This Other Eden

As Part 1 concludes, the lives of the people on the island are further explored, and the consequences of the state’s visit to the island are revealed, highlighting the theme of Government Interference in Marginalized Communities. Ethan, the son of Eha, develops his art, and his talent is so pronounced that Matthew finds a place for him to paint on the mainland. However, more importantly, he selects Ethan to escape the coming eviction because Ethan can pass as white and, therefore, move through mainland society in a way that is impossible for the other islanders. This awareness in Matthew, which he also recognizes in Esther, speaks to the racist views of people on the mainland: They take issue with what is visibly different and only care about the appearance of whiteness and maintaining social order. In finding a place for Ethan, Matthew Diamond demonstrates his desire to fit Ethan within a flawed society, an act which is only possible because of his appearance and exceptional talent as an artist. This further suggests that exceptionalism is the only path to escape an “othered” identity. Anxiety builds in Ethan as his departure approaches, as he worries about the connection to his family and home dissolving after he leaves. While he wishes to pursue art, he also recognizes that doing so will remove him from his family and change him forever. The state, meanwhile, plans to eradicate the Apple Island community, and prepares to take the island. The state also prepares to place some of the islanders in the State School for the Feebleminded, which demonstrates their complete lack of autonomy or human rights following the island’s inspection.

Ethan is a gifted artist, and he perceives himself and his circumstances through his art, highlighting the theme of Art as Personal Expression. In one case, as he draws a dead bird, his own thoughts turn to mortality as he reflects on the story of Noah, imagining the survivors returning after the flood to find corpses and death. Noah’s ark comes to represent elements of the story of Apple Island itself: The inhabitants are isolated and surrounded—or even protected—by water, and their safety has long been the physical structure of the island. However, unlike an ark, an island cannot move, so the inhabitants cannot escape the threats from the mainland. Instead, escape comes in the form of Ethan’s removal from the island. In leaving his family and the island and exploring the wider world for the first time, Ethan begins a contrasting journey to Noah’s: Rather than retreating from the world, he will venture deeper into it, and where Noah took those he loved most with him, Ethan will journey alone.

As the days until his departure grow closer, Ethan feels more and more anxiety over leaving his family, as Family Legacy Across Generations is a fundamental pillar of the Apple Island community. The island is the only home he knows, and he values the relationships with his siblings, father, and grandmother more than anything. He begins thinking of the legacy he will leave and how his departure will change the relationships he holds so dear. In leaving the island, Ethan fears that he will be erased: “He didn’t want to disappear from his family’s life, their memories, their pictures of him in their heads, didn’t want them to forget him” (99). Ethan wants to leave a legacy that is built on shared time together, and this wish cannot exist alongside his art education. He is on a different path than the rest of the Honeys, and it is one that will lead him away from the island and his family. Notably, Ethan’s fear of fading from memory is actually a fate that better represents the other islanders, as the government plans to erase all evidence of their existence on the island. Further, Ethan grew up hearing stories about Benjamin and Patience Honey, and his conception of family is tied to Apple Island; he is unsure of how he will fit into that legacy for future generations if he does not remain with his family. This speaks to the importance of family and tradition within this isolated community that remains uninfluenced by mainstream American values; while mainlanders view them as “primitive,” they have retained a more collective, community-oriented lifestyle that allows stories like that of Benjamin and Patience Honey to become almost mythic. Indeed, the tale of Patience Honey raising the flag to stop the flood water not only serves as a powerful memory for people on the island, but it also again signals to the story of Noah: In memory and family lore, Patience stopped the flood, which represented an exterior force threatening to overtake the island. Now, a second exterior force is coming, and in separating the community, it is weakened. This suggests that people are stronger in groups, and the arrival of an outsider like Matthew Diamond, someone who imagines himself as superior to the people on the island, presents a threat to the group. In removing Ethan, Matthew Diamond believes he is saving him. In actuality, he is initiating the separation of the community and furthering the idea of the undesirable other by taking the only person who passes as white.

As Ethan prepares for his departure, the state makes plans to move all the islanders off Apple Island permanently. Through excerpts, Harding reveals the workings of the state as it plans the eviction. The government cites humanity and public health as reasons for the eviction, but take further steps, promising to separate the islanders and prevent the community from taking shape again elsewhere. They plan to do so by violating the islanders’ autonomy, possessing the island, and sending seven members to the State School for the Feebleminded. The government of Maine plans to seize the land that the Honeys and others live on and then completely remove some of the islanders from society by placing them under the care of the state, exemplifying the theme of Government Interference in Marginalized Communities, in which the government not only plans to take the land from the community, forcing them off it and then using the land for its own purposes, but also violating the community’s autonomy by denying them the freedom to choose what they will do once they are evicted. By placing some members under state control, the government can ensure that they do not interact with society. Additionally, with theories of eugenics on the rise, the state plans on committing these islanders with the goal of preventing them from extending their families, erasing the community by not only severing the ties between the families but also ensuring that the families will die out with the current people on the island.

This section also explores Esther’s relationship with her father, a man who raped and impregnated her. Esther privately recalls the moment when she pushed him off of the bluffs and into the water, where he fell to his death. This followed her own attempt to drown baby Eha, only to be saved by Zachary. Through this memory, the power of water is explored as a force of change, death, and rebirth: Water washed away Esther’s abusive father after it had, in essence, purified herself and baby Eha, cleansing them of any parts of her father. When Zachary finds them cold and wet and takes them home, he demonstrates the value of Family Legacy Across Generations: Though he is not blood, Zachary feels a deep bond with the other islanders, and it is based on loyalty and protection, a legacy that endures.