Individuals and the Community Theme Analysis

One of the novel’s chief preoccupations is the tension between the assertion of individual character and the preservation of the community as a whole. At the outset, most characters, especially Walter, scorn the idea of individuality; they identify more strongly as members of the village than as discrete beings, and their thoughts and feelings are oriented around the good of the community rather than personal aspirations. When Edmund Jordan announces his determination to find a culprit for the various “crimes” that have occurred in the village, however, he forces the townspeople to turn against each other in order to save themselves. The emergence of individual character thus occurs in a context of suspicion and blame. With the disintegration of the village at the end of the novel, its various families choose disparate paths, while Walter is alone after years of trying to find a place within the community. Ultimately, the novel presents individual development as a heart-wrenching, almost unnatural process; its final tragedy is that its characters are forced to assert themselves as individuals at the expense of the integrity of their community.

Walter’s loving description of the village rhythms shows that, at first, all the villagers prioritize their community over the development of individual characters. Since the community is based on collective enterprise for everyone’s benefit, no one needs to think for themselves; in fact, any assertion of individual aspirations would damage the community’s efficiency and cohesion.

The spirit of collective thinking is further reflected in the community’s remarkable homogeneity. Walter constantly remarks that everyone around him is blond. He also notes that since there are no mirrors, no one knows exactly what they look like; the lack of knowledge or even interest in their own reflection shows a remarkable level of individual effacement. In his narration, Walter also usually uses the pronoun “we,” couching descriptions of events and even thoughts and feelings on the community level. It’s especially notable that Walter presents such a communal narrative, given that he was born outside the village. As someone who has experienced other ways of life, Walter’s love for the village and desire to be completely subsumed in it provides an additional endorsement for this community’s way of life.

The villagers only develop individuality as a negative consequence of Edmund Jordan’s quest to dismantle their community structures in order to push them off their land. Jordan understands that the easiest way to overcome opposition to his plans is to investigate a largely invented series of crimes, encouraging the villagers to become more preoccupied with their personal safety than the good of the community. Understanding his days in the village may be numbered, Walter decides to seek employment with Mr. Quill. While this decision is logical, it inspires a lot of guilt in Walter; thinking on an individual level, even in terms of his own survival, feels like a betrayal of the community he loves.

This process is wrenching for the rest of the community as well, especially as Jordan intimidates them into naming the “culprits” in their midst. When Jordan tortures Anne Rogers and Kitty Gosse into confessing to witchcraft and naming their “accomplices,” the women accuse several of their neighbors. They later backtrack and say that they’re all “followers” of Mr. Quill, seeking to “redeem a little reputation for their men and friends” while casting the blame on someone outside the community. Here, the women wrestle for the first time with a conflict between their personal benefit and the benefit of the community at large. By portraying their first assertion of individuality in the context of torture and fear, the novel casts this development as a calamity and emphasizes its role in fracturing the community.

Amidst the break-up of the village, Walter loses the tight-knight community he loves. After everyone has fled the village, he fights against his new and unwelcome individuality by trying to preserve the customs of the community. Assisted by the Beldam husband, he begins to plow the common ground for winter wheat; however, he fails in this task because it requires the effort of all the village men and can’t be completed by a single individual. As he faces life alone, Walter tries to cultivate a friendship with Mistress Beldam and her husband, freeing them and allowing them to take supplies from the village because he hopes they’ll welcome him into his circle. His fantasy that “they will feed me, and I will leave this village in their company” shows his strong reluctance to think of himself as an individual rather than a member of a community, no matter how small.

However, the Beldams’ indifference to Walter, as well as the fact that they burn his beloved village after taking what they need, show that this dream of communal life is forever closed to him. As Walter leaves the village in the final chapter, he says that leaving “these common fields” is “heavy labor” for him. Saying that he’ll have to keep going “until I reach wherever is awaiting me,” he experiments with a singular pronoun instead of his familiar “we.” Correcting himself in the final sentence to “awaiting us,” he demonstrates not a renewed faith in his irrevocably broken community, but rather that his transformation from a member of strong community to a lone actor is difficult and wrenching.

Many novels, especially those of the contemporary era, feature a protagonist struggling to assert a positive individuality in the face of community norms. By instead focusing on the plight of people trying to preserve such norms against a new and destructive individuality, Harvest points out that the idea of strong individual character as inherently good is essentially a modern invention. Ultimately, the novel’s skepticism of individuality and nostalgia for the all-encompassing communities that vanished with modern life questions the wisdom of embracing modernity, especially when doing so involves disowning the mores of the past.