Previous
Part 3
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in This Other Eden, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Family
Eugenics and Racism
Survival and Community
The Power of Art
Summary
Analysis
It only takes about a year to remove all evidence of the Apple Islanders’ settlement from the island. The morning after the original residents leave, laborers come to dig holes for posts and to plant crops. They dig up the local cemetery and remove all the coffins. About an hour after the laborers arrive, they notice Zachary Hand is still there. Zachary Hand just watches while the workers insult him.
The disrespect that the workers show to the coffins shows how they don’t value the lives of the Apple Islanders. The process of digging holes for crops comes across as violent here, unlike the apple trees of Benjamin Honey, which came out of a more balanced relationship with nature.
Themes
Zachary Hand leaves the workers and goes to see where his house and all the other remaining buildings on the island are burning. He goes to his hollow tree and sees that the men haven’t burned it yet. After inspecting his Biblical carvings one last time, he burns the tree himself before the laborers can do it and then heads out toward the water.
The men burning the buildings struggle for a while with the Larks’ house. Eventually, they have to soak the whole building in kerosene. The two dogs come over to see the fire, and a man shoots them both in the head.
The shooting of the dogs further illustrates the violent relationship these men have with nature and how they don’t appreciate what was good about the island.
Themes
The men continue to dig up bones, and they put what they find into boxes. They don’t like the work, but many of them can’t afford to walk away from a job. One man watches Zachary Hand wading into the channel. He’s waist-deep, and he’s carrying an old patched-together flag over his head. As the light shines on Zachary Hand, he looks like an angel.
The image at the end of Zachary Hand holding the flag up as he goes into the water recalls the image of Patience holding the flag up during the flood. The novel ends at a moment of uncertainty, where it is unclear whether the flag stays above water or goes under (signaling the end of the last remnants of Apple Island). Given the angelic imagery and what happened earlier with Patience, the implication seems to be that the spirit of Apple Island will endure, at least in some form.
Themes
Get the entire This Other Eden LitChart as a printable PDF.
