A man’s hardships and obstacles can help define how strong he becomes later in life. In The Light In the Forest, author Conrad Richter writes the story of True Son, a white boy captured and adopted by Indians for eleven years, who overcomes many challenges that help make him a tougher person. Not only did True Son turn out physically strong, but he also became more emotionally and intellectually strong.
First, True Son grew up in the Indian lifestyle. This leads to him becoming strong by his Indian father, Cuyloga, teaching him to be emotionally strong from a young age. Cuyloga put hot stones from the fire on True Son for as long as he could stand it. In the winter, Cuyloga had his adopted son sit in the icy river water for as long as he wanted
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Right as he meets his new parents his mother wants to start teaching him better English and they speak of improving his education (Richter, 34). Also, his family took away his Indian clothes and gave him the clothes worn in the white community (Richter,35-36). Over his entire stay with the whites True Son learns to see how the white people think. He shows this when Half Arrow recalls the “happy stories” Little Crane told the whites (Richter, 78-79). True Son understood that the stories would offend the whites when he used to think that the stories were funny and the whites would think that they were funny too.
Finally, when True Son ends up being rejected by both the Indians and the whites, nature and living on his own help make him stronger. When he has to leave his Indian tribe, True Son starts getting emotional, but he had to hide it and overcome it, knowing that he would be an outcast and not welcomed anywhere but nature (Richter, 119-120). Also, True Son had to be physically and intellectually strong to live alone. True Son had to be smart in what he did and how he lived. Also, True Son had to be physically strong to be able to supply for himself, instead of having a family to lean on (Richter,