Book Review: My Side Of The Mountain

Book Review: My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

My Side of the Mountain is a fictional novel about a boy who has a desire to run away. Well, more than that. A desire to return to the wild, to live off the land, and to be free. The protagonist, Sam Gribley, is well versed in edible plants and the wild animals of New York. Living in New York City with his large family, he learns of “the Gribley farm”, a farm in the Catskills which his great-grandfather abandoned to run off to sea. To quote Sam's father, “That land is still in the family's name. Somewhere in the Catskills is an old beech with the name Gribley carved on it. It marks the northern boundary of Gribley's folly–– the land is no place for a Gribley.”

Sam decides to leave the city. He takes only a penknife, a ball of cord, an axe, some flint and steel, and forty dollars, plus the clothes on his back. He then hitches rides into the Catskills, stopping along the way to camp in a stand of conifers. At first he is miserable–– he can't get a fire going, to keep him warm and cook the fish he caught–– but with the help of a stranger named “Bill”, he learns how to use the flint and steel, and spends the night at his house. He then hitches rides to Delhi, NY, the village nearest to the Gribley farm. With the help of a friendly librarian, he finds the farm, which is now just a pile of crumbling stones. He then finds a grove of majestic, enormous hemlocks, and burns out the interior of one, to make a cozy little home.

Over the course of the summer and fall, Sam gets more settled into life in the Catskills. He trains a falcon, who he names Frightful, to hunt for him, makes a bed with ash slats, and sets numerous traps for game. He also runs into a man, who he nicknames “Bando”. He nicknames him that because he found him snoozing by his camp site after he hears a squad car's sirens. I think Bando is a shortened form of bandit. However, the man is just a lost English professor, and he spends ten days at Sam's tree. Sam stores up for winter. He also hides some felled deer from hunters, so he can make a deerskin door and suit. When winter comes he is ready, and he spends most of his time in his tree with Frightful. Bando comes for Christmas, and so does Sam's father.

When spring arrives, a reporter boy who is Sam's age arrives in the mountain, looking for a “wild boy”. When the reporter finds Sam out, he tells Sam that if he can spend spring break with him, he won't tell anyone about Sam. However, it turns out he does tell some photographers and reporters, and they snap some pictures of Sam. During this time, Sam has felt an urge to be with other humans. But at this point, his entire family arrives and the story ends with Sam's dad getting ready to build a real house near his hemlock, which Sam protests.

I think that, though the author never writes it, there is a moral to this story. You can't just be immune to the instincts of mankind. Sam eventually realizes that he needs other humans. He civilizes the wild. He takes in guests like Bando and the boy reporter. And finally, his family comes to him. Sam knows he can't just send them away. To quote the final lines of the book, “I was about to protest in a loud strong voice when Mother's arm slipped around my shoulder. 'That's how it is until you are eighteen, Sam,' she said. And that ended it.”