire’s remark that Otter was always “right” sounds an additional, ironic warning about the dangers of pride.

Sees Behind Trees describes the weroance as the most important person in his community, and the novel depicts Otter as leading the coming-of-age ceremony, as well as dispensing valuable advice to community members. However, when Sees Behind Trees returns from his journey with Checha, he finds Otter in tears, lamenting the loss of her brother. This scene reveals that Otter, like Gray Fire, has been frozen in time ever since their childhood experiences at the beautiful place. The introduction of Checha into the community changes Otter, though, and she takes on the role of Checha’s grandmother. Much like Gray Fire, Otter thus shows Sees Behind Trees the importance of participating in the community even as she reveals the consequences of thinking one knows better than everyone else. Meanwhile, her character growth shows that it is never too late for a person to mature and develop, which underscores the tragedy of Gray Fire’s obsession leading to his disappearance.

Three Chances is Sees Behind Trees best friend in the community. He is a minor supporting character, but he is important in instigating two elements of Sees Behind Trees’s journey. First, Frog (as he was known prior to the coming-of-age ceremony) is an excellent archer, and Sees Behind Trees is ashamed to think that he will not be able to perform as well as Frog at the ceremony. However, it takes Frog three attempts to pass the test, earning the name Three Chances. This name highlights that the coming-of-age ceremony is not a ritual of perfection that requires participants to excel in the given task. Instead, the ceremony is intended to showcase development and growth, moving children forward on a journey toward adulthood. Simultaneously, the contrast between Sees Behind Trees’s expectations and the reality of Three Chance’s performance foreshadows the novel’s message about confidence and hubris: that having too much faith in one’s abilities (as Sees Behind Trees goes on to do) is as much of a problem as having too little (as Sees Behind Trees initially does).

Second, Three Chances explains the nature of Sees Behind Trees’s loneliness in a way that Sees Behind Trees can understand. Though Sees Behind Trees thinks the people around him do not know about his eyesight, Three Chances does, and he notes that Sees Behind Trees feels lonely because he cannot see the people around him. By admitting that he himself feels lonely at night, Three Chances gives Sees Behind Trees another way to see his disability as an advantage; at night, he can hear people better than others can see them. This comfort is critical to Sees Behind Trees embrace of his abilities, making Three Chances a valuable sidekick to the protagonist.

Karna and Pitew are “strangers,” meaning that they are not from the same community as Gray Fire and Sees Behind Trees. When Sees Behind Trees first spots Karna and Pitew, Gray Fire warns him that many strangers are dangerous, both because they may be aggressive and because they may be afraid. However, when they approach Karna and Pitew, the two groups mix comfortably, sharing food and laughing. Karna and Pitew are notable exceptions to the danger strangers pose in the novel, though, since they are later attacked by a group that is not explicitly identified in the text.

Karna and Pitew’s narrative purpose is to show that there is a world outside of Sees Behind Trees’s community about which he knows nothing. Sees Behind Trees asks Gray Fire, “Do you mean that there are people besides us? Actual people?” (64), adding, “Suddenly I didn’t know anything for certain” (64). The shock of learning about people outside his community reframes the quest for the beautiful place: What previously seemed a largely figurative journey of exploration between a young man and his mentor becomes a true venture into the wilderness, in which anything could happen. Sees Behind Trees is learning about the world around him as well as himself, and this development raises the stakes on the return journey, too.