The Great Turkey Walk

These concluding chapters cement the narrative’s argument for The Strengths of Found Family, defining kinship by shared experience, mutual assistance, and a collective investment in a common future. The introduction of Lizzie Hardwick completes this surrogate family unit, which stands in stark contrast to the failed biological connections of Simon’s past. Whereas Simon’s uncle viewed him as a burden and his father sees him as a resource to exploit, the trail companions form a partnership based on recognizing and nurturing each other’s worth.

This dynamic is formalized after the auction’s success, when Mr. Peece, Jabeth, and Lizzie independently choose to reinvest their earnings into Simon’s next enterprise. This financial commitment symbolizes a deeper emotional and social contract, transforming a temporary alliance into a permanent establishment: “The Great Turkey Five Ranch” (196). The name itself codifies their new family structure, explicitly valuing each member as a founder. This contrasts sharply with Samson’s final, desperate attempt to claim ownership through force, an act that underscores the hollowness of his genetic claim to authority. By rejecting his father and embracing his partners, Simon completes the novel’s redefinition of family as a conscious act of creation and mutual support.

The final leg of the westward journey completes Simon’s transformation, fulfilling the thematic arc of The Journey as a Catalyst for Coming of Age. His development moves beyond business planning into the more complex realms of emotional maturity and leadership. The arrival of Lizzie forces Simon to confront his adolescent insecurities, particularly his fixation on their one-year age difference. Her exasperated question, “Just when are you going to allow me to function as a human being again?” (163), challenges his overprotective instincts and compels him to see her as an equal. Their subsequent kiss marks a significant rite of passage, signaling his entry into adult relationships.

Simon also continues to develop as a businessman. Professionally, his maturation is demonstrated through his orchestration of the Denver auction. The idea to use printed handbills reflects an understanding of marketing, while his calm resolve during the final confrontation with his father reveals a new self-possession. The climactic moment in which he produces the original bill of sale from his boot is the ultimate validation of his journey. This simple document, a testament to his diligence, becomes the symbol of his legitimacy, proving that his authority is earned legitimately, through integrity and planning. The novel concludes with a letter to Miss Rogers, a structural bookend that brings his journey full circle.

The novel consistently argues for practical, emotional, and social intelligence over formal education, Redefining Intelligence Beyond Book Smarts. The group’s collective victory is achieved through a diverse application of non-academic skills. Simon’s entire venture is a testament to his unique form of acumen: the ability to perceive value where others see foolishness and execute a complex plan without formal training. This is demonstrated in his marketing strategy for the auction, an intuitive grasp of publicity that turns the flock’s arrival into a major civic event. Mr. Peece’s role in the auction further illustrates this theme. His performance as auctioneer relies on charisma and rhetorical flair, skills honed through life experience. He expertly manipulates the crowd’s sentiments, claiming, “You set your teeth into one of these birds and you’ll be swallowing the entire westward movement!” (185). Lizzie, too, contributes vital, practical knowledge, from identifying peat for fuel to her intuitive understanding of human emotion. The revelation of Jabeth’s illiteracy serves as a crucial moment in this thematic exploration. His inability to read does not diminish his value; instead, it becomes an opportunity for the community to support him, with Lizzie immediately offering to teach him. This act reinforces the idea that literacy is not a metric of inherent worth. “Book smarts,” in other words, are a matter of opportunity—Jabeth cannot read because of his past history of enslavement, not because he is unintelligent but. Now that his circumstances have changed, he will learn to read, adding literacy to his already-established skills like hunting and sharp-shooting.

The narrative employs the symbolic power of the Western landscape to mirror the characters’ internal journeys. The discovery of Lizzie in a desolate sod dugout, surrounded by the graves of her family members, uses the starkness of the prairie to represent the extremity of loss and isolation. The subsequent grasshopper plague functions as a quasi-biblical trial, a force of nature that threatens to annihilate everything. The turkeys’ defeat of the swarm is a pivotal symbolic event; it elevates the birds from a commodity into agents of salvation, validating Simon’s enterprise as being in harmony with the natural world.

As the group moves westward, the first sight of the Rocky Mountains marks a significant psychological shift. The mountains, a classic symbol of the frontier’s promise, signal the imminent end of the journey and force the characters to contemplate their future in this new world they have journeyed so long to find. The final conflict unfolds not in the wilderness but in the urban space of Denver, where the threat is social rather than natural. The resolution comes not from violence but from a text: the bill of sale. This humble document, preserved through the entire journey, becomes the ultimate symbol of order and legitimacy, proving that in this new West, Simon’s brand of quiet competence can triumph over the brute force represented by his father.

While Simon’s growth is central, the development of the supporting characters is essential to the novel’s thematic coherence. Lizzie’s arc subverts the frontier trope of the helpless girl or woman. Though introduced in a state of trauma, she rapidly evolves into a resourceful and emotionally intelligent partner. Her practical contributions and her confrontation of Simon’s protective instincts establish her as an equal. Her journey from a passive victim to an active co-founder of the ranch illustrates the restorative power of community. Similarly, Mr. Peece’s redemption arc is completed in Denver. His performance as an auctioneer is the public culmination of his recovery. By reinvesting his earnings, he chooses a future of stability and belonging, cementing his transformation from a hired hand into a patriarch of the found family. Jabeth, having already achieved his freedom, solidifies his new identity in Denver. He stands as an armed defender of the flock, and his decision to invest his share—his first capital as a free man—into the ranch signifies his ultimate liberation. It is a choice to bind himself not to a so-called “master” but to a community of equals. The completed arcs of these characters reinforce the novel’s core message: that a collective, built on the diverse strengths of society’s outcasts, can forge a prosperous life.