These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901

Sarah is Turner’s protagonist and fictional author for These Is My Words. The novel is structured as her diary, so all events are relayed through her first-person, limited point of view. These Is My Words is also a coming-of-age story, as the text follows Sarah through many major life events across the novel. She is 16 years old when the novel opens in 1881 and in her late thirties when it concludes in mid-1901. When the text begins, she is intent on educating herself and improving her writing, the basics of which she learned from her Papa and her family Bible. She is the third of five Prine children, all of whom are brothers. Before setting off in their wagon for “greener pastures,” she worked alongside them on her Papa’s horse ranch in New Mexico Territory. As a result of living and working “in the territory” with her brothers (8), Sarah is also unusually handy with a rifle. This is a talent that, particularly in her younger years, surprises many, but as Sarah says, “a girl has got to get along” (8). Her humble toughness and fierce loyalty to her loved ones are central traits of Sarah’s character that change little through each challenge she meets.