The person01–03
01·Who they are
Who is Olive?
Olive Hamilton is one of Samuel and Liza's daughters, identified as "my mother" by the narrator. She is described as "the most definite of any of the Hamiltons except her mother," combining Liza's physical features and willpower with Samuel's fine eyes and a strong sense of fun. She is intuitive rather than intellectual: "Her acts were based on feelings rather than thoughts." Her theology is a personal blend of Irish fairy belief and an Old Testament God she eventually conflates with her own father.
02·Arc & motivation
What is Olive's arc and motivation?
Olive's arc moves from a determined escape from rural life toward a respectable town life. She leaves home at fifteen, goes to secondary school in Salinas, takes county board examinations at seventeen, and is teaching school at Peach Tree by eighteen. Her time in Salinas shows her what she wants: choir, opera, parties, and the social life of a proper town. She accepts a suitor in secret — to avoid trouble among local young men — and marries him, eventually settling in Salinas. Her driving motivation is a refusal to become a ranch wife and a fierce protectiveness of her family's dignity, expressed most sharply in her hatred of debt and her wartime bond-selling campaign.
03·Key moments
What are Olive's key moments?
In Part Two, Chapter 14 the narrator details Olive's teaching career at Peach Tree: she teaches all subjects to all ages, practices "rudimentary medicine," sews up knife cuts, sucks snake venom from a pupil's toe, and runs the entire social life of the district. The passage establishes her as a woman of formidable practical capability.
Also in Part Two, Chapter 14, Olive's First World War campaign is the novel's most extended portrait of her character. She sells Liberty bonds "by the bale," earns commendations from the Treasury Secretary, and wins a prize airplane ride. Believing the word "stunt" to be "stuck," she concludes she is about to die, makes her will, burns her husband's love letters, buys new underwear, and hands her engagement ring to her daughter Mary before take-off. Throughout the pilot's aerobatics she smiles and nods encouragement, thinking she is helping a frightened young man face death. She is carried home rigid and takes two days to recover.
In Part Three, Chapter 23, Olive is present at the Thanksgiving gathering where the Hamilton siblings confront Samuel's aging. Her husband Ernest speaks briefly, offering to have Samuel and Liza come and live with them. Shortly after, Tom brings Olive's letter — an invitation to visit Salinas, complete with pre-purchased Chautauqua tickets — which Samuel reads twice and then carries up the hill alone. The letter is the mechanism by which the family's plan to ease Samuel into his final years is put into motion.
The cast04–05
04·Relationships
What are Olive's most important relationships?
Olive's relationship with Samuel is one of loving inheritance and practical care. She has his eyes but not his intellectual enthusiasms; it is Tom who delivers her letter and watches its effect on Samuel, understanding its weight in a way the other siblings may not. Her relationship with Liza is one of deep imprinting: the narrator says Liza "stamped her children," and Olive's will, her chin, her terror of debt, and her iron domestic standards all trace back to her mother. Her bond with Tom is indirect but significant: Tom is the one who delivers her letter and watches its effect on Samuel.
05·Connected characters
How is Olive connected to the other characters?
Study06–07
06·Questions
Questions readers ask about Olive
Why did Olive become a schoolteacher?
Olive was preparing to take county examinations, and teaching was regarded as an honour comparable to having a priest in the family in Ireland. Olive left home at fifteen for secondary school in Salinas, passed her board examinations at seventeen, and was teaching at Peach Tree by eighteen.
Why did Olive agree to marry and leave teaching?
Her time in Salinas had shown her a more refined way of life — church choirs, operas, parties — and she was determined not to become a ranch wife. When a young man who had built the flour mill in King City "sued properly for her hand" she accepted him, keeping the engagement secret to avoid trouble among local suitors.
What did Olive do during the First World War?
After the death of her neighbour Martin Hopps, Olive declared personal war on Germany and threw herself into selling Liberty bonds with such ferocity that she earned letters of commendation from the Secretary of the Treasury and ultimately a prize ride in an army airplane.
What happened during Olive's airplane ride?
Mishearing the pilot's word "stunt" as "stuck," Olive believed the plane had failed and that she was about to die. She made her will, burned her husband's love letters, bought new underwear, and handed her engagement ring to her daughter before take-off. Throughout the pilot's loops and rolls she smiled and nodded to encourage him, thinking she was steadying a frightened young man; she was carried home rigid and stayed in bed for two days.
What was Olive's attitude toward debt?
Debt was "an ugly word and an ugly concept" to Olive, carrying connotations of dirt and dishonour. She planted so deep a terror of debt in her children that the narrator confesses to becoming restless even when a bill is two days overdue, and she refused the time-payment plan entirely, saving for everything she wanted.
What role does Olive play in Samuel Hamilton's departure from the ranch?
Olive writes the letter — delivered by Tom — inviting Samuel and Liza to visit her in Salinas, enclosing pre-purchased train tickets and Chautauqua season tickets so that they have no escape. The letter is the instrument through which the Hamilton siblings' Thanksgiving plan to ease Samuel away from the exhausting ranch is carried out.
07·Essay angles
Use this in your essay
Tool · Essay angles