Rather than selecting quotes from this story, choose a character from the book. Briefly describe who the character is and their role in the novel. How does the character relate to their environment and the natural world? What is the character’s sense of place and legacy? How do you relate to this character? What is your sense of place and how does this relate to the character? What is your legacy and how does it relate to the character? Compare and contrast.
Zech MacIvey
Zech MacIvey is the son of Tobias MacIvey, and father of Solomon MacIvey. He was raised by his father in the Hammock of Southern Florida. Zech only talked to 2 females in this book, excluding his mother, and slept with both of them. He helped his father, Tobias, with the maintaining of the "MacIvey Cattle Company" by assisting in the capturing, branding, and transporting of swamp cows from the areas around their home to Punta Rassa. Zech relates to his environment similar to that of the seminoles, who he shares not only similar ideals, but also a son.
I think Zech MacIvey failed his father and failed as a father by the way he raised his son, Solomon. The cause of this failure could become a masters-degree dissertation in and of itself. I'd say its a combination of his affair with Tawanda, his reaction to Solomon's selling of birds to stupid rich people, and the death of his wife, Glenda.
When Glenda, Zech, and Solomon were traveling, they ended up in a city that had a shop that sold exotic birds. Solomon found the shop fascinating, and got an idea. He asked for some money from his father, bought some empty cages from the bird shop, and a few hours later, was found by his father selling small birds to the locals. Solomon told the locals that the birds were "kookabens," and "they'll turn green and red when they grow up." Zech knew and told his son that the birds were really baby buzzards. But instead of scolding his son for being dishonest and ordering that he stops the scam and refunds the money to the townsfolk, he brushes it off as good fun, and later lies to his wife about it when Sol exclaims that he wants to use the money he made to buy land.
Zech traveled to the Seminole village after being shot in the foot, hoping that their medicine man can heal him better than the doctor in Punta Rasa. Instead of making this a learning experience for his son, that the modern world doesn't necessarily have all of the answers and that some things can be accomplished through more uncommon methods used by the Seminoles, he tells the boy he's raised since birth that he has a brother, and that his father cheated on his mother with a Seminole woman. Although the boys do become friends, I believe that its Zech’s drive for maintaining and expanding their farm and vast wealth that prevents the two boys from learning from one-another, specifically Solomon learning from Toby, Zech's bastard son. Zech makes Sol promise to never tell his mother about Toby, which makes Sol question the trustworthiness of his father, and the lessons that Zech tries to bestow on him.
When Glenda died, Zech told his son Solomon that he shouldn't worry about women, since they'll eventually die and you, the man, will be crushed. "Sol, don't ever get yourself tied up with a woman. It's like owning dogs. You get to liking them, and it hurts powerful when they go away. And they all go away. If you get to lovin' a woman too much, it'll bring pain and sorrow when she leaves you. It's done hurt me twice, and the pain of it is pure awful. It'll never go away. Don't let it happen to you."
What is wrong with this series of statements? This is what I think ultimately causes the complete failure of Zech's fatherhood, and the cause of Sol's spiral from the nature-loving steward of the environment like his father, toward the money-grubbing destroyer of natural beauty that he becomes. In this lesson, Zech encourages his son to forget seeking a mate, since their eventual death overshadows all happiness that can come out of the relationship. This idea is appalling on so many levels. The biggest one is that Zech is saying this, about his wife, to his son, meaning that if he, Zech, were to have taken the advice that he was currently bestowing to his son, then his son, ironically, wouldn't have existed in the first place! This implies that Zech thinks his love, marriage, and all that came of the relationship, including their son Zech, was a mistake. Horrible.
Not only that, but Sol takes his father's advice, which makes him shift any focus he may have had, or would have had, away from seeking a mate. This makes Zech become a workaholic. This, along with the lack of lessons on natural stewardship, and the importance of sharing the natural world with all that his father never seemed to get around to endowing him with, and with the land that he bought through the scamming of innocent people, Solomon completely shifts away from what the past 2 generations of MacIvey have acted, and becomes a rapist of the natural world. He cares more about money than anything else, betraying his father's legacy. Zech failed to teach his son the importance of the greater good, like when he saw all of the animals, predator and prey, seek refuge at a water hole during a drought.
Sol realized his failure when he visited his family home to find that it was torn down, replaced with orange groves. Donovan, the man who was hired to take care of the grove, exclaimed that Sol should be happy of his actions. It would mean more money for the company. His blindness and lust for money was the cause of the destruction of his family home. Ironically he realized that he did the exact same thing to the custard apple forests to plant vegetables, which led to Toby hating the actions and yelling at Sol.
Even after seeing this irony, he still sold all of his undeveloped land as lots. He then mirrored his “kookabens” scam by selling the land at huge inflated prices, only to buy them back with the same money after the prices plummeted due to a destructive hurricane.
Zeck MacIvey created the monster that created the MacIvey Empire. That is his legacy.
I relate to this character very little. I am educated, was born in a wealthy family, and have spent more of my life inside than out. I may have never seen the things that Zeck MacIvey has seen, but I appreciate how he tried to save the land before its ultimate destruction, even though he failed to explain the importance of preservation to his son.
My legacy is still unfinished, but if my intuition and predictions serve me correctly, I will become a world-famous environmental engineer who solved the climate crisis with a yet-unknown form of clean energy that sequesters carbon greater than anything currently known. I will then run for US senate, and push forth sweeping legislation to tax carbon emitters and create a more natural and healthy world. I will be sure to impart in my children the importance of working with nature, and how not to destroy it, unlike Zech.
