Deforestation
The destruction of the forests of New England is a major subject in the book. It is reference often, described in detail, and thematically essential. The significance is also expressed in the complexity of its symbolism, which is twofold and oppositional. For the native tribes, the destruction of forests looks like a brutal attack against the very land itself, a symbolic thumbing of the nose by the British to literally the value of the land itself. Ironically, the symbolism of deforestation lies in the elevating the value of humans to this land in the sense that with their arrival finally came people who understand the economics of property.
Pigs
As symbols, perhaps the more appropriate term is swine. The negative connotation of that particular synonym becomes a more emblematic way of describing how the introduction of pigs into the ecosystem changed everything. The destructive nature of pigs unbound by fencing and meat-based economic omnipresence of colonial husbandry all contribute to endow pigs with a more unexpectedly robust symbolic statue: they are literally the figure that most singularly represents the philosophical divergences between Europeans and Native Americans.
Firewood
Kindling, timber chopped specifically for the purpose of warming the homes of New England, becomes another unexpected symbol. When people think of Americans being the most wasteful country on the planet in terms of using up raw resources of fuel, they tend to think of the country’s obsession with cars and fossil fuels. In reality, this is a continuing story of America in which a new chapter gets started every century or so. A visitor from Sweden—Sweden!—is shocked to find that those living in this region that does enjoy an extend period of spring and summer build fireplaces for every room that keeps burning day and night. Firewood becomes the first fuel supply that Americans looked at as inexhaustible and therefore incapable of being used wastefully.
Fences
The native tribes had lived (owned) all the land the colonists would settle without ever having constructed a single fence. Once the settlers arrived, fences were everywhere. Fences are the definitive symbol of the European concept of private property and at the same time a symbol the philosophies and ideologies of the settlers which were beyond the capacity of the natives to fully comprehend because within their philosophy, ideology—and way of life—owning property defies the logic of inescapable mortality. A fence sends the message “I own this forever” which is, rightfully, simply absurd.
Beavers
Literally everything that a European could see with his own eyes in this New World was viewed as a potential commodity. So to single out just one entity as symbolic of the commodification of America is to endow it with undeserved significance. That said, the beaver is a very apt symbol for a narrow sense of commodification: taking the value of an animal away from it does naturally and transferring that value (literally its economic value) over to how it can be used to serve the purpose of human beings. The transfer of value from the natural (building dams) to the commercial (selling fur pelts) leads to a reduction in the population which inevitably impacts results in the consequences of all that damming no longer being done and the subsequent widespread ecological impact which falls like dominoes.
