The theme of the onset of modernisation and the end of old ways is explored using many symbols, for example, violent deaths of horses (supposed to represent old, traditional farming methods) and the appearance of motorised cars representing new technologies which brush the people of the land from the road.
the coming of modernisation to traditional farming communities. The novel touches on several issues the distinctive, not always positive character, of small rural communities in the North East of Scotland, the role of women, and the 'peasant crisis' i.e.
