What is the importance of the Frost's farm in the novel, This Tender Land?

The Frost's farm symbolizes hope. Cora and Emmy Frost are two of the only kind faces in the world of Lincoln School; whenever Odie and his friends get to spend time with them, they visibly brighten. When Cora invites Odie, Albert, and Mose to stay with her for the summer, Odie is filled with happiness and the promise of freedom. However, a tornado destroys the farm and kills Cora shortly after she makes her offer. With the farm's destruction, Odie's hope entirely dissolves, his sense of home even more disrupted.