Victor's Promise

I enjoyed reading your interpretation of the Betrayal section of the book, Victor, very insightful and coherent all at the same time. I completely agree with what you have to say about the sections being told to express the realistic and psychological impacts on the topic of Man manipulating nature. You can clearly see that connection sprinkled in most, if not all, of Egan's writing in this book. To add on, when I try to understand the meaning of the title Promise, I believe it stands for a hope that was taken for granted or an idea that seemed good at first but turned out terribly miscomprehended. Yet, even after everything had happened, and the benefits were finally below that of the downsides, some of the people of the proclaimed "No Man's Land" stayed to fight for their homes.
While others grew fond of the land, and just couldn't give it up because there was too much sweat equity given to the hopes that the land would give them a second shot at success. As you read further into the Promise, and even further beyond that, you can you that Egan is trying to give the whole story of the great dustbowl. Where, you have the cause, the event, why the majority of people left, the living conditions of the people who stayed, and most importantly he answers why they stayed. The reason Egan believes the heart of the story lies on the question of why some people stayed is because he was able to talk to these people, get to know them, and hear their untold stories. He believed these people had the strongest will, to face such a challenge, and wanted to share this knowledge, unknown to most people, forgotten, and give better insight on what life in the dustbowl truly was