t to bethe moral of the story, or that love was the basisof this particular novel, but I do think that afterreading this that it was necessary in order to behappy. Of course, in one instance, love did end in heartbreak, desolation, and destruction with thescenario of Emil and Maria. But in every story,there has to be a sad moment or a fatality thatoccurs. But overall, it seemed like Alexandrawasn’t going to be happy unless Carl came back andshe could be with him. Also, she acted as if hermoney didn’t make her as happy as he did. Lou andOscar also had love in their life. They moved awayfrom the land in order to marry. Love took themover, not the land or the desire to be rich. Soyes, I do think that love is necessary for humanhappiness.Physically, I consider the men in the novel tobe the strongest. But if you look at what thepeople in the novel had to overcome, emotionally, Ithink the women were stronger. Well into thenovel, Lou and Oscar wanted to get rid of the landbecause they didn’t believe that it was worthanything. They kind of gave up. But Alexandra,being the strong one of the family, hung in thereand convinced them that it would one day be worth alot more than when they started out. Alexandra,throughout the whole novel had to deal with somebig tragedies. Her mother, father and brotherdying. Her best friend dying, Carl walking in andout of her life, and having Lou and Oscar on herback all the time. She was made to be thestrongest character of all. I found that the womenof this novel to be stronger than the men.I never really considered generational valuesall that important until I read this story. Whiletrying to wear Alexandra’s shoes, it made merealize that the things we carry on generationafter generation keep getting more and morevaluable. For example, farming that land meantmore to John Bergson than anything it seemed like. He wanted to keep that land for generations to comebecause he...
