Chapter 4 Summary

The chapter begins with stating that Ike is now twenty-one, and he and McCaslin have been juxtaposed, or placed side by side, against the tame land for which their grandfather was responsible. The family land has a square wooden building built on it and a separate building. Ike and McCaslin are discussing their heritage and the land they own. Ike refers to ledgers that have tracked business since before the Civil War. Ike comments that the man, who bought the land, his grandfather, bought nothing because the man, who sold it, Ikkemotubbe, never truly owned it. Ike states God intended for man "to hold the earth mutual and intact in the communal anonymity of brotherhood." Ike continues on saying that God wants men to care for the land and not to own it. McCaslin reminds Ike that man was dispossessed of Eden. Ike...