3. What does these characters’ ideas about the future and the past say about them as characters? What sort of expectations does Tremain establish by delivering such information?

[Jen]

In the beginning of the novel husband, wife, and mother all think greatly about the future and the past – in some respects, an escape from their previous home and an expectation for their current one. Joseph comments on page 54 that: “All life...is a flight from mistake to mistake.” And while Lilian comments on page 29 that “nothing here is ever quite as one has imagined it” she then reveals she too has a “plan” for the future. What does these characters’ ideas about the future and the past say about them as characters? What sort of expectations does Tremain establish by delivering such information?

[Diane]

The characters carried great baggage and as time went on more of it unfolded. Learning from the past helped explain what was to come in the future.

[Connie]

Obviously we have different generations directing their gaze differently too, Lilian looking back while Joseph and Harriet look to the future (at least at the beginning of the book).

[Kristel]

Joseph was a selfish man. He never thought of anyone else, only himself. He viewed women as oppressive. Joseph was like his father. He was a gambler. A man who wanted a quick fix.

Harriet saw the land, the country of New Zealand as her future. She did not see the gold the same way as her husband either. She always thought of it as something she would share even though she too, kept her secrets.

Lillian hated being in New Zealand and away from all that she had been and made plans to return to England. I still liked her as she was willing to work to make things better for Harriet. I thought as a mother-in-law, she wasn't bad and far better than the son she married.