The Fifth Of March: A Story of the Boston Massacre

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1993

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-10

Chapters 11-15

Chapters 16-19

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

The Boston Massacre

The Boston Massacre is the event around which The Fifth of March revolves, and it symbolizes The Importance of Seeing Both Sides. As Rinaldi describes in the book, the Boston Massacre took place outside the Boston Customs House on March 5th, 1770, when seven British soldiers fired into a crowd of civilians, killing five men and injuring six more. Within the novel, the Patriots and Crown loyalists each have a different perspective on the event and what caused it, and these differing viewpoints show how accounts are shifted to suit a given narrative. Prior to the Boston Massacre, the arrival of British soldiers inflamed already growing tensions between the colonists and the Crown. In the months leading up to the event, Patriots taunted the soldiers, who were ordered not to engage, though several escalated the insults to physical violence. During the event itself, Patriots hurled both objects and insults at the soldiers, who returned fire with their superior weapons. From the Patriot perspective, unarmed civilians were shot upon by the enemy. From the Crown loyalist perspective, the soldiers were provoked into attacking, and this attack was later spun as a vicious assault on defenseless citizens. These opposing narratives show how both sides of the conflict were able to reconstruct the incident to help their cause, illustrating the damage possible when information is weaponized.

The Boston Massacre is a turning point not only in the American Revolution, but also in the character arc of the fictional Rachel Marsh. Up until the night of the attack, Rachel has waffled between sides, preferring to remain neutral in the conflict plaguing Boston’s streets. However, watching Matthew, someone she knows to be kind but tormented by his past, brutally attack a man makes Rachel see the damage done to all people by the tensions between America and Britain. While Rachel identifies as a proud American, she cannot uncritically believe that all actions taken by Americans against the British are good. Her firm belief that Matthew and the other soldiers were provoked gives her the courage she needs to visit Matthew in prison and otherwise defend the soldiers’ actions even when it means going against her friends and community. The Boston Massacre changes Rachel from someone who values her stable and comfortable life above all into someone who is not afraid to stand up for what she believes in.

Books

Books play a large role in Rachel’s character arc and relationships, symbolizing the power of education in bringing about intellectual independence. Rachel’s working-class social status means that she does not have access to formal education, but Abigail Adams and Henry Knox both tell her that the knowledge stored in books is available to anyone willing to seek it. Throughout The Fifth of March, Rachel reads many popular books of the time including Pamela by Samuel Richardson, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, and Aesop’s Fables. These stories open her mind to concepts she had not before considered, and though these texts are not strictly informative in nature, they force Rachel to think critically about their contents, an experience that teaches her to form opinions and assess what is happening in her world from a broader lens. Rachel’s character arc is in part owed to the power of reading and education. When she first decides to better herself through reading, she is wide-eyed and excited at the idea of becoming more than she is. Once she begins to read and contemplate many new ideas at once, she becomes overwhelmed, which makes her unsure of what to believe. This uncertainty is normal as she adjusts to her new way of viewing the world, and it is resolved as Rachel finally puts her knew critical thinking abilities to use deciding what is important to her and which battles are worth fighting. As Rachel’s character shows, reading and education alone do not make her intelligent. They simply challenge her to think, which lets her become more well-rounded.

Books also represent The Responsibility that Comes with Choice. At the beginning of the book, Rachel has never considered reading because, as the daughter of poor parents, education was never a path available to her. Within the Adamses’ home, though, Rachel is exposed to books, and through listening to John and Abigail, Rachel realizes how much reading and education have allowed them to make informed decisions about the world. Once she chooses to educate herself, she can then choose how she will do this, and from there, she then chooses what to do with her new information. Thus, books represent how the world opens to Rachel once she decides to read them.

The Adams House

The Adams house is a major setting of the novel, the exploration of which also includes the influence John and Abigail have on both Rachel and the story as a whole. At the beginning of the book, Rachel measures her progress as a person against the Adamses and the state of their house. The well-stocked library, straight-backed chairs, and delicate lighting of the house represent the settled importance Rachel wishes to achieve in her own life, and she believes she must live and act like the Adamses to achieve this goal. As the story progresses and Rachel sees that the Adamses are flawed people who don’t always make the best choices, she starts to realize that it is not the state of the house and its possessions that make the couple who they are. Rather, it is their commitment to doing what is right even when it is difficult to do so. With this understanding, Rachel finds the inner strength to stay true to her own beliefs, even when it leads to her dismissal from the Adams house. Though this parting is sad, Rachel accepts it as a consequence of actions she knew to be right.

John and Abigail as a unit represent The Importance of Independent Moral Judgment. As a rising lawyer and politician, John Adams is dedicated to the equal treatment of all free people, and he believes his ability to interpret law is a strong tool in the arsenal of justice. Rather than allowing himself to be swayed by popular opinion, he invariably takes the time to weigh all moral choices carefully. Similarly, Abigail Adams rejects the gender and class-based prejudices that have led Rachel to believe she is incapable of education. She encourages Rachel and other young women to seek out education, whether through formal schooling or through the kind of self-directed study Rachel undertakes. By encouraging Rachel to read, she helps her to develop the critical thinking skills needed to exercise independent moral judgment. The historical Abigail Adams, like the fictional version of her in the book, was ahead of her time and seen as a pioneer in women’s education, offering her female contemporaries the opportunity to educate themselves and discuss what they learned. Within the novel, Abigail serves as a role model for Rachel as both an educated woman and overseer of the home, and Rachel’s move away from Abigail’s signature domesticity represents the change that came to America during the events of the book and afterwards.