Fruits of the Earth by Frederick Philip Grove

First published: 1933

Type of work: Historical chronicle

Time of work: 1900-1920

Locale: The prairies, approximately fifty miles south of Winnipeg, Manitoba

Principal Characters:

• Abe Spalding, the protagonist, who embodies the essence of the pioneering spirit
• Ruth Spalding, his wife
• Charlie Spalding, his favorite child, who is accidentally killed
• Jim Spaldlng, his remaining son, who leaves the farm for the city
• Marion Spalding, his daughter, who leaves the farm to settle in Winnipeg
• Frances Spalding, his other daughter, who exemplifies the values of the new generation, youth and fast living
• Nicoll, a neighboring farmer, a close friend of Abe Spalding

The Novel

The original title of Fruits of the Earth was “The Chronicles of Spalding District.” Although the publishers were probably correct in suggesting the richer, more suggestive title, the original one best describes the nature of the realistic plot of the novel. The work offers a chronological record of Abe Spalding’s career, beginning with his arrival on the bare prairie, on which he is eventually to build a vast farmhouse and barns. Abe’s career is followed step-by-step to the peak of his economic success while, at the same time, there is a continuing revelation of why his great achievement is flawed.

The story, in fact, can easily be divided into two parts, a division the author himself uses to give shape to his material. Part 1, “Abe Spalding,” delineates the courageous, determined pioneer. Abe is shown as a man of epic proportions, a “giant in the earth,” a man capable of combating and, to a degree, of overcoming the forces of nature and society which oppose his success. Much of the focus of this first part is on revealing that Abe had to be dominant, at times even rigid, to be able to withstand the adversities nature and society sent his way. Repeatedly, Abe is shown as having the singleminded preoccupation necessary for building a substantial farm in a vast, empty plain.

Part 2, “The District,” traces what happens once Abe has used his tremendous resources to give shape and order to the environment. In effect, by demonstrating through will and determination that the land is arable, he has prepared the district for culture and civilization. This second section, however, stresses that singleness of determination is inadequate in the face of the varied and complex demands which will be placed on the world he created. The farm itself will, it is repeatedly suggested, decay, just as the grand and awesome structures of Egypt and Rome and Greece have decayed and fallen into disuse. In part, failure is inevitable, for no human achievement can withstand either the continuing forces of nature or the equally rapidly changing needs, wants, and desires of civilization. The novel begins to take on a tragic tone as it increasingly becomes clear that Abe’s heroic features are diminished in these circumstances. Once the environment is tamed, the pioneer’s task is done. He lives throughout most of the second half of the book as an anachronism. Ironically, he cannot settle down to enjoy the fruits of the earth for which he labored so magnificently.

The tragic fate of the pioneering spirit is made convincing and realistic in the novel by the author’s recording of the gradual collapse of Abe’s family. Abe’s favorite son, whom he hoped would carry on in his work, is accidentally killed at the moment when Abe’s fortunes are at their peak. Abe’s remaining son, Jim, is attracted to the city. Addicted to machinery rather than to farm life, Jim becomes a mechanic in Winnipeg. Abe has no success with his daughters, either. Marion also leaves farming to live in Winnipeg, and Frances, his remaining daughter, finds life on the prairies too tedious to tolerate. Frances is revealed as a young woman totally absorbed by the youthful culture of fast-paced living. The novel closes with the twilight of Abe’s hopes: The society he helped to create, he realizes in the end, has become too complex for him. His singleness of mind has fostered a complex social network with which he cannot cope.

The Characters

Because Fruits of the Earth is built so obviously around the central and dominating protagonist, a clear understanding of that character will show how the minor characters act as complements or foils to his all-important qualities. Abe Spalding may be counted among the most important creations of Canadian literature dealing with the pioneer spirit. He is given near-tragic dimensions, for he embodies the indomitable singleness of spirit required to combat nature, a singleness which also limits him from full participation in the society to which he gives birth.

Abe represents the duality which haunts so much of Canadian writing. On one hand, he is the striking, admirable individual of heroic stature who can, and does, overcome nature, at least in the immediate sense. He builds where there was nothing before him and therefore earns the reader’s respect and admiration. Moreover, he is an intelligent man who becomes, gradually, fully aware of his dilemma: He can build the foundations for a society, but he cannot sustain it.

Frederick Philip Grove is particularly masterful in his method of gradually allowing his protagonist to gain insight into his own flaw. Employing a third-person narrator, he usually describes the successes and failures of his main character from an exterior point of view; in crucial scenes, however, he allows the narrative voice to merge with the consciousness revealed, thereby giving a powerful and clear sense of the inner feelings of the protagonist. Particularly memorable is the presentation of Abe’s insight into the impermanence of his own creation: “The moment a work of man was finished, nature set to work to take it down again.” Just as nature—the weathering process—gradually begins to erode his house the moment it is completed, so society and culture begin to erode the singleness of purpose used to give a basis to the District of Spalding. The gradual process of decay represented by nature, and the inevitable winds of change represented by social forces, will gradually and inevitably disperse and erode the single force that gave shape to the whole. A tremendous measure of sympathy is accorded Abe by the end of the book.

Critical Context

Fruits of the Earth is recognized by many critics as a work not only central to Grove’s career but also central to Canadian literature. The year after its publication, in fact, Grove was awarded the Lorne Pierce Medal by the Royal Society of Canada to honor his contribution to Canadian letters.

The novel is, in later criticism, particularly admired because of its effort to demythologize the image of the pioneer. Grove gives heroic stature to the pioneer, but he does not refrain from bringing that heroic stature into realistic focus. The achievements of single-mindedness deserve full credit and acknowledgment, Grove suggests, but the consequences of that singlemindedness should not be oversimplified or overlooked. Heroic strength, determination, and endurance cannot, without foresight, create a sustained community. Thus, Grove’s work functions as a kind of criticism of a culture which often lacks vision.

Finally, Grove’s effort to demythologize the Canadian past is particularly crucial because it makes him one of the key writers who introduced social realism to Canadian literature. Although, in the past, his writings were too frank, too open, too harsh for the popular taste, which preferred less exacting and less problematic versions of the pioneers, Grove’s prairie realism has gradually won respect and recognition. His works are considered by most critics to be some of the best and most forthright literature dealing with the idealism and the disillusionment of the pioneer period.

Bibliography

Nause, John, ed. The Grove Symposium, 1974.

Spettigue, Douglas O. FPG: The European Years, 1973.

Stobie, Margaret R. Frederick Philip Grove, 1973.

Sutherland, Ronald. Frederick Philip Grove, 1968.