John Carter and Sola

John Carter and Sola’s relationship begins within his captivity among the green Martians and becomes one of the first sources of dependable care in his new life on Barsoom. Sola is assigned to accompany him, but her role soon exceeds that of a guard or attendant: she feeds him, watches over him, searches for him when he vanishes, and helps him learn. Carter’s growing trust in her rests on repeated acts of consideration, while Sola’s concern distinguishes her from a community whose customs he experiences as brutal and indifferent.

First Encounters and Care

After Carter’s display of extraordinary jumping ability, Tars Tarkas and the chief send Sola to escort him across the plaza. She is a young green Martian in Tars Tarkas’s retinue, and she leads Carter to a chamber furnished with silks and furs. He is a captive there, with a formidable watch dog lying across the doorway, but Sola’s presence brings the first practical kindness he receives. When she returns, she sets down food and drink: a portion of nearly tasteless solid food and a slightly sour milk-like liquid, which Carter later learns comes from a plant rather than an animal.

Her care becomes unmistakable when Carter wakes in the cold after sleeping. A fur has slipped away from him; in the darkness, someone pulls it back over him and adds another covering. Carter identifies Sola as the one who has done this. He understands the gesture as part of a larger pattern: among the green Martians he encounters, she alone shows sympathy, kindness, and affection, and her attention to his physical needs repeatedly spares him hardship.

Trust Tested by Danger

The bond is tested when Carter disappears and Sola notices his absence upon waking. She promptly informs Tars Tarkas, who sets out with a small party to search for him; Sola joins the search of her own accord. The party finds Carter after he has survived an encounter with a great white ape. Unlike the warriors, whose laughter accompanies his danger, Sola shows apparent concern. Once the ape is defeated, she comes to Carter, carefully checks him for injuries, and, satisfied that he is unharmed, takes his hand and leads him away.

The episode also shows that Sola’s care is not merely directed toward Carter’s safety. The watch dog that had guarded him has saved his life, and Carter intervenes when a warrior is about to kill it. Sola remains with him as he helps the animal, and the two return toward the plaza together, her hand still holding his arm. Carter describes her as a young woman who watched over him with a motherly solicitude. His account places this attachment beside the loyalty of the dog: both relationships offer a striking contrast to the green Martians’ limited regard for compassion and gratitude.

Shared Learning and Moral Alliance

As Carter’s captivity continues, Sola takes responsibility for training him alongside a newly acquired young Martian. Her duties have doubled, but she teaches them together; under her instruction Carter begins to acquire the language and to develop his ability to sense telepathic messages. Their connection thus includes sustained instruction as well as immediate protection. Sola helps him negotiate a society and communication system that would otherwise leave him isolated, while Carter learns in the same setting as a young Martian under her care.

Sola’s opposition to cruelty becomes especially important when Carter considers helping another captive. She argues in defense of a red woman who has not harmed them and condemns the green Martians’ continuing violence, including the fighting within their own communities. Her speech reveals that she sees their social order not as inevitable or admirable but as a terrible condition from which death may seem a release. Carter is surprised by her open protest; it confirms both her sympathy for the captive and her hatred of barbarity. He concludes that he can depend on Sola to help him and the woman escape if escape proves possible, and resolves to ask her directly for assistance.

Significance and Limits

Sola’s care makes trust possible in a relationship that begins under unequal conditions: Carter is a prisoner, and Sola belongs to the community holding him. Yet the evidence emphasizes her freely enacted kindness rather than a formal change in his status. She provides food and warmth, searches for him, checks him after danger, and teaches him; Carter, in turn, comes to recognize her as an ally whose compassion sets her apart. The relationship also shapes his understanding of the society around them. Against the communal cruelty he observes, Sola’s concern demonstrates that resistance to its customs can emerge from within the green Martian community.

The relationship is not presented as a romance. Its defining terms are caretaking, trust, instruction, and a shared moral response to cruelty. Sola’s attachment is expressed through practical acts, while Carter’s account gives those acts lasting importance by repeatedly contrasting them with the indifference he encounters elsewhere. Their bond does not by itself resolve the danger of captivity, but it gives Carter a dependable companion and a possible collaborator as he begins to imagine escape.