Content Warning: This section of the guide makes reference to violence, racism, anti-gay bias, and anti-trans bias. 

Throughout his novel, Barry returns to scenes that contrast the indifference and majesty of nature. An emphasis on the physical landscape of America is an established focus in novels that take place in the American West; Barry’s contribution to this tradition explores nature as something that is greater and more eternal than the comparatively petty and contemporary concerns of man. Barry juxtaposes the unfeelingness of nature with the emotionality of man to emphasize this contrast between them. For example, when the army rides towards the Yurok village intent on slaughter, Thomas’s first experience with war, he thinks, “There wasn’t any sense the trees needed us there. They were about their own business certainly” (38) even as he notes that the entire company feels compelled to silence in the presence of these trees. The steady permanence of the trees is contrasted with the urgency and speed of battle: Thomas recalls, “Two, three, four fell to my thrusts, and I was astonished not to be fired on, astonished at the speed and horror of the task, and the exhilaration of it, my heart now not racing but burning in my breast like a huge coal” (38).