41 pages • 1-hour read
The Great Turkey Walk
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Themes
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, death, child death, child abuse, bullying, racism, and addiction.
Redefining Intelligence Beyond Book Smarts
Kathleen Karr’s The Great Turkey Walk challenges conventional definitions of intelligence by prioritizing practical wisdom and emotional insight over academic achievement. The novel argues that true intelligence is measured not by formal schooling but by resourcefulness, integrity, and the courage to act on an unconventional vision. This idea is developed through its protagonist, Simon Green, whose journey demonstrates that ingenuity and character are more valuable than the “book smarts” prized by his peers.
Simon’s academic struggles stand in stark contrast to his remarkable business acumen and practical skills. After four years in the third grade, he is “graduated” from school, not for his intellect but because he is too old to remain. Yet this supposed failure is immediately undercut by his clever enterprise. He recognizes the market opportunity in Denver, calculates his potential profits, secures a loan from his teacher, and negotiates a shrewd deal for 1,000 turkeys. While his more traditionally clever cousins mock his scholastic record, they lack the foresight and ambition that drive Simon’s venture. His intelligence is not theoretical but applied.
Simon’s intelligence is not limited to coming up with grand schemes—he is also able to see his plans through by devising solutions to obstacles quickly and effectively. When Mr. Peece cannot figure out how to get the turkeys across the Gasconade River, and nearby people begin to show interest in killing the turkeys for food, Simon improvises a solution on the spot, figuring out how to get the turkeys to fly themselves across the river. When his father steals his flock, he does not accept defeat. Instead, he devises a plan to follow his father and Cleaver and retrieve the birds while the two men are sleeping.
Furthermore, Simon possesses an attentiveness and a deep emotional intelligence that allow him to understand the animals under his care and to see the inherent worth in individuals whom society has written off. Even though he, Peece, and Jabeth have spent approximately the same amount of time with the turkeys, it is only Simon who has been attentive enough to know how much each turkey drinks, for instance. He frequently comments on the flock’s mood and takes active measures to keep the birds calm and happy. He is similarly devoted to the four mules he has brought for the journey, and in return, they trust and obey him despite being generally obstinate toward other people.
Simon looks at Peece, a man dismissed by others because of his alcohol addiction, and sees a highly competent mule skinner. Simon perceptively offers Peece not just wages but a “working partnership” that restores his dignity. Similarly, he recognizes that Jabeth, a terrified freedom seeker, has a talent for providing for the group and appoints him their official provisioner. This ability to assess character and build a loyal team from a collection of outcasts is a form of intelligence far more crucial to his success than anything taught in a classroom. Through Simon’s ultimate triumph, Karr suggests that true worth is found in practical capability, empathy, and the resilience to see a difficult plan through to completion.
The Strengths of Found Family
In The Great Turkey Walk, family is defined not by blood ties but by chosen bonds of loyalty, mutual respect, and shared experience. Karr’s narrative posits that a found family, built on a foundation of trust, mutual support, and common purpose, can provide the nurturing and understanding that biological families sometimes fail to offer. This theme is explored through the contrast between Simon’s transactional birth family and the loyal, makeshift family he assembles on the trail to Denver.
The novel first establishes the shortcomings of Simon’s biological family. His relationship with his aunt, uncle, and cousins is marked by dismissal and exploitation. They view him as a burden and agree to give him a broken wagon and sell him some mules not out of kindness but only because it offers them a way “to be rid of [him] for good and final” (10). They mock his intelligence and show no interest in finding out what his proposed business venture is. Their primary concern is not his safety and happiness but whether he will follow through on paying them back for the mules and other supplies—the contract they make him sign is a clear symbol of the transactional nature of their relationship with him.
The shortcomings of Simon’s biological family are amplified by the return of his father, Samson, the ultimate symbol of failed kinship. Samson, who abandoned Simon years earlier, reappears not with love but with greed, intending to steal the profits of his son’s hard work. He is willing to physically and emotionally harm his own child in order to create financial security for himself—a security that he has no intention of sharing with Simon. His betrayal demonstrates that a blood connection alone guarantees neither loyalty nor love.
In contrast, the family that Simon forges on the trail is built on a foundation of mutual support and shared goals. They consistently show one another loyalty and respect and are deeply concerned with one another’s happiness. Simon offers Mr. Peece, an outcast, a partnership that restores his self-worth. In return, Peece offers Simon fatherly advice and genuine affection. Simon takes in Jabeth, despite the fact that, at this time, helping freedom seekers fleeing enslavement was a very serious crime. Simon provides Jabeth with safety and a valued role. In return, Jabeth provides food for the ersatz family and becomes Simon’s first real friend.
When Lizzie joins the group, the found family is symbolically complete—Peece is the father figure, and Simon, Jabeth, and Lizzie represent the daughter and two sons he lost so long ago to cholera. Their family bond is solidified by the obstacles they voluntarily face together, as when they repeatedly face the threat of Samson and demonstrate that their loyalty is stronger than Samson’s greed. The novel’s conclusion, in which the group decides to pool their earnings to establish “The Great Turkey Five Ranch” (196), cements this theme, transforming their journey into a shared future and affirming the tremendous strengths of families that are intentionally built.
The Journey as a Catalyst for Coming of Age
The Great Turkey Walk presents the physical journey to Denver as a powerful catalyst for its protagonist’s coming of age. The arduous trek tests Simon’s resilience and forces him to forge an identity independent of the dismissive labels imposed on him by his family and community. Through the challenges of the trail, the novel argues that true education and maturity are gained not through formal instruction but through real-world experience.
The journey begins as a direct response to Miss Rogers’s encouragement for Simon “to spread [his] wings” (5), a metaphor that guides his development from a passive boy into a decisive leader. Leaving the farm is his first significant act of agency, and the trail continually forces him to rely on his own judgment. He is no longer merely a boy who follows instructions but the proprietor of a complex enterprise who must solve logistical problems, manage his companions, and protect his flock. Whether he is creatively navigating a river crossing, negotiating bargains with the Pottawatomie, or coming up with a plan to retrieve his stolen turkeys, Simon’s confidence grows with each obstacle he overcomes. The road itself becomes his classroom, teaching him self-reliance and leadership in a way that school never could.
Simon’s maturation is most profoundly marked by his confrontations with his father, Samson, which compel him to define his own moral compass. Samson embodies a corrupt version of manhood rooted in deceit and selfishness. Simon’s refusal to be manipulated by his father’s false promises of partnership is a critical step in claiming his own identity. This culminates in the moment when he turns the tables on his captor, binding the man who abandoned him while declaring, “It’s only Simon, your simpleminded son” (88). In this act, he reclaims the insulting label and redefines it through his own strength and integrity. He offers his own definition of morality when he tells his father that a real man is characterized by “[b]rave actions and a gentle heart” (89). By the time he arrives in Denver, Simon has completed his transformation. The journey has stripped him of his boyhood insecurities and forged him into a capable young man whose worth is measured by his actions, not by the low expectations he left behind.
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