Sparknotes The Child Finder

Through some of the most unimaginable situations, a human mind will do whatever it can to keep itself alive. The novel The Child Finder by Rene Denfield tells the story of young Madison Culver’s disappearance in Oregon’s Skookum National Forest and the journey it took for Naomi, a private investigator, to find her and bring her back to her parents. Madison had been found and kidnapped for three years by a deaf trapper living in the forest named Mr. B. Three years after Madison’s disappearance, Naomi started the investigation looking for Madison. Moreover, where Madison had gone missing was close to where Naomi grew up. Naomi had also been kidnapped when she was young, but she was taken in as a foster child by Mrs. Cottle. While Naomi was on

While Madison was captured by Mr. B, she used tying strings to help her by using them as a way to get back to Mr. B’s cabin, to fulfill an urge she had to tie the threads, and as a sign to lead people to where she was being held captive. To begin, tying these strings allowed Madison to feel she had control and knew how to return if she needed to. Inside Madison’s cave, the novel describes, "On the mud caves of her walls she carved the large square she made for this world, and tried to trace where she had tied the string. Dot by dot, like a web of lines all leading to one place" (Denfeld 130). These strings allowed Madison to not feel completely helpless and to feel that she had some power over her situation by gaining awareness and knowledge about her surroundings. Moving on, Madison felt the need to tie the threads to the trees and did not want to understand the need to do it anyway. When Madison first started tying the strings, the novel describes, "She told herself she was doing this to find a way back to the cabin if she ever got lost. But she knew that Mr. B would never let her outside alone. He would track and kill her if she did try to escape. She knew that as real as day, and could imagine her intestines blooming red on the snow. There was another reason to do it-a secret she could not even tell herself, because if she did Mr. B might sense it. He would see it in her trusting eyes" (Denefeld 53). Even though Madison could not admit to herself the reason she tied these threads to the trees, her mind knew that deep down she needed to do it to help save herself from the situation she was in. Lastly, these threads ended up being very important to the investigation to find Madison and ultimately led to Naomi knowing the way to the cabin where Madison was held. When Naomi first saw a thread tied on a shrub,