The Plains of Passage
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| Author | Jean M. Auel |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Earth's Children |
| Genre(s) | Historical novel |
| Publisher | Crown Press |
| Released | September 24, 1990 |
| Pages | 760 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0517580497 |
| Preceded by | The Mammoth Hunters |
| Followed by | The Shelters of Stone |
The Plains of Passage is an historical fiction novel by Jean M. Auel published in 1990. It is the sequel to The Mammoth Hunters and fourth in the Earth's Children series.
[edit] Plot summary
The Plains of Passage follows the journey of Ayla and Jondalar west along the Great Mother River, from the home of The Mammoth Hunters (roughly modern Ukraine) to Jondalar's homeland (close to Les Eyzies, Dordogne, France). During this journey, Ayla meets the various peoples who live along their line of march. These meetings, the attitudes and beliefs of these groups, and Ayla's response form an essential part of the story.
Auel's imagination seems to have few limits; characters range in description from innocent to bloodthirsty, from serious to comical, from noble to corrupt, from found to lost, and from peaceful to violent. All of these adjectives apply, interestingly, in some way to either Jondalar or Ayla. Unusually, Ayla (and to some extent Jondalar) is often viewed by her new friends as mystic or supernatural, partially due to her friendships with the world's first known domesticated horses and wolf, but also due to her generous nature and wisdom.
At first they encounter people Jondalar and his brother met on their journey eastward, and have a hard time leaving them, especially after an offer to become joined with a high ranking Sharamudoi. But Jondalar has a higher purpose, he needs to have the spiritual leader of the Zelandonii help his deceased brother find the way to the spirit land. Only in having a greater purpose can Jondalar decline the offer without offense, and they continue westward.
Meeting various people and traversing the geographically diverse landscape is what entails the entire story, hence the name of the book.
The story, like all its series, is graphically sexual.The purpose of mating is discussed by Ayla and several woman throughout their travels, and as Ayla has found enough herbal contraceptives on the journey, she does not become pregnant until the very end, not having the supplies to make a large enough fire to brew the tea on the glacier. Although the people they encounter assume that the Mother of All, their name for the creator and maker of all, mixes the spirits of a man and a woman then puts the baby in the woman, Ayla questions this presumption often, partly because of the existence of her son, Durc, who was conceived in his mother's eleventh year during a rape by the Neanderthal chieftain's son. Ayla, with her inquisitive patterns of thought, does not blindly accept anything, and is thoroughly convinced that the so-called "sharing of Pleasure" is in fact the method whereby the "essences" combine.
The Plains of Passage is one of the longer books in the Earth's Children series. It was followed by The Shelters of Stone.
