A Lion to Guard Us

“‘There is a land called America,’ said Amanda, ‘Some call it the New World. It’s across the sea, and it’s a beautiful land with rivers and trees and birds. Indians live there, and they wear feathers and shoot bows and arrows.’”

For the children, the “New World” is both a real place where they know their father is and an imaginary idyllic place where there is the promise of a better life than the one they have in London. Amanda describes America in almost fairytale terms as a land where their family could have a happy ending.

“‘There was a door knocker on the house where we used to live. Before Father went away, he took it off and gave it to us.’ ‘He gave it to me,’ said Jemmy. ‘He gave it to all of us. It was a lion’s head. He said it was a lion to guard us while he was gone.’”

The lion’s head door knocker is the symbol of the united family, and the children associate it with their father’s protection and the better life he has promised to provide them in America. It is the lion who guards them in the book’s title. Jemmy’s insistence that their father gave it to him foreshadows his role in retrieving it later in the book.

“Ellie said, ‘Don’t be putting blame on yourself. Life is hard for you now. When you lose someone it’s like—like having to find your way again.’”

Amanda, Jemmy, and Meg experience losses throughout the novel. Amanda must transition from big sister to mother for her two younger siblings. and she has to keep adapting to the situations life throws at her. At this point in the novel, she doesn’t feel confident as their caretaker, represented by her pause and repetition of “like” here. As the book progresses, she grows into her leadership role.

“Even if he did want you, you’d be a fool to go. Virginia is a terrible place, full of wild Indians and wild beasts. All those tales about the New World and how wonderful it is—they’re lies, all lies!”

Mistress Trippett voices stereotypes about the “New World,” comparing Indigenous Americans to animals through repetition of the word “wild.” From the perspective of an upper-class Londoner like her, the “New World” is a place to be feared. She is comfortable with the existing social system where she has power and the children are her servants, receiving room and board but no pay. For the children’s parents, who are working-class laborers, the “New World” represents a new social order where they could have a home and vocations rather than being servants. Like many of Bulla’s novels, this one has an American patriotic lens, and quotes like this draw on ideas of America as the land of opportunity.

“Meg was too quiet, too good. All her life she’d been pushed away into corners. Sit there, Meg. Don’t move, Meg. She’d never played like other children. She didn’t know how.”

Meg has been poor all her life, and the responsibility she has had to take on has snuffed out her childhood. Her feelings are conveyed through repetition here, first of “too” to describe the ways she was forced to be. Likewise, she remembers the orders she was given, the control others had over her reinforced by the repetition of her name, “Meg.”

“Amanda thought of what Father had said. ‘A lion to guard you…’”

The lion doorknocker gains importance to the children after their mother’s death. Jemmy keeps it as a good luck token that he manages to sneak out when they run from Mistress Trippet’s house. Dr. Crider taking them in and his desire to help them get to Jamestown is interpreted in light of the lion keeping them together and trying to reunite the family.

“‘Sometimes it’s sad to say goodbye,’ said Amanda. ‘I’m glad to be going,’ said Jemmy. ‘Aren’t you glad?’ She was looking out to sea at the clouds and mist that hid the sky. He pulled at her sleeve. ‘Aren’t you glad, Amanda?’ ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I’m glad.’”

Although Amanda has planned to reunite with her father in the “New World,” leaving behind the only world she’s ever known is difficult. Amanda, as the oldest sibling, is responsible for her brother and sister, so she doesn’t always express her feelings as a child might. It’s unclear exactly how Amanda feels about this voyage, whether she’s excited, nervous, etc. She hides her deepest feelings, represented in Jemmy repeating his question to her.

“‘You must have been a servant,’ said Anne. ‘I was,’ said Amanda, ‘but I won’t be a servant in the New World.’”

Amanda here articulates her hope for the “New World.” English colonists saw creating new settlements as a chance for social advancement that would not have been available to them in England. Again, this quote conveys patriotic ideas about opportunity in America—Amanda feels she can change her circumstances there.

“He was gone, and Mother was gone, and she wanted to go away by herself and cry. But where could she go to be alone? Fear came over her. Mother had died, Dr. Crider had left them. How could she be sure that Father was waiting in the New World?”

Amanda is transitioning from child to adult and experiencing loss after loss. After her mother’s death, she took on the responsibility of raising her siblings. When Dr. Crider took them in, he was able to care for them, but now, Amanda is once again faced with taking on the role of caretaker. In this coming-of-age journey, Amanda doesn’t have the option of going backward and becoming a child again; the only way forward is growing up. Her hypothetical questions emphasize this huge undertaking and her fear.

“‘They thought their ball was so good. I said my lion’s head was better because it was gold.’ ‘And now people think it is gold. Don’t you see? They’ll try to take it away from you.’”

Jemmy, because he’s younger than Amanda, still acts like a child. He’s jealous of Anne and David’s ball, and he brags about his door knocker to them, not realizing the consequences of his actions. The social dynamics on the ship are highlighted here in that Jemmy’s “golden” door knocker is now coveted by everyone in the hold.

“The Sea Adventure rose and fell. There was a grinding, splintering crash, as if she were breaking into a thousand pieces.”

A Lion to Guard Us is a historical fiction novel, meaning that certain parts of the narrative are based on historical events. The Sea Venture, called the Sea Adventure throughout the novel, was an English ship that crashed in Bermuda on its way to Virginia in July 1609. Bulla uses sensory imagery to bring this shipwreck to life, describing the sounds of the crash.

“‘We all look funny,’ said Jemmy, but no one laughed. They couldn’t laugh yet, thought Amanda. They felt beaten and tired. The sound of the storm was still in their ears.”

The children exhibit resilience once they have been shipwrecked. Amanda helps clean the fish that the ship cook prepares for the passengers and crew. The children acknowledge that their clothes have shrunk, and in any other situation, this would be funny. However, they are still in shock and focusing on their survival, and they can’t laugh at their new reality.

“‘Look at me!’ she shouted. ‘I’m a bird!’ She jumped, with her long hair flying. Amanda looked in wonder. Meg was playing. Here on the island, in the clear, bright air, she learned to play!”

Meg has a transformation in her character. Both in London and on the ship, Meg had to follow the rules and be quiet and productive. On the island, Meg is free to be a child. The same societal rules do not apply, and she is not reprimanded for casting off her constrictive clothing and playing barefoot in her petticoat.

“Some of the men said they were tired of building ships. Why should they go to Virginia, they said, when they had a good life here?”

There is disagreement among the men about what they want from the “New World.” Many are happy with their lives in Bermuda because they have resources, land, and homes, but others, like Admiral Somers, want to continue on to Virginia and complete their mission to bring supplies to the colony.

“‘I saw him go into your house while you were gone,’ said Anne, ‘and you never saw the lion’s head after that.’”

The children never suspected Master Waters had taken the lion’s head. They assumed Jemmy misplaced it, but now that Master Waters has moved to the other side of the island, Anne feels safe to share what she saw. Although the children have become more independent in many ways, they are still very trusting and hadn’t considered that the door knocker might have been stolen.

“‘What if Jemmy doesn’t come back?’ asked Meg. ‘Then we’ll stay here till we find him.’ ‘But the ships are going tomorrow.’ ‘They will go without us.’”

The Freebold children have endured multiple losses and tragedies and are determined to stay together no matter what. When Meg and Amanda can’t find Jemmy, they know that if they still haven’t found him when the ships sail, they will stay and lose their opportunity to go to Virginia because they cannot accept the possibility of leaving him in Bermuda. Here, the lion’s head door knocker symbolizes their family bond; staying together is more important than any other opportunity.

“‘Jemmy?’ It was Jemmy. She could see him against the darkness. ‘Amanda, I got it,’ he said. ‘What?’ she asked. ‘The knock-knock,’ he said.”

The lion’s head door knocker symbolizes the Freebold family being together. When Jemmy learned that Master Waters took it, decided to get it back before they left for Virginia. Amanda’s determination to light a candle and stand at the entrance of their home and wait for Jemmy reflects the children’s fierce desire to stay together.

“‘Why didn’t you tell us where you were going?’ asked Amanda. ‘I didn’t know it would take so long,’ he said. ‘You made us all worry, Jemmy.’ Yet she was proud of him. Whatever he did, it seemed she was proud of him.”

Jemmy begins to act less childishly and more independently before they leave Bermuda for Virginia. He made a plan to retrieve the door knocker but didn’t involve his sisters, determined to protect them. Amanda is proud that he is becoming more independent and taking initiative.

“They stopped at Point Comfort. Two other ships were there. Captain Newport and Admiral Somers began to point and talk together in great excitement. The ships they saw were two that had sailed with the Sea Adventure!”

The shipwrecked passengers from the Sea Adventure built two ships in Bermuda. When they reach Point Comfort, they discover that not all of the ships traveling with them were destroyed; the Sea Adventure was the only one that didn’t arrive in Virginia. The crew arriving at Point Comfort is considered a miracle since the other ships believed that it was lost. The shipwreck was another trial the Freebold children had to endure on their way to reunite with their father.

“‘What of Jamestown?’ Asked Captain Newport. The Englishman shook his head. ‘Ah, there’s a sad tale.’ Amanda was listening. She drew near.”

The Freebold children endure one last hardship on their journey. After surviving a shipwreck and making their way to North America, Amanda now finds out that things in Jamestown are not well, confirming her earlier fears that her father won’t be in Jamestown and the family cannot be reunited.

“‘There was war between the English and the Indians,’ the man said. ‘Our people were ill and starving. It was a terrible winter. Once five hundred of us lived in Jamestown. Now only a handful are left. Some went away into the woods. Some are dead. We hear that more ships are on the way from England. I pray they will come in time to save our poor colony.’”

The promise of the “New World” is that people who don’t have much in England can have land and resources. The passengers of the Sea Adventure experience this to some extent in Bermuda, but they find that Virginia is different since there is disease, lack of food, and conflict with the Indigenous peoples. The reality of Virginia is very different from the ideal land of opportunity that the children’s parents believed it would be. The dialogue here is Bulla’s way of injecting American history into the narrative, providing a more nuanced glimpse of life in the U.S. colonies than earlier passages.

“She pushed open the door of a house and drew back. A man was there. He lay on the floor. His clothes were in rags, and he was so thin the bones on his face stood out. He was changed. He was so terribly changed, yet she knew him.”

When the children finally reunite with their father, Amanda’s fears are confirmed. He is in dire poverty and barely alive. The promise of the “New World” has not made his life better, though Amanda still recognizes the spark that makes him her father. While his situation is bleak, it is not hopeless.

“Jemmy came closer. He had taken the lion’s head out of his pocket. He was holding it up for Father to see. And Father saw it! He was looking—first at the lion’s head, then at their faces. He spoke their names. ‘Amanda. Jemmy. Meg.’”

Initially, their father is too weak and delirious to recognize them, but he remembers the lion’s head door knocker and then remembers them. The door knocker symbolizes the life they once had together, and now the family is reunited again around the door knocker.