Tangerine Theme of Man and the Natural World

Mother Nature is going nuts in Tangerine—but only in Lake Windsor Downs, where developers have destroyed everything natural in order to put their neighborhood full of identical houses with matching mailboxes in place. They want to create a perfect, plastic world, where they control everything. But they can't, and Mother Nature lets them know it. The tangerine farmers work with nature, instead of against it. They fight the freeze but accept it. Some trees will die, and some will live. Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba!

Questions About Man and the Natural World

  1. How does Lake Windsor Downs work against nature? How does nature fight back?
  2. How do the tangerine farmers work with nature? Are there any times when nature seems to work with them?
  3. Is the destruction all Old Charley Burns's fault or are others to blame, too? If so, who?

Chew on This

Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.

The non-native koi fish introduced into the Lake Windsor pond represent the people who live there, and the ospreys eating them represent nature taking revenge.

The smoke from the muck fire always blows into the Fishers' yard, or smokes extra badly, when something bad is about to happen.