43 pages • 1 hour read
One Foot in Eden
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Themes
The Ambiguities of Justice and Morality
Rash explores The Ambiguities of Justice and Morality through the many complexities surrounding Holland’s murder. Because Billy knows that killing Holland is ethically wrong, the narrative highlights the many ways in which guilt causes individuals to punish themselves for their crimes even in the absence of the law’s intervention. Through each narrator’s perspective, Rash reveals the gray areas of morality and examines how individuals go to justify their actions.
Because Billy gets away with murder, he never experiences justice through the South Carolina legal system. However, Billy’s belief in God and the consequences of sin convince him that he will have to pay for his crime in some way. Although Amy trusts in superstition more than religion, she also believes implicitly that she and Billy will suffer from some form of cosmic retribution. This punishment-based morality haunts Amy and Billy for the rest of their lives. Even though they do not face the punitive actions of a court system, their mindset shows the psychological torture that they undergo while they raise Isaac. Their belief system sets up God as their judge, who stands ready to punish them at any time.
Although Amy and Billy adhere to a religious set of morals, Amy’s justification over her affair reveals the gray area around their morality system. Amy seduces Holland to get pregnant, but she justifies her actions by making herself believe that it does not mean anything. To ameliorate her guilty conscience, Amy sets superficial boundaries, such as refusing to let Holland kiss her on the lips. Likewise, she does not allow him into her bed because this limitation lets her fool herself into believing that she is not really cheating on Billy. Amy does not want to face the reality and potential consequences of her affair, so she makes rules for herself to pretend that everything she does is in service to her marriage.
Although Will’s job is to uphold the law, he also exhibits significant moral ambiguities, for he has no desire to prosecute Billy even after Billy confesses to murdering Holland. Even though he knows that he should arrest Billy, Will gives Isaac authority in making the decision about whether to bring Holland’s remains back to Bobby or to leave them in Jocassee. This decision shows that Will understands the emotional and psychological toll that the murder has taken on the Holcombes, particularly on Isaac, who has only just learned about it. However, Isaac’s choice prevents the law from punishing his parents, and they must then suffer a more supernatural form of justice, as is implied by their sudden deaths by drowning.
The Impact of Secrets on Human Behavior
By juxtaposing differing narratives of the same events, Rash reveals how each character’s secrets influence their decisions. Additionally, by using multiple flashbacks to season the narrative and add necessary exposition, Rash implies that people carry more beneath the surface than they will ever be willing to express outwardly. The weight of complex personal histories and past secrets highlights the fact that the characters’ experiences influence who they will become, and as the story unfolds, their shared secrets either unite them or tear them apart.
Rash employs multiple narrators to heighten the novel’s suspense, but this approach also reveals many hidden insights into the character’s contrasting perspectives. For example, Will’s sorrow over Janice’s miscarriage foreshadows the impact that secrets and past trauma can have, for in his case, his grief binds him to his wife despite their dissatisfaction with the relationship. This situation allows him to implicitly understand that certain events can tie people together indefinitely. Similarly, Amy and Billy keep the secret of the murder between them, promising each other that they will never speak of it, even in private. However, rather than tearing them apart, the murder brings Amy and Billy closer together because they have proven their love for each other. Amy and Billy’s secret unites them in a way that Will and Janice’s tragedy does not because their survival fuels their deception. Billy and Amy know that the only way that they can escape punishment from the law is to trust each other to keep the secret.
Each character in the novel makes choices based upon their personal history and secret fears. However, Amy and Billy spend their lives covering up their secrets, until Mrs. Winchester finally exposes them. In the moment when everything is revealed, Amy shows her twisted perception of her secret when she begs Isaac not to believe what Mrs. Winchester says, even if it is the truth. Amy and Billy have lied to Isaac and Jocassee for so long that they have come to embody the lies that they created to hide their secrets, and Isaac’s knowledge of their past threatens to topple that illusion. Amy and Billy do not want to face the truth of their past because they do not want to tarnish Isaac’s idealized view of them. However, Isaac realizes that he does not know the personal experiences of his parents or understand what led them to kill Holland, so he decides to trust them. Since they never get to explain fully, the truth of Amy and Billy’s past dies with them, forgotten and washed away with the river.
Cultural Connections to the Land
The characters’ deep connections to Jocassee Valley underline the entire narrative, and Will’s frequent contemplations explicitly highlight this relationship. As Will investigates Holland’s murder, he contemplates the meaning behind Carolina Power’s decision to evict the residents of Jocassee Valley, and he sees implicit connections between this event and the history of displacement suffered by the Cherokee people. Will’s listless feelings pervade the narrative until Carolina Power drives the farmers out of the valley, forcing every character to leave the only home they have ever known.
Will’s cultural connections to both the Cherokee people and the European colonizers gives him a different perspective on Carolina Power’s plans to destroy the landscape and create a reservoir. Will believes that Carolina Power’s decision to displace the local population is no different than the US government’s decision to force Indigenous peoples onto reservations. Carolina Power’s decision therefore represents a form of combined racism and classism because the company’s actions will erase the Cherokee people’s history and the history of the poor farmers who have tilled the land for years. Even though Will has become a sheriff, he remembers what it is like to farm the land and respects the fact that the locals’ livelihood depends upon preserving the land. Carolina Power clearly has no respect for nature or what it represents to the people of Jocassee. Will fears that the cultural and personal history of the valley will be erased when the water floods the area and permanently displaces its people. Within this context, Will sees a particular significance in the story of the Cherokee princess Jocassee, who drowned and whose body was never recovered. Will fears that the same fate awaits his family and all the people who lived in Jocassee before them, for the water will eventually erase the memory of their existence. The recurring symbolism of fire and water illustrates this point, especially when Mrs. Winchester burns herself and her house rather than allowing the water to obliterate her home and her history. Similarly, Will’s understanding that water represents the act of forgetting is demonstrated when he does not want to move the bodies from the cemetery. He understands that the people buried in the cemetery lived and died by the land, and he believes that their bodies should remain with the land. Will fears that moving the bodies to another cemetery creates the illusion that Jocassee itself never existed.
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By Ron Rash
