Locke: Is He a Hunter or Farmer?
October 24th 2006 19:34
In "Further Instructions", Locke told Eddie he could enter a sweat lodge, meditate a bit, and find out whether he is a hunter or a farmer. Eddie asked him which he was, but Locke only smiled at that time. The commune leaders discover that Eddie is Edward Colburn, a police officer sent to gather evidence of their pot-farming operations, and Locke promises to "fix" the problem. At the end of the episode, when Locke holds a gun on Eddie with the intent to murder him, Eddie tells Locke that he is a good man, a farmer. Locke becomes upset and insists that he is not a farmer, but a hunter. Yet, Locke is unable to pull the trigger. As the scene ends, we see him lower the gun as Eddie walks away.
It would be easy to argue that this proves Eddie's assertion--Locke is a farmer. However, Locke started out the series as an apparent hunter. In episode four of the first season, "Walkabout", we are first introduced to Locke and his four hundred knives. The survivors of flight 815 have just come to the realization that rescue is not coming soon and they have run out of food. Locke saves the day by claiming he knows what he is doing. He eventually gets a handle on it, after some tense moments--Michael getting gored by a boar, Charlie being used as live bait to lure a boar into a trap--and becomes "The Hunter" for the group.
But Locke is easily distracted from his role as hunter. When he discovers the hatch, he loses all interest, to the point that the remaining survivors are hungry much of the time. Once inside, pushing the button and walking around with a cup of coffee in his hand assume utmost importance. Locke stays inside for nearly a month before he implodes the hatch.
A farmer is one who nurtures life to bring something good to the table. To expand on that, a metaphorical farmer would be someone who nurtures, builds, or creates things to increase security and well-being. A hunter is one who destroys life to bring something good to the table. Literally, a hunter tracks down a wild animal and kills it to feed the individual, the family, and sometimes the community. Metaphorically, the hunter destroys for self-preservation, self-defense, or for what the hunter perceives is the greater good, using lies or other forms of manipulation, poison, or murder. Both can be valuable assets to a community.
Several of the survivors are clearly hunters or farmers:
Sun gardens, and therefore would seem to fall under the farmer category. Yet, she is capable of murder, which places her solidly in the hunter category. She has also lied many times in her past, as was shown in "The Glass Ballerina", and she tried to poison Jin, though not fatally, to keep him from leaving on the raft in "Born to Run".
Jin comes from a fishing family--hunters of the sea--but Jin has proven himself incapable (so far in the series) of killing. When one considers that everything he did, especially compromising his values to work for Sun's father, was in the interest of nurturing his relationship with his true love, it is possible to consider Jin a farmer. He is certainly not a hunter.
Kate grew up on a farm in Iowa, a literal farmer, but murdered her father, and so is a hunter. Her other father, not by blood but by virtue of helping raise her, Sgt. Austen implied that she had murder in her heart when he said he didn't have it in his in "What Kate Did". Sgt. Austen also said specifically, "I knew you would kill him" when explaining why he never told Kate he wasn't her real father.
Sayid was a communications officer in the Iraqi army before he became a "communications" officer. Kelvin Inman taught him how to torture, but it seems to be within Sayid to do these things. He had to torture his commanding officer, Tariq, but he didn't have to torture Sawyer. He didn't have to torture Ben. But he did. Sayid is a hunter.
Michael, well, he is a hunter to the core. It took so little for him to turn to murder. Getting his son back was tantamount, but there were so many other paths he could have taken to retrieve Walt. Murder would have been the last resort for most people, even among the felonious bunch that landed on this island.
Eko has been a hunter in the past as a druglord, but is trying to change his heart into that of a priest, or a farmer who sows the word. Time will tell if he succeeds at changing his ways or if he returns to the path of the hunter. Can a hunter become a farmer? An Eko backstory episode is coming in two weeks, maybe we'll find out then.
The Others seem like hunters, with their kidnapping of children and their assault, torture, and murder of anyone who stands in their way. I'm withholding judgment on the Others because I think this season will show them in a new light. I can't imagine any good reason for kidnapping the kids we've seen kidnapped, but Lost has a way of twisting and turning so that even its conmen and murderers become sympathetic characters.
Whether Locke is a hunter or a farmer remains to be seen. In his moments as a hunter, we have not seen him shine. From Locke's point of view, Eddie threatened his family. Were he a hunter, Eddie would have died then. But we have also seen him back down from nurturing the community. It doesn't seem to be in him to be a farmer, either. He hasn't yet realized that the answer is not in a bowl of hallucinogenic goo or in a hike through the jungle. Locke is still searching for his place in the world, his inner self, and I suspect when he finds it, he will not realize it.
Locke: Is he a hunter or a farmer?
But Locke is easily distracted from his role as hunter. When he discovers the hatch, he loses all interest, to the point that the remaining survivors are hungry much of the time. Once inside, pushing the button and walking around with a cup of coffee in his hand assume utmost importance. Locke stays inside for nearly a month before he implodes the hatch.
Locke showing off the hatch to Jack, Sayid, Hurley, and Danielle
Several of the survivors are clearly hunters or farmers:
Sun gardens, and therefore would seem to fall under the farmer category. Yet, she is capable of murder, which places her solidly in the hunter category. She has also lied many times in her past, as was shown in "The Glass Ballerina", and she tried to poison Jin, though not fatally, to keep him from leaving on the raft in "Born to Run".
Jin comes from a fishing family--hunters of the sea--but Jin has proven himself incapable (so far in the series) of killing. When one considers that everything he did, especially compromising his values to work for Sun's father, was in the interest of nurturing his relationship with his true love, it is possible to consider Jin a farmer. He is certainly not a hunter.
Kate grew up on a farm in Iowa, a literal farmer, but murdered her father, and so is a hunter. Her other father, not by blood but by virtue of helping raise her, Sgt. Austen implied that she had murder in her heart when he said he didn't have it in his in "What Kate Did". Sgt. Austen also said specifically, "I knew you would kill him" when explaining why he never told Kate he wasn't her real father.
Sayid was a communications officer in the Iraqi army before he became a "communications" officer. Kelvin Inman taught him how to torture, but it seems to be within Sayid to do these things. He had to torture his commanding officer, Tariq, but he didn't have to torture Sawyer. He didn't have to torture Ben. But he did. Sayid is a hunter.
Michael, well, he is a hunter to the core. It took so little for him to turn to murder. Getting his son back was tantamount, but there were so many other paths he could have taken to retrieve Walt. Murder would have been the last resort for most people, even among the felonious bunch that landed on this island.
Eko has been a hunter in the past as a druglord, but is trying to change his heart into that of a priest, or a farmer who sows the word. Time will tell if he succeeds at changing his ways or if he returns to the path of the hunter. Can a hunter become a farmer? An Eko backstory episode is coming in two weeks, maybe we'll find out then.
The Others seem like hunters, with their kidnapping of children and their assault, torture, and murder of anyone who stands in their way. I'm withholding judgment on the Others because I think this season will show them in a new light. I can't imagine any good reason for kidnapping the kids we've seen kidnapped, but Lost has a way of twisting and turning so that even its conmen and murderers become sympathetic characters.
Whether Locke is a hunter or a farmer remains to be seen. In his moments as a hunter, we have not seen him shine. From Locke's point of view, Eddie threatened his family. Were he a hunter, Eddie would have died then. But we have also seen him back down from nurturing the community. It doesn't seem to be in him to be a farmer, either. He hasn't yet realized that the answer is not in a bowl of hallucinogenic goo or in a hike through the jungle. Locke is still searching for his place in the world, his inner self, and I suspect when he finds it, he will not realize it.
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