THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 2022 THE FOUR WINDS

 THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 2022 THE FOUR WINDS

This week I’m looking at three books that challenged me.  So far I’ve looked at Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and The Shack by William Young.  Today is a new author to me (although I think she is well known).  

The Four Winds synopsis:

“In The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, Elsa (Wolcott) Martinelle is a woman trying to raise two children on a farm in the Great Plains during the Dust Bowl following the Great Depression. She watches as the lands around her crack in their perpetually parched state and the hopelessness threatens to break the spirit of those around her.

“As the situation worsens, Elsa is forced to make a decision to stay and fight or leave for the uncertain and unfamiliar lands in the West. In this tale, Kristin has written a survival story about resilience, love, family, courage, and the American Dream.

*****

Karen’s view:

Elsa grew up unloved.  She was plain, never heard anything positive about her.  Her father, a stern man, told her she would never amount to anything.  The only love she had had was her grandfather.  At age 25 with her sisters getting married, Elsa slips out to go to a speakeasy bar - a real radical move for her.  A young man finds her and they have sex.  Over the next several months this ugly duckling has sex with this younger man - and boom - she is pregnant. 

Her parents call her trash.  Her father insists on knowing who the man is.  Elsa mistakenly blurts it out, and her father takes her to the farm of the young man and leaves her there - disowned by her family.

The young man is engaged to another woman and is about ready to take the train to Chicago to get a college education.  The two families are radically different, stern evangelical parents for Elsa and Catholic immigrants from Italy for Raf.  

The Italian immigrant family forces the two to get married.  Elsa still is unloved.  She works hard to win the admiration of the young man’s parents.  

Boom - the Great Depression hits, and the Great Plains dust bowl hits.  Double whammy.  Raf doesn’t love Elsa. He was cheated out of a college education and a real marriage by his sexual whims.  As the crops fail and the dust storms roll in, he complains and looks to go to California - the land of milk and honey.  And, one morning, he slips out and disappears (never to be seen again in the book).

The next three years are abysmal as Elsa and her inlaws fight the elements.  Elsa’s daughter hates her mother, lionized her father, and hates life (as a teenager).  Ultimately the inlaws scrape together some money and send Elsa, the daughter, and the young son to California.  

It is a tough journey trekking across New Mexico, Arizona, and the Mojave Desert.  Elsa pictures getting a job, but she is labeled a “dirty Okie”.  (Their hometown of Dalhart Texas is on the border between the Oklahoma panhandle and New Mexico - so she is really a “Texan”, but the labels stick).  Everybody is going west, everybody is broke, everybody has heard the promises of California.

Elsa, Loreda, and Ant (short for Anthony) find a pretty land, but no jobs - especially for a woman with two children.  On the first day she gets work, she scrubs floors and does tedious cleaning for forty cents.  They live in a squatter’s shantytown next to a dirty sewage river and their money goes down.  

The immigrants - so desirous of a place to fit in, of a land of milk and honey - get booted and taken advantage of.  As more people pour into the central valley the greedy bosses can lower their wages, and can really take advantage of the people who will do almost anything for a loaf of bread.

The climax is where a cotton farmer cuts his pay rate by 10% on consecutive days, raises the rent on his employees only shacks, and raises the prices at the company store.  A riot ensues, Elsa gets shot and dies.

Greed won again.

*****

Excuse me for some political thoughts.  This seems to be similar to the situation at the Texas-Mexico border.  People in abject poverty are seeking legitimate labor at a reasonable wage.  “Dirty Okies” they get called.  The teachers search the children’s hair for lice.  The bosses know that the people are desperate.  

**

We get told that the people on our borders are all drug dealers, felons, and undesirable; while most seem to just want a better life in this land of “milk and honey”.  They are going to take our American jobs, they are going to all be on welfare, all their children will be in schools that they didn’t pay taxes for.  “Illegals”, “Dirty Mexicans”.  

Yes, life isn’t fair, but for people who want a better life and will work hard to achieve it, the greed of the “ins” overwhelms the possibilities.  

My Jewish Rabbi of the first century says “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

But, this Jewish Rabbi also rewards honest work. “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more.  But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master’s money.

 “After a long time, the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.  The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’ 

And, the man who hid the master’s money in the ground, “And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

*****

Using your God-given talents to make a living seems to be encouraged in this book.  The heroine doesn’t want handouts but wants meaningful work so she can feed her family, and cloth them with something other than rags.  

*****

Okay, three days of books that touched me - reached me.  (And, I don’t think I’m done yet.)

Tomorrow a Love Wins Friday - then a Saturday Story (can I start to write fiction as good as these three authors?), and Sunday Funday!!!

LOVE WINS!!

Karen

March 24, 2022