Alexander, for most of the first half of the book, does not talk about his present day family as much as his ancestors. He provides the reader with the information about how he wound up in Canada and what his ancestors had to go through to get here. Throughout this part of the book, Alexander makes it seem as if his family is more of an organization then a nuclear family of today, partly because of the things they do, partly because their relationships with each other, and partly because of their ultimate goal: survival. MacLeod gives us a blatant example of MacDonald's family having this quality when he describes them walking across the ice (48-50). MacLeod shows us that they are a model with everyone perfectly aware of their roles: the elder siblings looking after their younger ones, with the parents as the chief supervisors of the whole operation. It seems that the goal of the ancestors is constantly there with the family. It is obvious that this goal is not fully brought to modern times but there are still traits of it in Alexander's current lifestyle. However, we see that the roles have been reversed with time. Now, the youngsters, Alexander and Catherine are at the head of the family. They are the more successful ones and in the brothers" case, it is obviously Alexander taking care of Calum, not vice versa as before. They are more successful in that they were able to break away from the mining trade that their family has adopted in the past. They did this partly because of the fact that they simply did not want to work in the mines but also because they were the only family members to realize that it is not 1497 anymore and that it is time to move forward. However, the other four brothers are quite happy with what they have and do not mind the excessive physical labour that they undergo. They even seem to be happy to stay true to their roots. I think that Alexander has realized that in order to stay true to your origins you do not necessarily have to do exactly what your ancestors did.
