The Land Remembered teaches us lessons of overall sustainability. The Land Remembered is a novel by Patrick Smith. It tells a story of a pioneer family detailing their progression through three generations the way that each generation interacts with the land and depicts the changes over time. The process of change emphasizes the importance of adaptation. Our generation’s lesson from this story is to focus on future sustainability and how we can adapt to more eco-friendly practices.
Tobias McIvey, the first generation character, was a simple man with integrity who had used the land and it environment to sustain his family. Taking his family from Georgia to Florida he encountered many hardships to survive and keep his family safe. With the help of the Indians he learned how to use the land and its inhabitants to make a better life. This is the reflection not only of a change in the land but also a change in the man. Corralling wild cows and fattening them up to sell was the real beginning of development. It is the author’s way of depicting how the environment truly defines who we are.
Zech McIvey, Tobias’s son, having grown up through all the experiences of learning to sustain his family, developed a love of the land. Living and exploring the wilderness, his only exposure was to the natural environment, which created his special bond with the animals and the land. As he grew older and went with his father on the cattle drives, he started to acquire tracts of undeveloped land. It almost gave the effect of a painter buying paint and a blank canvas. It seems that even though he might have had a vision of owning large amounts of land, he might not have been aware of the future implications of his actions. In developing the land, what happens to the vegetation and the animal was not part of his thought process.
The author depicted this character as the facilitator of