Progress and growth
It's hard to say what this book is about if not this theme. The idea of growth and progress is what keeps the whole family working so hard for a better life. The family goes from small peasant farmers to cash crop farmers, to business moguls, and finally, there is Solomon who earns millions and millions of dollars in land development and real estate. The theme is simply that when the family sacrifices and works hard, their situation improves, if not within one person's life, definitely within the life of their children or their children's children.
Sacrifice for family
The main moral of the story seems to be that it is honorable and good to sacrifice for one's family, to work hard to provide for one's clan. This happens first when the family moves from Georgia, realizing that the ground will not farm there. They go to Florida instead, and Tobias works hard to provide for them by hunting. Then he is conscripted against his will, and his wife and son are asked to sacrifice for each other, to help each other survive. These themes continue through three generations of Floridians.
The difficulty of life
This novel includes tragic deaths, conflicts, struggles, and even plagues. The point is abundantly clear from even the first couple of chapters: This novel is about the difficulty of life. No one in the novel ever really escapes the pain of life either, even Sol, whose life as a multimillionaire leaves him disappointed when his wife dies, and he realizes the truth about his affinity for money (that it doesn't satisfy him). There is absolutely no one in the book who is not constantly perplexed by life's sometimes outrageous challenges. The best picture of this is when Tobias is drafted to fight for the losing side of a war. His family goes through a series of serious plagues in his absence.
