Duty

Throughout the novel, Hagar and characters struggle to understand their duty to their fellow human beings, at times upholding it and at times avoiding it. Early in her life, Hagar neglects the duty to her father and instead chooses to marry Bram Shipley. Once married, Hagar sees a mirror of her own lack of responsibility in Bram, who has difficulty completing the most basic of household chores. This causes Hagar to move away with John, hoping that a new setting will provide John with the clean slate to follow in the footsteps of Jason Currie and perform the duty that Hagar failed to accomplish.

Yet when Bram falls ill, Hagar is motivated by a strong sense of duty, traveling back to Manawaka to visit him and take care of her son. And when Bram dies, Hagar is moved to bury her former husband in the Currie family plot. Although Hagar struggled in her relationships with both her father and her husband, by uniting the families in the graveyard, Hagar is able to somewhat reconcile the past and come to terms with the duty that has often evaded her.