During the 1850s there were a lot of immigrants to North America. Many wanted to escape religious strife and recover from the horror of famine that had ravaged western Europe during the 1840-1850 period.
This film reveals how individuals - and indeed an entire community - coped with death for many years after arriving in North America. Landon wisely produced a film that was not pious, nor a bloody horror-story, but shed light on how these generally good people went on living and dealt with feelings of guilt about their real, imagined, or inherited responsibility for death and dying of others.
These people never had our current-knowledge and skills about resolving grief and guilt associated with death and dying, so this film demonstrates how organized religion around 1850 might have brought peace-of-mind - at the very least- and helped them cope more effectively with death and dying.
This film reveals how individuals - and indeed an entire community - coped with death for many years after arriving in North America. Landon wisely produced a film that was not pious, nor a bloody horror-story, but shed light on how these generally good people went on living and dealt with feelings of guilt about their real, imagined, or inherited responsibility for death and dying of others.
These people never had our current-knowledge and skills about resolving grief and guilt associated with death and dying, so this film demonstrates how organized religion around 1850 might have brought peace-of-mind - at the very least- and helped them cope more effectively with death and dying.