Outlander Book Club: The Fiery Cross Chapter 101 breakdown

Just the Outlander chapter

The chapter itself starts with everyone seeing the dead whale. Of course, the kids love the sight, but the adults need to focus on the task at hand. They’re heading to Wylie’s Landing.

This is when a discussion about Bonnet as a captain comes up. He didn’t have friends on the ship, and he was certainly a terrible man at times. However, his smuggling ventures were always profitable, and he paid his crew what was agreed on. He was also a fair captain for the most part.

Jamie notes that captains have to make difficult choices. That’s certainly the case, and I don’t think anyone of the time is really that surprised that someone with smallpox would be thrown overboard. During that time period, there was nothing to really help the patient (although people with smallpox could survive) and it was highly contagious, which meant the whole journey across could have lead to everyone sick and dying.

However, that doesn’t mean everything Bonnet did was right or even necessary. Jamie has had to make difficult decisions when leading men, but he’s done things out of necessity, and that’s something Claire points out.

It leads to a conversation about Bonnet being a man or a monster. Making him out as a monster could take some of the power away because he’s no longer seen as this vicious man. It could also make him harder to kill psychologically because people don’t see him as human—they view him as something more and something dangerous.

Jamie also notes that there is a fine line between a monster and a hero.