The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses starvation, cannibalism, and death.

“They were about to climb aboard those wagons and disappear over the Western horizon, bound for California, a place Sarah could hardly conceive of.”

The imagery of the wagons heading west toward California, combined with the naiveté of Sarah who “could hardly conceive” of such a place, subtly foreshadows potential peril. The depiction of an idealized destination juxtaposed with the characters’ limited understanding of the challenges ahead suggests looming difficulties, effectively setting the stage for a narrative that explores themes of ambition clashing with reality.

“The most direct route, for California emigrants, would be to leave the Oregon route, about two hundred miles east from Fort Hall; thence bearing southwest, to the Salt Lake; and thence continuing down to the bay of St. Francisco, by the route just described.”

This quote is from Hastings’s guide. It uses an instructional and authoritative tone to direct the California emigrants, purportedly offering them a more direct route. However, the route suggested by Lansford Hastings was infamously perilous and untested, leading to disastrous outcomes. The guide’s confidence juxtaposed with the reader’s historical hindsight imbues the passage with dramatic irony, enhancing the tension and the tragic foreboding of the book’s early chapters.

“However, they had neglected one critical piece of advice. Of all the many tips, encouragements, admonitions, and suggestions that Lansford Hastings dispensed in The Emigrants Guide to California and Oregon, the best of them had to do with timing one’s departure.”

This passage employs dramatic irony, as the Donner Party’s ordeal and the historical consequences of following Lansford Hastings’s advice are widely known. The phrase “neglected one critical piece of advice” heightens the suspense and foreshadows calamity, emphasizing the precariousness of the emigrants’ decision-making. The listing of “tips, encouragements, admonitions, and suggestions” not only illustrates the breadth of guidance offered by Hastings but also serves to underline the gravity of missing crucial information amidst the abundance of advice.