Wendell Berry : "A Native Hill" and "That Distant Land"

“A Native Hill” is an essay written by Wendell Berry. Wendell Berry starts out describing his hometown in Henry County, Kentucky, a small town in Kentucky with lots of tobacco farming. He describes his own life as being inseparable from the history and the place where he is from.

Education brought Berry to the University of Kentucky, but later his writing and poetry had brought him to places such as California, Europe, and New York City. While teaching in NYU in New York, Berry began to wonder about returning home, to Kentucky. As this had started out as a hard decision process for Berry, he knew it was his fate to return to Kentucky.

It was when Berry had returned to Kentucky that he really began defining us as a community. He explains that we believe that what is good for us is good for the world, but we need to change our beliefs and know that what is good for the world will be good for us. That we know but little, and each generation is leaving the land worse than the prior. That we need to slow down and appreciate the beauty of life and the things of nature. We as a community, as man, need to know our responsibilities, both to nature and to the order of things.

“That Distant Land” is another essay by Wendell Berry. This essay is focused on the greatness and last moments of Berry’s grandfather, and his family’s involvement in the tobacco fields. There are similar qualities in “That Distant Land” to that of “A Native Hill”.
Berry’s grandfather shows him and his family the quality of taking life slowly, to appreciate people and the land. Members of the community all take time to make sure they visit with Berry’s grandfather, whether it’s a short visit during the day, or for a couple hours at night. Berry’s grandfather is like a role-model to him, as well as to the other family members. Berry in particular keeps an eye on his grandfather at night, watching his grandfather look peacefully onto the night through the window. He takes joy in observing his grandfather, and enjoys all the personality traits his grandfather obtains.

As the family is involved in tobacco growing and cutting, come cutting season it was their great divider of the year. Afterwards their minds would be lightened, and they could look ahead to winter. While they went to the vast fields to cut the tobacco, they did so with a good steady pace, but not that of any great hurry. As they mentioned they needed young boys to be in competition to make the process faster, they themselves were in no race. Berry would look upon the cut field as a momentous and beautiful sight.
Upon Berry’s grandfather’s death, all were saddened but knew that life must go on, as we must.
As in “That Distant Land”, in “A Native Hill” Berry discusses his roots in Henry County, his identification with nature and the earth, and how the community cares for one another. He speaks of men of his family whom he looks up to, and of his interest of the past generations. It can be said that Berry is a man who is defined by his roots, and wishes the world better in the coming years.

There are many things I can take away from these two essays and bring them into my own life in my community. Berry obviously saw the damage that each generation brings to the earth and to nature, and says we leave the land worse than the generation before us. I believe it should really be the opposite, as we should be leaving the land and earth better than it was before us. This can start anywhere from recycling, to making sure we don’t litter, to conserving energy. Our country right now is concerned about building, building, building, and has no regard for the animals that are left homeless, plants that are killed, or the beauty they destroy. If we can’t all, as a community, make these beneficial changes, then we should one by one start the change, and as the past will show, it would become a regularity to us.

Berry also shows how important it is for us to care for one another in our community, and how much it means to others. If we could take a little time out of our day to show someone we care, then it would probably mean a lot more to them than we thought. To listen to what someone wise has to say, to find out a story behind a story. Berry’s essays showed his outlook on how we could better ourselves or be better as a people.