Tobias MacIvey: My favorite character

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While reading Tobias portion of "A Land Remembered" I instantly felt a kinship to him and his life. I understand what it is like to live in an inhospitable region of the world where waking up alive in the morning is a gift. Tobias MacIvey is the main character of the first generation in the book, essentially like the patriarch of the family. His wife is named Emma and his son is named Zechariah. He began his life and gained his wealth as a cattle rancher and later came to own an orange farm. I too come from a cattle and farming background so I can completely relate with the struggles and emotional toll that an occupation like farming and ranching can take on a person's soul.

When people are dependent on the land for survival they tend to cherish it more. Tobias had that sense of responsibility within him. He understood that the land only gives you as much as you give it back. If you misuse it and treat it poorly you have the ability of losing your life's work not to mention the lives of you and your families. He also understood that the harshness of an agrarian existence requires you to rely on other people for your survival. His friendship with the Indians is proof of his ability to overcome cultural differences and work together for basic survival. And this works out for him because after he assists the Indians they give him two dogs for his kindness which are named Nip and Tuck , further establishing Tobias view that the world will always reward those who do for others. He is a strong person but he is also surprisingly kind.

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Tobias is the patriarch of the family. However the wealth that he amasses I believe plays a part in the downfall of his family. His son Zachariah has a child with an Indian mistress and his grandson Solomon who begins his life as a rich entitled snob until his soul is saved by Bonnie the waitress. She
awakens him to the destruction that his irresponsibility has caused to the land that his grandfather loved so much. Tobias legacy should have been that of hard work and a respect of the life that the land gives us. Instead we see the moral responsibility to care for the land decline in each proceeding generation, as a want for comfort outweighs the sense of duty to care for that which gives us life.

Tobias and I are kindred spirits, or I guess I should say my grandfather and Tobias are kindred spirits and I am the result of a proper transfer of moral responsibility to the land and the life it gives. My sense of place was shaped by the environment in which I was raised. In a place where snow and ice are present on the ground for six months out of the year, and temperatures can easily plummet to -60 below wind chill, without a respect and love of nature and place someone could not survive in an environment like northern Minnesota. The summers are brutal hot filled with mosquitos and humidity and the winters easily reach 10 feet of snow and temperatures with wind chills of more than sixty degrees below zero. Where Tobias dealt with hurricanes and wildfire, we struggle with tornados and violent snowstorms. However a love of place can make these things seem trifling and with an appropriate attitude existing in harsh environments such as Florida and Minnesota can be rewarding. The legacy that my grandfather passed to me and that I will pass on to my family is one of respect and indebtedness to the land that gives us life. I will teach my children to hunt, track, trap, and fish just as I was taught along with the conservation and restraint that is required to ensure that the wildlife, and the land that we are blessed with will be available not only for my grandchildren but for generations and generations to come. Conservation requires us to think beyond ourselves and remember that while we may want to shoot an arrow at every buck, doe and turkey that crosses our cross hairs, we must only take that which we can use, because if we become greedy and focus only on ourselves we will forfeit the very right we have to take that which the land gives us. That will be my legacy, not one of technologically addicted children who cant tell a bobcat scat trail from dropped choke berries.