Values That Should Not Be Forgotten

Published on April 30, 2010 by Amy Merrill (IAM Readers Guild, OKC)

Wendell Berry’s Hannah Coulter examines grief and hope, and how these feelings are rooted in a natural environment.  Despite the tremendous hardships she endures, Hannah Coulter finds restoration in working the land and serving her community.  Through Hannah’s narrative, Berry promotes dissipating agrarian values.  Technology has overshadowed the visible position of the farmer, thus creating a disconnection place of origin.  Berry attempts to capture the experience of a Southern woman through interaction with the land.  Although the veneer has blemishes, he depicts the attitude and hard work necessary for survival.  Hannah Coulter and her family depend upon the harvest of the land.  She connects to the land, her family, her community, and her faith.  The various areas of her life converge, providing a sense of wholeness.  Through Hannah, we learn the earth and caring for each other should not be forgotten.