Clanofcavebear Essay, Research Paper
Clan of the Cave Bear Chapter Summary’s Chapter 1: According to the map in the beginning of the book, this story takes place roughly 25- 30,000 yrs before the present time. The place that it takes place is in pre-historic Europe, during the ice age. The chapter begins with a small girl having fun in some water, after leaving her house. All of sudden, the ground begins shaking, which causes the river to shake as well. She cries out for her mother, but to no avail. The girl stands in awe as everything she ever knew was quickly swallowed by the earth. She was now alone, her mother dead, and her home destroyed. She slowly walked through the forest, stopping whenever tiny aftershocks would rumble through the dirt. She keeps running until nightfall. She attempts to hide the fear in the back of her head, but its of no use. The girl sits there, clinging herself, and wide-eyed looking at the darkness around her. As she awoke to her own sounds of screaming, she realizes how much she hungered and thirsted. She looks around to realize the many greens and other wild flowers around her. Unfortunately, she was not skilled in knowing how to tell between poison flowers, or healthy herbs. Water being the only thing able to quench both thirst and hunger, she presses on. Continuing, she finds a waterfall, and although the rumbling was close to deafening, she carries on, following the long stream to what she believed would be an escape of some sort. Seemingly, the idea of feeding her hunger with the constant support of water was not enough. The young girl began hallucinating of her mother. She runs after the mirage, but only to realize it is not really there. After her hallucination, she finds herself standing very close to a 6 foot Auroch, that momentarily is beaten to the ground by a huge lioness. The large hunting animal soon realized the girl standing there, and begins hunting her. She runs away and fits herself in a small hole, attempting to hide there for now. The girl stays cramped in the whole, with a new gash in her leg that the lioness gave her. The thirst that she is feeling is too overpowering for her and she leaves, only to realize the lioness left. She crawled out with the last drops of energy that had been left inside her tiny body, and made it to the water. Greedily, she swallows huge gulps of the water. Thinking that was enough, she attempts to stand, but falls. A carrion bird flies overhead her unmoving body. Chapter 2: The chapter opens with a band of travelers, 20 of them, walked near the waterfall. The band of travelers consisted of both men and women. They then go on describing what the travelers look like. Most of them had big brown eyes, a very defining brow, and their eyes are deeply set. It describes a pregnant woman also being one of the travelers. The pregnant woman see’s the small girl, and is shocked, thinking she is a wild animal with no fur to speak of. The woman grabs her necklace, invokes protection, and is very hesitant to step toward the child. It turns out the pregnant woman’s name is Iza, and she begins to argue with a man named Brun, who does not wish to help the child because she is “not clan.” They then describe the leader, Brun, who is a very large, muscular man, with a tatoo symbolizing the bison. The symbol is a “U” shape. Iza goes through a lot of self worries about if she should help the child or not. She figures she is a woman, although she is a healer too, it doesn’t matter. She then figures that if she does not help the child, the spirits may become angry, so she helps the child. An old man approaches Iza, he is slightly crippled and has trouble walking. He should have been leader of the clan, except because of his affliction, he was not allowed. It turns out his name is Creb. Then a lot goes on with arguing with whether to help the young girl or not, and Creb says that enough have died and the girl should be saved. Then a guy named Mog-Ur does a lot of thinking about the young girl. Creb hobbles over to bed. Chapter 3: The girl thrashes in her sleep, calling for her now dead mother. Iza holds the girl and calms her. Iza hears the young girl talking, and is in awe in how the language of the girl is so much more fluent than that of the clan. The medicine woman goes into a lot of wondering about how the girl came about, learned, or even survived out there. Iza uses willow bark to ease the young girls aches and pains. The girl awakens and is startled by the stranger holding her in her arms, and Iza is wondering if the girl is blind, for she has never seen blue eyes before. Iza feeds the girl some beef broth gruel or something, and the girl drinks it down greedily. The girl is easily frightened by all the commotion. The ugly men, the different women, it was all getting to be a bit much for her. Iza and Creb discuss how or why the cave lion did not kill the girl. They then continue traveling on. They find a cave, but it is not adequate for their needs. They then go on describing some of Iza’s knowledge, and how she came to become a medicine-woman and know so much about herbs and plant life. They then describe how you can taste a plant, and find out if it is poisonous or not. Iza and Creb decide the young girls name should be “Ayla.” Ayla is overjoyed to know that she finally has a name for her own. Creb does a lot of self thinking about Ayla becoming part of the clan, and how he must spend more time with her. Ayla’s leg seems to be improving in health. The clan continues traveling on. Mog-ur the magician, did not like the young girl traveling with them, as she was not one of the clan. Iza points to the distance and speaks the word “Cave.” Chapter 4: Brun becomes incredibly excited at this new cave. It is exactly what he was looking for. Brun and Grod readily grab their spears, and check to see that there is no human habitation, let alone animal habitation. It turns out un-inhabited and there is also a lot of vegetation growing nearby. But within the cave itself, there is an exact copy of the skull that Mog-ur carries with him. This means that the great bear Ursus had once lived in this cave. This cave is absolutely perfect for them. The cave was also very near to a river, filled with hundreds and hundreds of fish. Brun believes the spirits were testing him to find out how strong his leadership was, so he could lead the clan to the new cave. Brun also has a lot of doubts about the girl, for Iza believes she is her mother and Iza is pregnant, so she will soon have two children to worry and care for. But Creb believes that the child has a very powerful totem helping her. Creb wishes for Ayla, along with Iza’s baby, to be meditated on so he can learn there totems. Brun and Creb argue a lot on allowing Ayla to join the clan, for she is not clan! Creb then goes on to meditate. Creb meditates and what seems to be, he talks to Ursus. Ursus shows Creb that Ayla’s totem is the cave lion. Creb is in doubt about this because most women’s totems are not that strong, and if they are then it would that much more difficult for the male to impregnate her. Chapter 5: Chapter starts with Iza thinking how the vegetation around the new cave is very helpful towards her healing skills and abilities. Iza then goes on thinking about what type of child she is going to have, why she hasn’t had one, and when she will have one. Creb would beat Iza to try to break down the walls of her totem and allow him to impregnate her. Finally Iza becomes pregnant, and she goes on with her usual herbal usage. Iza then considers teaching the young girl how to do magic. The cave men realize that if they work together, they can take down larger prey. Brun and the gang then fight a bison. Broud is a young boy who they are teaching to hunt, and he makes the final kill against the bison. They bring home the bison with much happiness. Chapter 6: The cave men congratulate Brun on his son, Broud, on his great kill. They realize they all should try to gain more skills using multiple weapons such as a sling. Broud goes through a lot of thinking about the cave ceremonies, the ceremonies that he could go through to make him more of a man. Then after collecting wood for the fire, the cave members dine on the fine bison. They then go through a ritual in which they purify the land they are eating at. They then re-enact the great Bison Hunt. This was part of the ceremony for which he would become a higher member of the clan. Chapter 7: Description of the environment outside the cave, vegetation, fish in the river, etc. They then try to communicate with the magician, who only uses hand signals and movements to speak. They get the magician to teach the girl how to do the same thing, but to also use words. The clan gets angry at Ayla (the girl)’s actions to learn how to speak and communicate, by eavesdropping. Iza then goes into labor and has a child. Chapter 8: Iza’s baby turns out to be a girl. They then go through the description on how the after-tissue would be buried, and how if the baby was deformed then it would most likely be killed. Other than hunting, men would be also required to make wind barriers. These barriers are long lines of hides that catch the wind. Ayla starts to question her being just a girl, like why wasn’t she a woman yet, and would she be? They then say that she will become a “woman” when she reaches age 7 or so. Creb is surprised that Ayla understands the concepts of how old she is. Creb then teaches Ayla the concept of numbers. Iza gives great thanks for the many good things in her live, Ayla, the baby, her life, and the concepts thereof. Chapter 9: The Mog-ur look out to find the spirits that protect them, because they don’t seem to be doing a very good job of it. The Mog-ur goes through a lot of thinking whether of not the cave is the right one for them after all, for the spirits seem uneasy. So the clan consider leaving there cave. They than go through the story of why they are “The Clan Of The Cave Bear.” I’m sorry but I did not understand this one part of the book, it’s very confusing and I don’t really know how to summarize it. Chapter 10: The chapter starts out with Zoug working on something. He is cleaning and “fixing” a deer hide. He did not want to be interrupted, but he was, by Ayla asking him if he wants some water. Zoug is surprised at her thoughtfulness, and drinks. Zoug does not understand why Ayla is always pertained to as disrespectful by Broud. Soon enough, Zoug was done treating the hide and offered some of the non-used leather scraps to Ayla, in which she accepted. She uses the pieces for many different things, such as a sling. Ayla then finds a place to practice with her new found sling. She practices everyday. She becomes quite adept in learning the sling. Broud finds Ayla to be a threat to his masculinity, and he violently takes it out on her. Ayla is filled with much fear because of this incident. Brun yells at Broud and warns him that if he duplicates the violent act once more, he will be demoted and lose his ability to soon become clan leader. Broud is incredibly angered by this. Brun also disapproved of Ayla’s behavior, and warned her that being rebellious against a male is not looked well upon. Iza goes out and shows Ayla some more roots and herbs and increases Ayla’s knowledge of plant life. Ayla and Iza talk about how Broud treats her. Ayla says that she does everything Broud tells her to, but Iza says that she does not do it the way Broud wants her to. Ayla also wonders if Creb will ever love her again.
Chapter 11: They start out by saying that Ayla is much more dedicated and willing to Broud’s harmful ways. Everyone thinks this is because of tighter punishment and harsher treatment. Fearing Broud’s beatings, Ayla does everything he wants her to do. She even attempts to anticipate his needs or wants. Ayla later attempts to talk to her totem, the cave lion. She prays to the cave lion and thanks him for the sign that he gave. Her guilt is gone and she is happier now. She realizes that the cave lion may test her again, and she fears that. Chapter 12: The winter is ending, life is being more “lively.” Ayla gives thanks to her totem for the exciting winter. Ayla goes out and uses her sling, kills a wolverine. She then goes on thinking that the wolverine means nothing because she is a woman. Women are meant to be in the home and she will be severely punished for hunting. She now knows she’s not meant for hunting. Yet she continued to hunt. Next came a little red fox. She follows the fox until it leads to a lynx. She dodged the Linx’s attack. The Mog-ur and the men wonder what keeps killing all the animals, and they cant figure it out! Ayla changed, she was stronger than the other women, both physically and emotionally. And when Broud beat her, she made him feel inferior. Chapter 13: After many seasons, winter started anew. Very confusing here, don’t understand the season change. Droog wants to create tools out of the metal and stone found at the sea, and he needs some flint there too. All the clan, men and women, worked on fishing. Its one of the few things that the WHOLE clan does together. Una, Uba’s child, was swept out to sea and Ayla saved her life. Everyone lets Ayla eat caviar out of a female sturgeon first, in honor of her saving Una’s life. Droog then talks to Ayla about making tools for the great hunt against the mammoth. They first make a hand axe. Ayla is extremely excited to see and kill the mammoth. Chapter 14: They consider performing the mammoth hunt. They then begin on the journey to hunt the wild mammoth. The mammoth is a very large creature, sort of like an elephant, but much harrier. . They use techniques such as starting fires to excite and scare the mammoths. They figure that the spirits are on their side, and so they succeed in killing a mammoth. Then they talk about how the different parts of the mammoth are important. Such as the fat, muscle, and bone. The fat is used as grease, or they eat with other foods and it helps pack more fat onto their bodies for the winter. The muscle is cooked and then eaten. And they use the bones for making different tools and such. They dry out the skin and the meat. Ayla helps heal a boys wounded arm. Chapter 15: The hunting continues. Ayla feels great guilt because of the way Brun hates her, and treats her so harshly. Brug tests Ayla’s sling skill. The clan considers punishing Ayla for even starting to hunt, whether or not her totem gave her a sign. The reason for this is because she is a woman, and women are not allowed to hunt or even carry such weapons. Zoug considers that Ayla has gained great skill, and talks to Brun about how he should let her continue using her sling. Most of the clan members wish to not change the clan rules. If they do change now, who is to say that they will not change again in the future, causing disruption in their age-old traditions of women being less-powerful than their male counterparts. Chapter 16: According to tradition, Ayla must now be punished and taken away from her sling and all other weapons from now on. It is tradition for only males to hunt or carry weapons. According to some clan members, Ayla must die. They then decide she shall be “Cursed With Death” for one whole moon. The whole clan, even though they say they aren’t, are acting as if they do not even see Ayla. She is “dead” and “gone” in their eyes. Ayla goes through a lot of thinking about what death is, if she is so, and what she should do if she isn’t. Then after the moon is over, Ayla once again returns. She is stronger now that she has been alone. Chapter 17: All the clan members are shocked to see that Ayla is alive. Creb believes that Ayla is more grown up and mature now. The boy that had Ayla fix his arm is all better now. Ayla was much, much stronger against Broud’s mistreating ways, and as the daily routine became daily and routine again, she barely even took Broud’s yelling into consideration, so he stopped. Ayla is taken to a stone and put down on it. She does not know why, she has done no wrong, but the women tell her to be silent. They ask the spirits why Ayla is so powerful, why her totem is so protective. All the men believe Ayla should be allowed to hunt, except for Broud. He’s really, really mad! Chapter 18: Ayla is given the title “The Woman Who Hunts” during her tenth year, in the winter. Ayla realized it was unlikely she would ever have a child, her totem was too strong. Later on, Broud rapes Ayla. Ayla does not understand it, why does it hurt while all the time women want sex too. She does not understand what has happened to her so she runs away. Or at least she really wants to. Then it turns out that Ayla is pregnant! Her totem has been defeated. Iza talks to Ayla about using “Magical Abortion Herbs.” when Broud attempts to have sex with Ayla again, she remains still. Broud does not like it and leaves. Broud becomes more determined to be stronger than Ayla. Chapter 19: Ayla’s pregnancy shocked the whole clan, considering how strong her totem is. The Mog-ur say that Broud’s totem, the Roe Deer, had the help of the cave bear to overcome Ayla’s cave lion totem. Ayla goes into labor, and it seems that she has difficulties. Such as, she’s so young and her hips might be too small. She has a lot of trouble getting it out, but she manages to do so anyway. It turns out that the baby is deformed and must be killed. Ayla does not want the baby to die, so she leaves the cave with the baby to live on her own. Ayla finds another cave. Chapter 20: Some of the clan members decide that they might want to go out and find Ayla, despite the bad luck that it might be. They figure out that Ayla is hiding, but they have no idea where. The clan members attempt to find her, but then a sudden rain occurs, washing away all past tracks of Ayla’s journeys. Uba finds her, somehow. The search continues for Ayla. Her toughened body helps her recuperate and she is “ok” in the wild. She goes through a lot of thinking about why her totem would ever let the baby be deformed, considering that the spirits wanted the baby to be born, but why deformed? She then talks to her totem and she believes she must go back to the clan, even if it means the baby will die and she will be cursed again. Chapter 21: Ayla comes back to the clan. Ayla had taken the baby back before the naming day, which seems to be a problem. They think that they may have to kill the baby, mainly being that he has not been away from the clan for the 7 days before the naming day, and therefore they have no idea if it is a good baby or not. But it turns out that they let the baby live. The reason being because she loves the baby so much and may never be able to have one again. They then warn Ayla that she may never ever force a man to do anything or to even to speak to one in a forceful tone. Chapter 22: Ayla is very pleased that Durc is now able to hold his head up (Durc is her child). He may be able to live now. Iza wishes to have a totem ceremony for the child. Then they all go hunting (I must have missed something here!). They go search for the mother clan. Tye sees a giant cave bear standing there, and Iza remembers that at the mother clan they used to keep a small cave bear as a child in the cave, until it got very large. 200 people made up the mother clan. They were all coming running to greet this clan, but they all stopped abruptly when they saw Ayla. Ayla does a lot of self questioning again and wonders why her baby, out of all the babies made, was deformed. It also took a lot of convincing to make the other clan believe that Ayla was a clan member. Chapter 23: As more and more clans appeared, Ayla was scrutinized and was the only non-clan clan member, so to speak. She tried to keep a low-profile, but to no avail. But anyway, the clans had different competitions and tournaments to see which members had the most skill at different activities, such as spear hunting, running and sling using. Unfortunately, they did not allow Ayla to participate in the competition. Then they serve small biscuits, that are quite bland. They are the only meal that will be served until the great feast. Chapter 24: It seems that Ayla had saved some guys life, and Ursus the bear didn’t even touch her, meaning that the gods had accepted Ayla into the clan. A lot of controversy goes on about if Ayla should actually be accepted, considering she is one of the “Others.” They then go into description of the different foods and such that will be served at the great Clan feast. Ayla is nervous about the meeting to figure out if she should be a clan member, and she is not hungry. She is then put to a test in a cave, to survive it on her own. Chapter 25: Ayla wakes up scared, white, and is worried about a broken bowl that Iza had given her. Then some of the clan members go on discussing that Ayla has many skills, taught to her by Iza. Ayla cries that Creb does not love her, yet Creb does not understand why she cries. Creb is trying to understand and believe that Ayla is part of the clan, a real member. Even though she is not of the clan, she is a member. It turns out that Iza is dying in Ayla’s arms. With Iza’s last dying breath, she tells Ayla of the people of the north. The people that Ayla once belonged to. Chapter 26: Creb is looking for Iza’s things for some reason. Ayla is very protective over them, but goes to find them anyway. Ayla basically goes to the lake that Iza had shown her, and remembered how Iza had shown her all the herbs and medicines in the earth. Ayla had been mad at Creb for the fact that the tools of metal, steel, and wood that Creb had shown Ayla were not Iza’s tools. Ayla believes that the herbs and other earth laden objects were her tools. Ayla is going through a lot of pain, as most people would, over Iza’s death. It also turns out that Durc, Ayla’s baby, is not deformed. He is but a mixture of both Clan and non-clan. Chapter 27: It seems that Ayla is going to leave the clan. She tells Uba to go to the small cave where Ayla had hidden when Durc was born. Ayla and Uba go into a discussion about who should become Uba’s mate, and it turns out that Vorn will be it. Ayla then, after feeding him, takes Durc hunting. Ayla starts teaching Durc how to fight and hunt with the sling. They then find some wild berries and Durc eats them, and gets all sticky. Ayla considers leaving the clan, for she knows it may be a bit harder to live on her own with her son, but she is able to do it. Chapter 28: Ayla is slightly worried about the fact that Durc calls her mama, as the clan has a problem with unnecessary sounds. Ayla is still worried about Creb for some reason, mainly because he is really old and crippled. Ayla talks to Creb, and they talk about Durc. They say that Durc is the only hope and son for the clan, and they must make him strong. Ayla is very displeased that she may never be able to walk with Creb again, for fear that he is dying. Ayla decides to go to the north. Without Durc, which makes him very unpleased and scared. The last words Ayla hears are from her son, screaming “Mama.”