We are Bound to the Promised Land
Back then it was normal..? Completely normal to do things like that. It was legal back then, and people would just do it, if seemed necessary. The wife, or woman in the house would mostly stare at it without anything to say, but they couldn’t do that much about it either. Cause back then it was allowed to hit children.
To find out we will have to search for the answer in the novel “We are Bound for the Promised Land”, by A.E Watterson

Eilean is a little girl with a mother and a father, and two big sisters. They are living in a small village, with a Kirk, where her father is a pastor. We don’t hear Eilean age at any time. But since she is a girl playing with the boys from her class, we can tell that she is about 7-10 years old. She is a girl that wants to decide things by herself, but can’t because her father is strict, and is the one in charge. In the beginning of the novel, Eilean is talking to the animals that live in the other side of the house. That’s a clear sign that Eilean is lonely. Back then the houses were split into two parts. About 2/3 was for the family, and the last part was stable. So that you shared the heat of the fire, with the animals in the winter, so your cow wouldn’t die because of the cold.
Eileans relationship to her mother is fine, we don’t want to put that much energy into that. But her relationship to her father is special. Eilean wants to be independent, but her father “knows” what’s best for her and thereby forces her to do what he thinks is right. Which is also the reason for his action on page 2, line 54.
“His right hand made a cracking noise as it met her cheekbone and she fell backwards. “Eilean MacLeod, you will do as I say if you know what is good for you.”
Eilean wants to go play with her two friends (both boys), and tells her father, that she is the one who chooses her friends. Eileans mother helps her up afterwards, but tells her that she should listen to her father. This gives us the impression that the mother wants to help Eilean, but is afraid of the father, and what he might do to her.
As the reference says, her father thinks he knows everything better. Not only everything for him but also for everyone around him. Back in that time period the church played a huge role in the world. Not only was the church respected, but the pastor or priest had a really high status in the society. In a small village like where they are living, the pastor was always right. He spoke was God’s words, and god is always right in the society at that point because Christianity was the only religion in Scotland at this time. We know that they live in a little village/town because they have to walk on grass to get to the Kirk. In bigger towns or cities you would walk on the pavement or the street.
In the end of the text Eilean is dared to come join her friend, to play on the rocks. Lewis (one of the friends) doubts, he thinks Angus (The other friend) is exaggerating by wanting to play on a Sunday, when they know that Eileans father is the pastor, and Sunday is a sacred day. At the very end of the story, it’s Sunday evening. Straight after dinner Eilean spurts for the door. The sister and mother stop her because she took some peas in her pocket, and that was obviously not allowed. But the mother has an idea of, where Eilean wants to go. Therefore she gives her a Spool of thread, and asks her to go deliver it at Mrs. MacIver’s house. She also tells her that her dad sure will understand if she is a bit later than normally, because Mrs. MacIver is “very chatty”. Basically this shows us that the mother knows what Eilean wanted to go do, and that she gives her a way to go do it, without her father knowing. So in the end we get the feeling that the mother wants Eilean to do what she wants, and not what the father tells her to do.
There are plenty of themes you could analyze in this text. But some of the major ones are of course the year were in, and the relationships in the family in that period.
Being brave is also a major theme in the text. When Eilean stands up to her father and tells him that she is the one to choose her friends, and not him. That takes some courage to do to your father, as a daughter in that time-period. Also when she has to go to the rocks on a Sunday, and again crosses the lines of her father’s rules.
And of course we have the theme “A mothers love for her daughter” which we get a really good example of at the end of the text, where her mother helps Eilean to get out and play with her friends, without her father knowing. And probably he will never find out.

So yeah. It was a rough time being a kid in this time-period. You didn’t have that many choices, and your parents decided most of your life for you. And if you did something wrong, you would certainly know when your parents found out!

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[ 1 ]. Several times on the first page
[ 2 ]. Line 132 + 133 (page 3 and 4)
[ 3 ]. Scottich word for church
[ 4 ]. Line 90 - 96