Specifications that use this resource:

Political and social protest writing - text overview

A text overview which shows how teachers can consider Harvest in relation to the genre of political and social protest writing.

We haven't covered every element of this genre. Instead we hope this guide will provide a springboard to help you plan, and to get you and your students thinking about the text in more detail.

Harvest

'I fear his harvesting. I think he means to shear us all, then turn us into mutton.'

Overview

Set in an indeterminate Medieval, Tudor or Elizabethan era, Harvest tells the story of the swift destruction of an isolated rural community due to the decision of the new master, Edmund Jordan, to enclose the land and begin sheep-farming. Thus this will be their "last harvest" and the only world they know will be "unmade" in merely seven days in an inversion of the Christian story of creation.

The disregard of a rural community and destruction of their natural way of life for profit 

The central issue that the novel explores is the manner in which the people are dispossessed and their way of life is destroyed in the name of profit and progress. The land that the community has known and worked for generations ("since Adam's time" seemingly) is to be enclosed; the new master intends "the enclosing and engrossing of our fields with walls and hedges, ditches, gates. He means to throw a halter round our lives. He means the clearing of our common land. He means the cutting down of trees".  Thus there is destruction of the villagers' natural rhythms where they work harmoniously with nature, in contrast to the materialistic and aberrant urban existence where people believe food is "magicked up from God knows where". It is this prospect and the knowledge that "our final harvest might have come and gone" that ominously haunts the entire novel. The new master's acts are seen in purely materialistic terms – he has no affinity with the land but would "prefer to remain in his great merchant house…and simply check the figures"; he has no regard for old feudal codes where a master has responsibility to his people, but rather claims "we should not deceive ourselves that in a modern world a common system such as ours which only benefits the commoners…could earn the admiration of more rational observers." Rather, he intends to make the land profitable, even if this means destroying its natural beauty, so he questions "How can it profit us that there are trees…We would be wise to hew it down and trade its timber". "Profit, Progress, Enterprise…are his [Jordan's] private Muses". Thus regardless of the fact that this enclosure results in the disenfranchisement and eviction of the people who have maintained and loved the land, he intends to rob them "of their spirits and their futures, as well as of their fields" for personal gain. As such, Crace condemns this destruction of rural living and English countryside and the way in which the people are seen as mere commodities.  Jordan intends to "quantify and measure" them and so they become a kind of human harvest, dehumanised by their landlord and replaced by sheep (as perhaps anticipated by the shearing of Mistress Beldame and her fellows).

Progress and modernity

Although Jordan's behaviour is presented as callous and driven by greed, there is an ambiguity about the necessity of his actions. This is a community where "Plenty, here, has wed itself to Leanness" and where their sole task is "to defend ourselves against hunger [although]…The clamour deafens us." It is an introspective community, where justice is poorly managed and where rivalries and arguments dangerously flare up. It is not a way of life that appears sustainable – it is too hard and bloody and thus some form of progress however unwelcome does indeed appear necessary.

Isolationism

The novel could also be said to examine the dangers of isolationism (a particularly poignant political issue given the debates over Scotland's independence, immigration and Britain's position in the EU). The villagers in Harvest are a community that does not welcome outsiders and their determination to isolate themselves can be perceived as part of their downfall. Despite being amongst them some twelve years, Thirsk counts himself "amongst those aliens" and is aware that he will be one of the first they turn upon and yet their failure to involve him means that they do not gain his knowledge about their land.  The three strangers are greeted with violence and hostility that results in loss of life and tragedy when they could have proved useful extra hands. This is perhaps particularly ironic given the fact that the villagers, by the end of the novel, will be placed in the same position as the earlier strangers, begging for acceptance in a foreign community. The Village itself is cut off from the outside world, which is "two days by post horse, three days by chariot" away, and thus the villagers have no knowledge or understanding of the world beyond their boundaries, which places them in a precarious position when they are forced to emigrate. Their closed community has also evidently resulted in struggle and inbreeding so they "live in a rookery…just like rooks we have begun to sound and look the same," which in turn means there are not enough women for the men to marry (hence their lustful excitement at the appearance of Mistress Beldame). Their situation also means they have "not had much success with breeding their inheritors or raising sturdy offspring". They are also a Godless community (there is no church) and there are no law courts or vestiges of human civilsation. In cutting themselves off from the outside world and failing to welcome new blood, the members of the community could be seen to be the authors of their own degeneration and so the novel could be read as a condemnation of blind isolationism.

Mob mentality and violence

The novel could also be said to explore the dangers of mob mentality and violence. It was written in the wake of the London riots of 2011 so in this respect it could gain significance.  The people of the village "unmake" their own world as much as their new master does. Their fears about the outsiders, who announce their arrival with an ominous smoke signal, are understandable given the fact that their living is so meagre that it barely sustains their own people, so they view newcomers as "funguses that seek to feed on us". Nonetheless, their brutal welcoming as they march towards the newcomers and "strike the dwelling on its roof", leaving its inhabitant with "blood…marking her cheeks like tears", is savage and inhuman. It is this first act of mob mentality that then leads to further tragedy – the death of Mistress Beldame's father, the killing of Willowjack in revenge and the imprisonment of the "three witches" who are accused and tortured.

Likewise, although the village has a just grievance against its treatment by Jordan and his men, the violent manner in which they tackle and express their frustration when they attack his groom and horrifically slash his face with a pruning blade "widening his…quipping mouth, from lip to cheek" is grotesque and barbaric. It is an attack that turns the people into animals – "a hundred angry, waspy fists" – and ultimately results in their self-removal from the land as they are all too aware that their attack on their new master's man will result in severe punishment. Thus Crace, even as he sympathises with the villagers' plight, condemns their mob violence and presents it as bringing about their own eviction from Eden.

Social division

The novel explores the deep divide between the rich and poor, the powerful and the powerless. With the arrival of Jordan, this division is made all the more obvious, as is the inequality of a social system that keeps the poor oppressed and rewards those who already have status and riches with yet more. This comment, from a Marxist perspective, also resonates beyond the novel. Whilst Thirsk points out that "all we require for our estate is earth for carpeting, rubble walls and a pair of heart cross-beam timers", by contrast the wealthy "want cossetting" and "sleep in fine linen or silky camlet sheets". More significant still, whereas the ordinary labourers work on the land, know it intimately and have been there for generations, it is still the rich who own it and can dispossess their tenants on a whim – a right that Jordan crudely and cruelly exercises.

Abuse of power 

Politically, the novel also explores the abuse and misuse of power. Whilst Master Kent is described as an "even-handed, subtle Caesar" who attempts to sustain and protect his village, he is ultimately seen as inept. He fails to recognise who the true culprits are concerning the burning of his dovecote; he is unable to stand up to his cousin Jordan or prevent his torture of the local women; his "modest punishment" for the newcomers of a week in the pillory and for each to humiliatingly "have your head shaven" proves thoughtless and unjust. Moreover, Thirsk says "he'd rather tolerate a wrongdoer amongst his working hands than rob a family of their father, husband, son" implying that he is unable to control or maintain justice over his flock.

His soft-handed approach to ruling, however, is juxtaposed with the savage tyranny of Jordan, whose abuse of power is obvious. Jordan rules by instilling fear in the village occupants – threatening the killer of Willowjack that he "cannot expect to walk these lanes tomorrow" – and allowing the women, including a mere child, to be taken into "custody," and forced into confession through torture (Thirsk speculates that he "must have promised a free hand in their tormenting"). Even his treatment of his own men smacks of abuse as he straps the injured groom to a horse, forcing him to ride with the party, though Thirsk himself observes he is unlikely to survive the journey. Yet all this is intended to stamp his authority upon the people for, as Thirsk observes, "There's nothing like a show of heavy justice – and a swinging corpse – to persuade a populace not used to formal discipline that compliance in all matters – including those regarding wool and fences – is beyond debate."

From a political perspective, Crace thus asks the reader to contemplate these different styles of leadership, both of which are found wanting and prove destructive and to perhaps question how such an unruly populace could be justly and efficiently managed.

Treatment of women

It could also be argued that the novel explores the treatment of women and the roles into which they are almost stereotypically cast. Some women in this novel are cast as whores, such as Mistress Beldame, after whom the men lust and can use merely to satisfy their sexual pleasure, and the Widow Gosse, who Thirsk treats similarly. Alternatively, some are "sorceresses" – dangerous and dark when they are not controlled by men (Mistress Beldame is both object of desire and sorceress). Otherwise, they are either child bearers or seen as idols, such as Thirsk's and Master Kent's wives who, in death, are presented as pure and perfect despite their failure to bear their husbands children. Yet in all these roles, women remain ultimately powerless, their bodies inscribed with the identities their male counterparts place upon them and frequently suffering for the men's sins.

Injustice and punishment

The term 'justice' recurs repeatedly in this novel and Crace forces us to consider not merely the injustice of enclosure, but the injustices that occur in community life. For instance: the treatment of the newcomers, who are "punished unjustly because of our men's deceit and silence", results in the older stranger's gruesome death as well as the younger's suffering. Consequently, Thirsk admits "a mighty storm of reckoning was on its way. The air was cracking with the retributions and damnations that…I knew that some of us deserved" and thus the community's exile from their own land is in some way seen as a kind of poetic justice. Likewise, the treatment of the women, "dragged away like sows to face the consequences of their meddling" and then tortured without evidence in the "Jordan Court", is perceived as unjust as Jordan's men use the word "witchery" as license "to do precisely what they want". Yet, equally, the rough justice meted out by the mob on the groom, on whom "a thousand stinging grievances are" settled, is equally unjust and is an act for which the community is indirectly punished. Thus Crace presents a lawless world where justice is misapplied and inadequate. Those who suffer the most are often seen as the most innocent, such as Lizzie Carr, whilst the primary culprits, like the Derby twins, are allowed to slink away and the only individual who shows any courage or sensitivity to the notion of justice, Mr Quill, is savagely murdered and abandoned.

Acknowledgement of copyright-holders and publishers

Extracts from Harvest by JIM CRACE, Copyright© Jim Crace, 2013

This resource is part of the Elements of political and social protest writing resource package.