"Love is giving someone the ability to destroy you but trusting them not to" (Anonymous). These is my Words, by Nancy E. Turner, is a story of a pioneer woman by the name of Sarah that takes the world through her journeys in like--her trials, the finding of herself, and her relationships. Sarah Agnes Prine's life is written in this fictional diary and displays the themes of family, relationships and perseverance.
             One theme that Sarah portrays through her words is to keep your family close, for they will always be there to fall back on. During the Indian fighting at the start of Sarah and her family's trek across the Arizona Territories, each person was in a feverish state of trying to protect and defend each other. The Indians cam upon them early in the morning and immediately started firing arrows like it was earth's end.; each one intending to kill. Luckily, Sarah and her family came prepared and had their rifles loaded and at hand. "I am loading along side Mama. It just seems like it will never end....she picked up his rifle from under his body and shot an Indian surely in the chest as if she was a crack marksman....as bullets went past one went smack through my skirts and took Ernest in the leg at the knee....Papa is firing away, Mama at his side runs to Ernest" (Turner 11-12). This quote shows how each member of her family is fighting for all their lives are worth. On the journey people became focused solely on what they each had to do every day; they separated and withdrew into themselves. When a tough situation came up, all came forward and supported each other.
             The second theme of the novel is that relationships grow as one drops his or her judgments and embraces a person as a whole. Sarah's first impressions of Jack Elliot, a captain of the army leading the wagon train across the country, are only derived from when she sees him in battle and so
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