Over the course of three generations, the MacIveys make great progress. In many ways, the family’s story is a classic example of the American dream. The first generation struggles and makes profound sacrifices in order to survive and create more opportunities for its children; the second generation builds on the success of the first; and the third arrives at a position of wealth the vast majority of people can only dream of. But with mother nature itself the chief antagonist of the MacIveys, their progress comes at a great cost to the wilderness around them.

As Tobias toils away in the scrub in the 1860s, he needn’t think twice about killing a wild boar for food or razing a small plot of natural swampland to use as a vegetable garden. For his first few years on the frontier, the environmental impact of Tobias’s attempts to merely survive is infinitesimal compared to the size and power of his natural surroundings. The mere idea of man conquering the Florida swampland is absurd to Tobias. He tells Zech, “It’s big enough for everyone. There ain’t enough cows and people in the whole world to fill it up” (88). But as Tobias progresses from merely surviving on the frontier to conducting commerce on it, he begins to wonder about the appropriateness of his actions.