The Trumpet of the Swan

Summary

On a camping trip in the Canadian woods, eleven-year-old Sam Beaver, a Montana rancher's son who loves wild things and keeps a journal that ends each night with a question, discovers a pair of trumpeter swans nesting on a hidden pond. He keeps their secret, and when a fox creeps up on the sitting pen he drives it off with a stick. Five cygnets hatch, and Sam watches them; but one, named Louis, cannot make any sound at all. His father, the cob, a grand and long-winded bird given to elaborate speeches, and his sensible mother, the pen, take the family south for the winter to the Red Rock Lakes in Montana, where Louis grows strong but remains voiceless and cannot say the swans' ko-hoh. A trumpeter that cannot trumpet cannot court a mate, and Louis falls in love with a beautiful young swan, Serena, who ignores him. Louis decides to learn to read and write. He finds Sam, goes to school with him in Mrs. Hammerbotham's class, learns to write words on a slate, and wears the slate and a chalk pencil around his neck. But Serena cannot read. The cob then flies to Billings, crashes through the window of a music store, and seizes a brass trumpet for his son, and the storekeeper's shot wounds him in the shoulder. Louis now owns a voice, and a debt of honor. He teaches himself to play; with Sam's help he takes a summer job as camp bugler at Camp Kookooskoos in Ontario, has a web of one foot slit so he can work the trumpet's three valves, and wins a medal for saving a boy, Applegate Skinner, from drowning. Next he plays for the Swan Boats in the Boston Public Garden, spending a night at the Ritz hotel, and then takes a well-paid engagement at a Philadelphia nightclub, where he lives on the lake at the zoo. A storm drives Serena onto the zoo lake, and Louis's trumpet at last wins her. When the zoo wants to keep them, Sam travels east and arranges their freedom in exchange for any cygnets the zoo may need in the future. Louis gives his earnings to his father, who flies back to Billings and repays the storekeeper. In the last chapter, years later, Louis and Serena return to the pond where he was hatched, and Sam, now older, hears Louis's trumpet across the water at evening. Harper & Row published the book in 1970 with drawings by Edward Frascino; it was a finalist for the 1971 National Book Award for children's books.

Plot or Argument

• Chapters 1–4: Sam, The Pond, A Visitor, The Cygnets

  Sam finds the swans' nest in Canada, keeps it secret, saves the pen from a fox, and watches the five cygnets hatch.

• Chapters 5–6: Louis and Off to Montana

  Louis is discovered to be mute; the family migrates to the Red Rock Lakes, where Louis's silence becomes a real handicap.

• Chapters 7–8: School Days and Love

  Louis finds Sam, attends school, learns to write on a slate, and falls in love with Serena, who cannot read his messages.

• Chapters 9–10: The Trumpet and Money Trouble

  The cob steals a trumpet from a Billings music store and is shot; Louis learns to play and resolves to earn money to pay for it.

• Chapters 11–13: Camp Kookooskoos, A Rescue, End of Summer

  Louis serves as camp bugler, has his foot web slit to play the valves, rescues Applegate Skinner, and is paid for the summer.

• Chapters 14–16: Boston, A Night at the Ritz, Philadelphia

  Louis plays for the Swan Boats in the Public Garden, stays at the Ritz, and moves on to a nightclub engagement in Philadelphia, living at the zoo.

• Chapters 17–18: Serena and Freedom

  A storm brings Serena to the zoo lake; Louis wins her with his music, and Sam negotiates the pair's release from the zoo.

• Chapters 19–21: A Talk About Money, Billings, The Greening Spring

  Louis hands his earnings to the cob, who repays the music store; years pass, and Louis and Serena return each spring to the Canadian pond, where Sam hears him play.

Characters

• Louis, protagonist

  A trumpeter swan born without a voice, who learns to write, plays a trumpet, and earns the money to pay his father's debt.

• Sam Beaver, Louis's human friend

  A quiet, observant Montana boy who protects the swans, takes Louis to school and to camp, and secures his freedom.

• The cob, Louis's father

  A stately, wordy swan who steals the trumpet for his son and later insists on repaying it.

• The pen, Louis's mother

  A practical, plain-spoken swan who takes her son's handicap calmly.

• Serena, Louis's love

  A beautiful young trumpeter who ignores the silent Louis but is won by his music.

• Mrs. Hammerbotham, schoolteacher

  Sam's teacher, who accepts a swan into her class and teaches him to write.

• Applegate Skinner, camper

  A boy at Camp Kookooskoos who dislikes birds and is saved from drowning by Louis.

• Mr. Beaver, Sam's father

  A Montana rancher who takes Sam camping in Canada.

Lessons

• Turning a weakness into a gift

  Louis cannot make the one sound every trumpeter swan makes. Instead of giving up, he learns to write and then to play music, and the trumpet becomes something more beautiful than an ordinary swan's voice. White shows that hard work can turn a lack into a calling.

  • What problems does Louis have because he has no voice?
  • Why isn't the slate enough to win Serena?
  • What does Louis have to practice, and give up, to play the trumpet well?

• Paying what you owe

  The cob takes the trumpet for love of his son, but it is still a theft, and both father and son know it. Louis works at camp, in Boston and in Philadelphia until he has enough to repay the storekeeper and the broken window.

  • Was the cob right or wrong to take the trumpet? Can it be both?
  • Why does Louis feel the debt is his to pay?
  • How does the cob feel when he finally pays the storekeeper?

• A friend who keeps secrets and keeps faith

  Sam keeps the swans' nest secret, drives off the fox, takes Louis to school, and travels east to speak for him at the zoo. White draws a friendship in which a boy respects wild creatures and helps them stay free.

  • Why does Sam not tell anyone about the swans at first?
  • How does Sam help Louis at each stage of the story?
  • What deal does Sam make with the zoo, and why is it fair?

Context

The trumpeter swan, North America's largest waterfowl, had been reduced to a few dozen birds in the lower United States by the 1930s, and Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Montana, where Louis's family winters, was established in 1935 largely to protect them. White wrote the book as the species was recovering and set it among real places: Montana ranch country, the Billings music store, an Ontario summer camp, the Swan Boats of the Boston Public Garden, and the Philadelphia Zoo.

Composition

White wrote the book in the late 1960s, when he was nearly seventy, and Harper & Row published it in 1970 with drawings by Edward Frascino. It was his first children's book in eighteen years, after Charlotte's Web (1952). A later edition (2000) was illustrated by Fred Marcellino. White recorded an audiobook reading of the novel.

Reception

The book was a finalist for the 1971 National Book Award for children's books, the same year White received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for his books for children. It has remained in print alongside Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web, and an animated film adaptation appeared in 2001.

Comparisons

• charlottes-web

  In both White books a creature uses written words to change its fate, Charlotte's web messages for Wilbur and Louis's slate; but Louis must finally find a voice of his own in music.

• stuart-little

  Stuart and Louis are both creatures with a handicap of nature who leave home and make their way through human cities, boats and hotels by courage and skill.

• the-cricket-in-times-square

  Chester the cricket and Louis are animal musicians who become public performers in a big Eastern city before choosing to go back to the countryside.

• make-way-for-ducklings

  McCloskey's ducklings and White's swan both make their home in the Boston Public Garden, where the Swan Boats glide on the lagoon.

• my-side-of-the-mountain

  Sam Beaver and Sam Gribley are both boys who watch wild birds closely and love the wilderness; one keeps a journal of questions, the other a journal of how he lives.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• Sam's journal entries, which end with a question each night. What does Sam wonder about?
• How Louis tries to make up for having no voice, first with the slate and chalk, then with the trumpet.
• The cob's long, grand speeches, and how his wife answers them.
• Every time money is mentioned after the trumpet is taken, and how Louis keeps track of what he owes.
• The places Louis plays, from Camp Kookooskoos to the Swan Boats in Boston to Philadelphia, and what each job asks of him.

Key terms and names

Trumpeter swan

A large wild swan of North America, named for its loud, horn-like call. Louis is a trumpeter who cannot trumpet.

Cob and pen

The words for a male swan and a female swan. Louis's parents are called the cob and the pen through the whole book.

Cygnet

A baby swan. Louis is one of five cygnets hatched on the Canadian pond in the opening chapters.

Ko-hoh

The trumpeter swan's call in the book, the sound Louis cannot make.

Red Rock Lakes

Lakes in Montana where Louis's family spends the winter; a real refuge for trumpeter swans.

Swan Boats

Pedal boats shaped like swans that carry passengers on the lagoon in the Boston Public Garden, where Louis plays his trumpet.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension How does Sam protect the swans' nest when the fox comes?
2. Comprehension Why does Louis go to school with Sam, and what does he learn there?
3. Comprehension How does Louis's father get the trumpet, and what happens to him in the music store?
4. Interpretation Louis can write on his slate, but Serena still pays no attention. Why is the trumpet better than the slate for winning her?
5. Interpretation Why do you think the cob feels so happy when he pays back the storekeeper, even though it is hard to do?
6. Interpretation Sam makes a bargain with the zoo so that Louis and Serena can go free. Do you think it was a good bargain? Why?
7. Big Question Louis was born without a voice but found another way to sing. Can something that seems like a weakness become a gift? How?

Faith Connections

• Exodus 4:10-12 (Scripture)

  Moses says he is slow of speech, and the Lord answers that He made man's mouth and will help him speak. Louis, born without a voice, is given another way to be heard, through patient friends and his own hard work.

• Psalm 150:3 (Scripture)

  Praise him with the sound of the trumpet. Louis's music, played for the campers and on the evening pond, shows how a gift of sound can be used for others' joy.

• Luke 19:8 (Scripture)

  Zacchaeus promises to repay what he has taken wrongly. The cob and Louis cannot rest until the stolen trumpet and broken window are paid for in full.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: A trumpeter swan without a voice cannot call, court or be heard. Louis cannot change how he was born, but he can learn: writing gives him words and the trumpet gives him music. Since the trumpet was stolen for him, he must also earn the money to make it right. Therefore White shows that a handicap met with work, friendship and honesty can become the source of a life richer than an ordinary one.

Rhetorical device: comic characterization through speech. The cob's long-winded, high-flown speeches, such as his address to the storekeeper and his talks with his family in Chapters 9, 19 and 20, are set against the pen's short, practical replies for comic effect.

Debate: Resolved: The cob was right to take the trumpet for Louis, as long as the debt was paid.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Explain how Sam Beaver helps Louis in at least three different parts of the book, and decide which help mattered most.

Comparison with Charlotte's Web: Charlotte writes words in her web to save Wilbur, and Louis writes words on his slate to speak for himself. Compare how words help each animal, and explain why Louis needs something more than words.

Medical Lens

Louis's congenital muteness is the book's central problem, and the story is often read as a gentle parable about disability and accommodation: he learns written language, carries a slate for communication, and finally adopts an instrument as a substitute voice, a sequence that loosely parallels augmentative communication for children who cannot speak. To play the trumpet's valves, Louis has the web of one foot slit, a small procedure told without medical detail. The cob's gunshot wound in the shoulder at the Billings music store, from which he recovers, is the other injury in the book. These are thematic connections in a children's fable, not clinical portraits.

• Chapter 5: Louis

  The parents discover that Louis has no voice, and the cob and pen discuss what this will mean for him.

  Disability Deformity
• Chapter 7: School Days

  Louis learns to read and write in Mrs. Hammerbotham's class and begins to communicate with a slate.

  Disability Deformity
• Chapter 9: The Trumpet

  The cob crashes through the music store window in Billings and is wounded by the storekeeper's shot.

  WAR Wounds
• Chapter 11: Camp Kookooskoos

  The web of Louis's foot is slit so that he can press the trumpet's valves.

  Surgery

Creative Prompts

• Fiction

  Write one of Sam Beaver's journal entries from the day he first sees Louis play the trumpet, ending, as Sam always does, with a question.

• Dialogue

  Write the conversation between the cob and the storekeeper in Billings when the cob returns with the money bag, in the cob's grand, long-winded style.

• Classroom

  On a map of North America, trace Louis's travels from the Canadian pond to the Red Rock Lakes, Billings, Ontario, Boston and Philadelphia, and write one sentence about what happens at each place.

• Essay

  Louis tries three ways to speak: the slate, the trumpet, and his actions. Which one shows who he really is, and why?

Further Reading

• Charlotte's Web, E. B. White

• Stuart Little, E. B. White

• Letters of E. B. White, E. B. White, ed. Dorothy Lobrano Guth

• E. B. White: A Biography, Scott Elledge