Walk On Earth A Stranger

Walk on Earth a Stranger is a fantasy novel by Rae Carson. Set in 1849 during the Gold Rush craze that drew many Americans from the United States’ East Coast into the less-populated West, it follows a young girl named Lee Westfall who is magically able to detect gold in the environment. Lee takes care of her sick father and the rest of her family by hunting for food and covertly using her powers in order to purchase basic necessities. After her parents are suddenly murdered, Westfall sets off alone to make a life in the American West while trying to hide her gift. The book uses Westfall as a proxy to discuss the marginalization of women in 19th century United States history and how the changing conditions of American capitalism impacted the flow of bodies and cultural narratives.

The novel begins in a gold mining town in Georgia. Most of the area’s remaining gold having been depleted in an earlier mining surge, the town is somewhat run-down, causing many of its people to subsist on other activities. Lee has been taking care of her family for years, keeping up the house and going out to hunt for food to feed everyone. Her best friend is Jefferson, a half-Cherokee boy who hunts with her. Lee possesses the power to sense gold in her nearby environment, but has kept it a secret from everyone but her family, hoarding a quantity of gold dust in secret.

One day, while returning home from school, Lee hears a burst of gunfire coming from inside her house. She runs in and discovers both of her parents nearly dead. The murderers have also stolen their supply of gold dust. Before her mother dies, she urges her daughter to run. Lee suddenly remembers occasions on which her mother has referred to a difficult, dangerous past in Boston which motivated her to run away. As Lee mourns the death of her parents, Jefferson resolves to travel west to get away from his abusive father. He asks Lee to join him and play the part of his wife or sister. Lee refuses, and says that her duty lies in protecting her homestead.



A few days later, Lee’s lawyer uncle Hiram appears at the house. She sees gold dust on his skin and assumes that he has killed her parents, but is unable to prove it. Hiram recalls that Lee’s parents made a will that gives the homestead to her upon their deaths, but then reveals that he tricked them into giving the property to him. He also reveals that he knows about her powers and plans for her to come with him to California in search of more gold. After pretending to concede for several days, she runs out of town to find Jefferson, who told her he would wait for her in Independence, Missouri in case she changed her mind.

On her way out of Georgia, Lee sells her horses and dresses as a boy, expecting her uncle to pursue her. After a robber takes most of her cash and her father’s gun, she manages to get a job helping out a family traveling on a boat on its way to Independence. Along the way, she meets a friend from back home who reveals a bit about her parents’ past. After Lee’s mother fled Boston, she planned to marry Hiram instead of Lee’s father, but made a last-minute change of plans. Her father won the homestead in a lottery, while her uncle traveled penniless to the city to make a living in law.

When Lee finally makes it to Independence, she finds Jefferson, and they hop on a wagon train full of outcasts, including the family from the boat she worked on. Jefferson falls in love with a girl named Therese who is on the way west with her family. Meanwhile, they both struggle to keep Lee’s identity a secret, nearly forgetting on several occasions that she must present as a boy. As the wagon travels west, it encounters dangerous rivers, mud, and other difficult terrain that threatens to thwart the journey, stampedes of wild buffalo, and scarce supplies including water. Several passengers die, including the man who originally hired Lee on the boat, who leaves behind his pregnant wife and two kids. After an incident in which Lee is wounded, the train discovers she is a girl, compelling her to continue proving her adeptness at hunting and logistics.



Lee and Jefferson work for Becky, the widowed mother, helping deliver her baby as they reach the desert just before the California border. At this point, many of the passengers quit and depart for elsewhere. After the wagon carrying Therese and Becky breaks down, Therese runs after the others to get help for the baby, managing to deliver the plea for help before she dies. Lee finds them using her power of sensing gold and saves the family. Soon, their journey nears its end, and they reach the Truckee River. Lee reveals her power to Jefferson, who says he knew. He also reveals that he has fallen in love with her.

At the novel’s end, the party arrives at Sutter’s Fort in California. They soon run into Uncle Hiram, who tries to take Lee with him. Her new family protects her from him, forcing him to back down. He vows to return and lay claim to Lee, but the story leaves off as she realizes that she has unexpectedly molded her own, newfound family. Walk on Earth a Stranger thus suggests that the shared struggle of following the American dream has united seemingly disparate subjects in history, forming solidarities that confront the injustices and evils that also emerge out of the dynamic and capitalist nation.