The Trumpet of the Swan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article refers to the children's novel. For the animated film, see The Trumpet of the Swan (film)
 Cover from the 1970 edition. |
|
| Author | E. B. White |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Fred Marcellino (original edition by Edward Frascino) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Children's novel |
| Publisher | Harper Trophy |
| Released | 1970 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-06-440867-1 (current paperback edition) |
The Trumpet of the Swan is a children's novel by E.B. White published in 1970. It tells the story of Louis, a Trumpeter Swan born without a voice and trying to overcome it by learning to play a trumpet, always trying to impress a beautiful pen named Serena.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
[edit] Early life
The novel starts with Sam Beaver, an 11 year old boy who, unlike other boys of his age, has a large interest in wildlife. While camping in Canada with his father he observes two Trumpeter Swans laying eggs on a small island on a lake. Sam is especially lucky, as Trumpeter Swans are rare birds not often seen in the wild. He walks back to his tent after his observation, like an Indian, hardly making a noise. But Sam does not tell his father what he had just seen; he likes keeping things to himself. During the rest of the novel, Sam has a small notebook to write what had been going on in his life, always ending with a question. That night's question is: I heard a fox bark today. Why does a fox bark? Is it because he is mad, or worried, or hungry, or because he is sending a message to another fox? Why does a fox bark?
The next chapter tells a back story, before Sam watched them lay their eggs. After a long and tiring flight, the swans rest on a small lake. In the springtime, the swans begin to build a nest on a small island, a place where there is no real threat from predators, or so they think.
The next morning, Sam watches the Trumpeter Swans, the old cob, who is pompous and talkative, but very caring, and his wife, who is undemanding. However, they start to notice Sam, and do not really trust him. Days and nights pass, but danger strikes; a fox is about to attack and kill the cob's wife. The cob cries out a warning to his mate when, out of nowhere, a stick is thrown and strikes the fox on the nose. The stick is thrown by Sam, and now that he had saved the pen's life, they now begin to trust him. Sam's question in his notebook entry that night is: A nest is almost as wonderful and mysterious as an egg. How does a bird know how to make a nest? Nobody ever taught her. How does a bird know how to build a nest?
[edit] Birth and Childhood
During the night, the cob's wife heard a small pipping and felt a small wriggle. The eggs were beginning to hatch, and the first cygnet in the nest begins its life. Meanwhile, Sam leaves a note for his father: I have gone for a walk. Will be back for lunch. This time, the swans do not mind Sam watching them, though they are attracted by his binoculars. The eggs continue to hatch. There is a total of five cygnets, and the cob makes a speech to his cygnets, welcoming them into the world. Soon, they begin their first swim, where the cob leads them over to Sam. The cygnets greet Sam by chirping. All, except one, who tries to chirp, but no sound comes out. All he can do to greet Sam is pull his shoelace. Sam's notebook entry question is: I wonder what I'm going to be when I grow up?
Soon, the cygnet's parents are concerned. His name is Louis, and because he has no voice, he can't communicate with other swans in the normal way of trumpeting. His parents praise him on his health, physicality and looks, but are more concerned about when he reaches adulthood, the age where he can find a suitable mate. To see if his son really does have a speech defect, the cob separates him from his mother, his brothers and sisters and swims over with him to a quiet spot. He encourages him to "beep" or "burble" but no sound comes out from Louis's bill. After the cob disappointingly calls him "dumb", Louis felt like crying, but his father reassures him that he is not dumb in intelligence, but dumb in that he can't speak. Louis feels better, but he is frightened of being different to every other swan on the lake. Fate is cruel to me, he thought. His father promises that he would find a way for his son to communicate.
When he was older, at juvenile age, summer was over, and that was the time to leave the lake and fly to Montana. The cob teaches his juveniles how to fly, and afterwards leave the lake. Sam is on another camping trip with his father, and he catches them migrating, running outside. He told his father there were Trumpeter Swans migrating to the Red Rock Lakes. Father believes him, but thought all trumpeters stayed there in all seasons, where they are protected. Sam remarks, Most of 'em do, but not all of 'em. His notebook question is How does a bird know how to get from where he is to where he wants to be?
[edit] Communicating to Humans
After migrating to the Red Rock Lakes, Louis reckons that he should learn to read and write. Without his parents watching, he flies over to the rest of Montana, searching for Sam at local schools and other places. He finally finds Sam splitting wood near a kitchen door, Louis glides down and pulls Sam's shoelace once more. Louis tries to trumpet, but no sound comes. Louis requests staying at Sam's ranch, but before he could Sam needed permission from his father and the local warden. His father contacts the warden by telephone, and his permission is granted from both. Louis stays overnight in one of Sam's unused stables.
Next morning, Sam rode his pony to school, with Louis flying by his side. Sam takes him to Mrs Hammerbotham, a short and fat first grade teacher. Mrs Hammerbotham rejects Louis at first, but after Sam convinces her to teach the juvenile swan, she teaches Louis for almost a year and a half. Afterwards, Sam buys a blackboard slate and chalk for Louis to communicate with. Louis returns to the Red Rock Lakes and tries to communicate with his parents, who have hatched more cygnets since Louis left them. He writes "Hi there!" on his slate, but because swans can't read, he felt he wasted that year and a half on trying to communicate in this way. But after a conversation he had with a grain man, he knew he could now talk to humans, and he knew it now had more of a purpose. He finds a new love interest, Serena, who is smaller than other pens, but more attractive. Louis tries to attract her, even writing "I love you" on his slate, but Serena pays no attention to him. Louis feels brokenhearted, and a Trumpeter Swan who can't trumpet was a bust as far as she was concerned.
[edit] The Trumpet
The cob now began to worry again, as his wife oversaw Louis trying to attract Serena. The cob now wanted to fulfil his promise to Louis by getting him a trumpet. He trumpets farewell to his wife, and flies to the nearest music store in Billings, Montana. He crashes into the store and grabs a brass trumpet with a cord. Safe in the air, he misses a gunshot, but the cob starts to regret stealing a trumpet from a music store. He flies back to the Red Rock Lakes and gives Louis the trumpet, telling him it was stolen. The first day Louis had the trumpet, he tried getting it to make a sound, holding it in many different positions before he made his first note on the trumpet. He wanted to show Serena his new ability, but she was migrating north to the Snake River. He also knew it was stolen, and did not know how to repay his father's honour. So he flew back to the Bar Nothing Ranch in the Sweet Grass country, where Sam lived. He found Sam grooming his pony, and told him about the stolen trumpet. Sam suggests that he gets a job to repay not only the trumpet, but the damage to the store. After hearing Louis play his first note on the trumpet, Sam suggests a job as camp bugler at a boy's camp Sam visits each summer. Sam buys a book of trumpet calls they used in the army, and Louis practises at the ranch.
[edit] Camp Kookooskoos
Three weeks later, Sam packs his things for Camp Kookooskoos. The question he writes in his notebook is: Why does a dog always stretch when he wakes up? Louis travels in Sam's father's convertible and canoed to Camp Kookooskoos. Louis is introduced to the boy campers and Mr Brickle, who runs the camp, gathering around a fire, and is a little embarrassed by this. After the boys rushed to their tents, Louis blew his first taps at the camp. For the next few days at the camp he played reveille to wake up the campers, mess call for lunch and taps for bedtime. He also participated in games and activities at the camp, including volleyball. During camp, he composed a song for Serena, "Oh, ever in the greening spring". While at the camp, he also carried out a daring rescue. Applegate Skinner, who was teased because of his name, disobeyed camp rules by canoeing at night unsupervised without passing his canoeing and swimming tests beforehand. He did not realise the dangers of this, falling off and almost drowning. While staff tried to save him, Louis dived and swam him to shore. While Applegate thanks the swan for saving his life, he does not change his opinion about birds, whom he does not like. Afterwards Louis was given a medal for his brave efforts. At the end of camp, he received one hundred dollars, the first money he ever earned. Because he had nothing to store his money, Mr Brickle gave him a waterproof money bag and hung this around his neck.
[edit] New Jobs
Louis needed another job, but before he could receive another, he asked Sam to get a sharp knife and slit his webs on the foot he played the trumpet with to enable him to press the three valves on his trumpet. The foot surgery works, and Sam suggests working for the man who runs the swan boat rides. However, Louis needed to stay behind at camp for his flight feathers to grow back fully. After his flight feathers grew back, he flew to Boston and found the boatman. He worked by swimming in front of the swan boats and playing songs on the trumpet with his recently surgeoned foot. He was then officially hired, and received a salary of one hundred dollars a week, every Saturday. That night, Louis planned to stay on the lake, but the boatman suggested staying at a hotel. The Boatman and Louis travelled to the Ritz Hotel, where he had privacy and protection. But the clerk did not want a swan in a fancy hotel such as this. But after he sees Louis sign an autograph to excited girls and hearing him play an old song, he eventually allows him in. Louis is happy in the hotel and writes a letter to his old friend, Sam, telling him how he felt at that moment.
He continues his job but receives a telegram from Philadelphia offering him to work in a nightclub, which had a higher salary than that of the boatman: five hundred dollars a week. He agrees and leaves his old job and Boston behind to work at the Philadelphia Zoo. He meets Abe "Lucky" Lucas, who works at the zoo and would pay for the cab that Louis would travel to the nightclub in. He also promised Louis wouldn't be pinioned, or have the tip of a wing clipped to prevent him flying again. Louis did not like his job; it was noisy and he had to stay up late to entertain his visitors. He collected his salary every Saturday, but paid 10% of it to Mr Lucas.
[edit] Love at Bird Lake
One windy night, a flying white object was pulled down from the sky into Bird Lake. It was a Trumpeter Swan, and it was Serena, the love of Louis's dreams, lying almost dead from exhaustion. Louis wanted to rush out and greet her, but he waited for her to recover. He did not go to his job that night because of the bad weather, staying awake a fair distance from her. Next morning, she awoke, still exhausted. The keeper who would usually look after the waterfowl was sick with the flu, so Serena was safe from being pinioned for now. Louis decided to go to his job, come back to Bird Lake and play his trumpet to her in the night sky. He did as he intended, and played a tune that woke up those who were nearby. Serena, this time, was attracted, and finally Louis's dream of love had come true. Little did they know a plan was going on.
[edit] Keeping Serena's Freedom
Next morning, Serena was no longer safe. The zookeepers spotted her and tried to capture the beautiful swan, but Louis came to the rescue and attacked the keepers trying to capture her. He wouldn't give up his Serena without a fight, and walked over to the Head Man's office requesting for her to stay free. The two kept verbally fighting until Louis asked him a favour. First to put off the operation until Christmas, and second to let Louis send a telegram to the Head Man. It was a deal, but the plan wasn't over. Louis urgently sent a telegram to Sam, then handed the telegram to the Head Man. One day after Christmas, Sam came to the Philadelphia Zoo, seeing the happy couple, and Sam told Louis there is always one in every family of cygnets that needs special care and protection, and if he can persuade the Head Man to let Serena stay free, Louis could donate one of his eggs to the zoo if the Head Man needs it. After five minutes of thought, Louis agreed, and played the tune he composed for his love, Serena, in joy. Sam fought for Serena's freedom at the Head Man's office and eventually won it, mentioning the deal he had with Louis on donating one of the eggs. Sam wrote a poem about the zoo and slept in the Head Man's office through special permission.
[edit] The Cob Redeems His Honour
Louis and Serena left the Philadelphia Zoo, and as Sam was to leave IAV AIRPLANEEE, both wanted to thank and say goodbye to him. They flew back to the Red Rock Lakes and both were welcomed. The old cob gave out a long speech, and to redeem his father's honour, Louis wrote an apology on the slate and handed it and the moneybag to the old cob, who flew on to Billings, the scene of his crime. As the old cob drew nearer to the store, the storekeeper grabbed his shotgun and shot the cob in the shoulder. The cob fell down from the sky, the slate and moneybag on his wing. After many disagreements with the local warden, the cob was taken to a hospital and treated. The case went on, and the cob, reviving, flew out of the hospital window and back to the Red Rock Lakes, telling the story of his trip.
[edit] A New Life
Louis and Serena flew back to the lake Louis grew up in, and wanted Serena to nest on the island Louis was born, however Serena had other plans. She instead nested on a muskrat lodge. Throughout the years, they nested, had their young and travelled back to many areas.
Many years later, and Sam is no longer a boy. He is 20 years old now, and still goes on camping trips with his father. He had asked what "crepuscular" meant while camping in Canada. As swans live to be very old, Sam heard Louis play taps to his children to let them know the day had ended. His last entry in his notebook was: Tonight I heard Louis's horn. My father heard it, too. The wind was right, and I could hear the notes of taps, just as darkness fell. There is nothing in all the world I like better than the trumpet of the swan. What does "crepuscular" mean?
[edit] Awards and nominations
In 1973, the book received the Sequoyah Book Award from Oklahoma and the William Allen White Award from Kansas. The school children in these states voted and decided this was their "favorite book" of the year.
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
An animated version of the book was made in 2001 by RichCrest Animation Studios and was released theatrically in the United States on limited release. It was not well received by critics. Many stated the animation was poor, that the charm of the original book was lost, the characters were dull, the casting did not match, the songs were unmemorable and that the character design was awful. But the most common criticism of the film version was that it did not follow the original story well. This disappointed many fans of the book. According to Rotten Tomatoes, it scored 13% rotten on the tomato-meter.
