"A farm is not beautiful unless it is productive. Reasonable productivity prevailed; he had to keep half an eye (all he could spare) on everything, all the time, to achieve even that much, and of course he had made it his business to pick up a working knowledge of husbandry, animal and crop, so that he couldn't easily be hoodwinked by his people there and could plan farming operations with some authority."
Mehring is not a trusting man. When he suspects he's being cheated, he does all he can to catch the person in the act. This means that he's taught himself a considerable amount about the ins and outs of farming in order to hold his workers accountable. He doesn't allow them a minute more rest than necessity states, often directly overseeing employees in their tasks, wasting both his time and theirs.
"He rolls onto his side, where he has the impression the reeds facing him hide him as drawn curtains keep out day. The sense of familiarity, of some kind of unwelcome knowledge or knowing, is slow to ebb. As it does, it leaves space in his mind; or uncovers, like the retreat of a high tide, carrying away silt."
Mehring is so haunted by the thought of the improper burial of the dead man that he starts becoming paranoid. Finding himself caught by the river during a storm, he experiences a nearly psychotic episode. He believes he's literally being haunted by a ghost and reaches out to the very nature around him to protect him from this angry force.
"You don't have to be a believer in a lot of superstition and nonsense -- there's a difference between thinking to oneself and thinking as a form of conversation, even if there are no answers."
Repeatedly Antonia tries to persuade Mehring to reconsider his close-mindedness. She tries to convince him that he's not really thinking, just believing thoughts that have been placed in his head by society, but he doesn't see it. He continues to deny her arguments, claiming she is trying to persuade him to believe in superstition. He's caught in his own trap of literalism.
"To keep anything the way you like it for yourself you have to have the stomach to ignore -- dead and hidden -- whatever intrudes. Those for whom life is cheapest recognise that."
Mehring understands that life is difficult for the underprivileged and oppressed people groups, but he blames them. He believes they need to raise their standards if they want to be successful with so little. He is not a philanthropist by any mans, preferring to tell a man he needs to find his own food rather than sharing with him. This mentality doubtless comes from years of stuffing down and ignoring his feelings for the sake of being temporarily successful. Now he has years of emotional baggage to sort through.
