54 pages • 1 hour read
Bruce OlsonBruchko: The Astonishing True Story of a 19-Year-Old American, His Capture by the Motilone Indians and His Adventures in Christianizing the Stone Age Tribe
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1973A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 5-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “First Meeting with Indians”
Saunders does greet Olson at the airport, and so Olson stays in a hotel for his first night in Venezuela. The next day, he meets a young man named Julio, who invites him to stay with his family. Julio introduces him to Dr. Christian, a man who provides medical aid to the Indigenous people of the Orinoco River. Dr. Christian invites Olson to join him on a month-and-a-half-long medical visit to the Orinoco River tribes. A week later, Olson and Dr. Christian begin their journey. Partway through, on Dr. Christian’s advice, Olson decides to stay with the people at the Mavaca settlement for three weeks while Dr. Christian travels further upriver. Nearby is a Christian missionary compound, which houses the missionary Saunders. Olson tries to establish a friendship with him but is rebuffed because he is not part of a mission agency.
While speaking to other missionaries at the compound, Olson learns that the Indigenous people who have converted to Christianity are being persecuted by the rest of the tribe. Olson is amazed that people who treated him so well could be persecutors. When he tries to bring up Christianity, they tell him that the Christian converts have rejected all the old tribal customs; they dress as North Americans, build buildings differently from the tribe, and sing Western songs. Olson wonders why conversion to Christianity would necessitate the adoption of North American culture.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Last-Minute Help”
Three weeks later, Dr. Christian returns to pick up Olson, and they go to the city of Puerto Ayachucho. Here, Dr. Christian allows Olson to stay in his hotel room while he returns to Caracas. In Puerto Ayachucho, Olson meets and begins to live with a Catholic family. This, and not being a member of an official mission, causes him to be “put out of fellowship” (54), meaning missionaries are not meant to associate with him.
When Rafael, the oldest son of the family Olson is staying with, has to return to Caracas for university, Olson decides to join him. As Olson prepares to leave, he wonders how he can afford the journey to Caracas but claims he feels sure it will work out. Just before he leaves, letters arrive, one of which has a note from the Lange family and a check for $100. Olson ends the chapter by stating that, as he flew to Caracas, he had no idea he would nearly be killed his first day there.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Communists”
The day before Olson arrived in Caracas, a state of emergency had been declared in Venezuela because of anti-government demonstrations. Olson stays in a boarding house, and while leaving on his first full day, sees a crowd of people fleeing before soldiers. Olson is frozen to the spot in terror until a member of the crowd is killed in front of him, which finally makes him run back inside. He hides for the rest of the day. The following day, he comes down with a fever but cannot afford the medicine, so another resident at the house, Lucio Mondragon, buys it for him. As Olson begins to recover, he studies Spanish, becoming fluent.
Olson soon moves into the same room as Lucio Mondragon. Olson and Lucio frequently debate politics because Lucio is the leader of the student socialist party on campus. Lucio accuses Olson (as a stand-in for Americans in general) of trying to exploit the resources of Venezuela while Olson criticizes Lucio for the harmful policies of the Venezuelan government toward Indigenous people. Their relationship is tense because of this, and on one occasion when they are play-fighting in the ocean, the fight escalates until Lucio almost drowns Olson. Even after this, they continue living together.
While Olson is staying with him, Lucio runs in the elections for university student president as the leader of a coalition of socialist parties. He manages to win the election but soon after, his coalition begins to dissolve. One day, Lucio, sick of the difficulties of his office, asks Olson what the point of continuing is. Olson relates Lucio’s difficulties in forming consensuses to his own difficulty in getting acceptance from his father; both were caused by people angry that Olson and Lucio failed to conform to their expectations. The pair then discusses the church, and Olson claims that because of the internal peace he exhibits, Lucio accepted Christianity three days later.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Almost Killed”
Olson struggles with loneliness while staying in Caracas, feeling that he needs a true friend, a brother. He realizes Lucio can never be that to him. One day, a university administrator called Miguel Neito calls Olson into his office to discuss the Barí. Neito tells Olson that they are a tribe in the jungles between Venezuela and Colombia whose only contact with the outside world comes from shooting arrows at employees of oil companies. From this conversation, Olson believes he “discovered why God had directed [him] to South America” (68); he feels that it is his purpose to convert the Barí. Upon seeing a story about the Barí in a newspaper soon after, Olson decides he needs to meet them and heads to Machiques, a town near the Andes.
The trip to Machiques takes three days. While traveling, he speaks to others about his plans. Everyone that he speaks to warns him about the Barí’s violence, but Olson remains committed. He decides on a weeklong visit to establish relations first. He brings a mule and sets off into the Andes, but by the end of the day, he has lost the trail. While walking, he is cut by thorn bushes, develops a fever, and is assailed by bugs. After two nights, Olson comes upon a cluster of huts.
As Olson comes down to the village, 20 or more people, all elderly or children, come to greet him. They cannot communicate with each other, but Olson is given a hut to sleep in. The next morning, Olson tries to learn their language but is suddenly knocked to the ground. The young men of the village have returned, and they begin to torture him. Olson prays for salvation and claims he sees Jesus. He thinks that his disgust at those persecuting him is surely the same emotion Jesus felt while being crucified. He resolves to put up with anything God sends his way if only he can preach to these people and with this resolution, he gives up his fear.
Older members of the tribe restrain the younger ones from continuing the torture. Olson then decides to leave the village, feeling he is not welcome. He is delayed by the need to treat sick children. The chief appreciates Olson more after this, and Olson finds out the harsh initial reception was because two young men had been shot to death by white settlers recently. Olson’s visit stretches on, during which time he learns that these are the Yuko people, not the Barí. He ends the chapter by saying it would be a year before he made it to the Barí, and his reception would be even worse there.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Bribery”
Four months later, Olson prepares to leave again. He misses the amenities of modern life and feels extremely bored while staying with the Yukos. An hour into his trip, his mule rears and knocks him off. He follows the mule back to the village and leaves again, but a few hours later the mule rears once more, kicking him in the arm and face. By the time he recovers, he sees the mule is gone and decides that the mule (a usually docile animal) rearing twice must have been a sign from God that he is not meant to leave. He has to return to the Yukos.
When Olson manages to make it to the Yukos, they nurse him back to health. Life is still boring and difficult, but Olson begins to make some progress with the Yukos' language and appreciates their culture more. Olson asks about neighboring tribes and becomes convinced that the “people of the oil” (81) that they describe are the Barí. He asks to be taken to them, but the Yukos are afraid, so they send him to a different tribe that might help. This tribe sends him to another different tribe, and this cycle repeats for several months until Olson finds a Yuko who has a passion for owning shiny objects. Olson gives him his pants zipper as payment for his services as a guide.
Chapter 10 Summary: “A Terrifying Reception”
Olson and six others set out the day after this deal. On the seventh day of their travel, the Yuko guides notice something, stop, and then flee the way they came. Olson tries to follow them but trips, is shot in the leg, and is surrounded by nine men with bows. Olson tries to communicate but they do not speak any language he knows. They force him to walk for three hours until they arrive at a man-made mound with entrances, which is the tribe’s communal home. Olson is able to hear that the home contains entire families, but he becomes delirious and passes out soon after, waking with an evidently infected thigh.
Later, a hunting party returns, and the tribe cooks the meat they had gathered. Olson is given no food on the first day, but by the second, they begin to feed him. The men of the tribe frequently taunt him, but he gets the impression that a man with a distinctive scar near his mouth has begun to protect him. Over the next month, Olson becomes progressively sicker until he realizes that God would not want him to die here. He sneaks out of the communal home when the others are asleep and flees upriver, toward the mountains he had come from. After traveling for four days without food and with a fever, Olson despairs but then sees bananas floating on the river. Olson believes that these are a sign from God that people are nearby so he follows a valley stream until he hears a tree being cut down. Following this noise, he sees two men, calls out to them, and collapses.
Chapters 5-10 Analysis
These chapters show Olson’s early experiences in South America and his first, ill-fated expedition into the jungle. These chapters also introduce the theme of The Complexities of Cross-Cultural Missionary Work, as Olson begins to interact with the Indigenous tribes of South America. He shows the challenges inherent in trying to convert Indigenous tribes, one method of overcoming these challenges that he finds harmful, and hints at the method he will eventually employ to convert the Barí.
Olson’s description of his reception by the Yuko and the Barí demonstrates the problems he faces in his mission. With the Yuko and the Barí, the language barrier presents an initial problem, as he is unable to communicate with those he wants to convert. Furthermore, the history of conflict and colonialism in the area creates another barrier for Olson. Violence has been central to how the Barí interact with others because of the need to defend their territory from hostile parties who are trying to exploit it. His captivity is another manifestation of a long-established pattern of interaction. Similarly, with the Yuko, he is tortured by the young men because of the recent threat posed by white settlers to their tribe. Finally, Olson faces another barrier in establishing relations with the Indigenous people he meets. He expresses distaste at many elements of Indigenous life; when seeing the sanitary standards of the Orinoco River tribes, for example, he expresses disgust, and he describes the Yuko as “filthy” (74) when they are tormenting him. In a telling example, he compares his standing among the Yuko to that of Jesus among regular men. Setting himself as comparable to the Son of God when contrasted with Indigenous people is demonstrative of the chauvinistic preconceptions he has toward Indigenous culture. By emphasizing the multiple barriers he needs to overcome to try to convert the Barí, Olson establishes the scale of the struggle, thereby making his eventual success more notable.
The conversion efforts of the missionaries on the Orinoco River show one method of trying to overcome cultural differences. These missionaries combine their religious conversion with a cultural one, trying to “modernize” the Indigenous people by making them adapt to North American culture. Olson presents this as not only destructive to the lives of Indigenous people but also pointless. He asks, “What does the good news of Jesus Christ have to do with North American culture?” (53). This, in addition to Olson learning to appreciate Yuko culture, sets up the later method he will use for conversion. His “localized” Christianity is supported early in the book by emphasizing the damaging impact of viewing Indigenous culture as something to be evolved past.
These chapters also develop the theme of The Transformative Power of Personal Connections by showing the constant struggle with loneliness Olson has in this period. The bonds that he forms are never deep, often being more transactional in nature. With Lucio Mondragon and the Yuko, Olson is unable to make meaningful friendships, and this causes him to become disillusioned with his mission. Olson states, “What I needed was a real friend—one who knew me completely; a brother” (67) while repeatedly showing that he cannot make this bond. The purpose of this is so that Olson can stress the weight of the bond he forms with Bobby by placing it in the context of the unfulfillment he had felt without it.
The theme of The Importance of Living in Accordance with Faith is also present in these chapters. Once more, when Olson feels that his purpose lies somewhere, miraculous coincidences allow for his safe arrival there. Whether through the money he receives from the Langes, the bananas in the river, or the bucking of the mule, Olson records that he was directed toward the Barí. Though the veracity of the account may be questioned, narratively, what is important is that Olson portrays his mission as divinely sanctioned. By making a point of this, Olson reveals that through his book, he wants to defend his efforts to convert as the necessary consequence of a life lived according to his faith.
Throughout these chapters, Olson makes use of foreshadowing and cliffhangers to build suspense. Chapters 6 and 8 both end with Olson hinting at a future event (his witnessing of a shooting and his reception by the Barí). Olson also makes efforts to play up the terrifying reputation of the Barí, recording that Neito and the people he met while traveling warned him about it. Through this, Olson builds anticipation for his meeting with the Barí, a pivotal point in the book.
