South Moon Under was Rawlings’ first book, and it takes place in the 1930s in the scrub around the Ocklawaha and St. Johns Rivers in central Florida. A poor rural “Cracker” family’s story is told through anecdotes of their struggles to survive and make a living. Lantry, a man who is “on the run” after killing a revenooer, a government agent who chases moonshiners, is the first character we get to know. After having five children, his wife dies early in the story, and Piety, one of the daughters, takes care of her father, helps with the land, and becomes a leading protagonist in the story. When Lantry has a heart attack and realizes that his days are numbered, he makes sure that Piety has a husband, Willy Jacklin.
Willy and Piety have a son whom they name after her father and call him Lant. Willy is less astute about living on and working the land than Piety and her father and consequently doesn’t survive. Lant, who becomes the other protagonist in the book, works with his mother to maintain a subsistence living on land that is difficult to farm and manage. They grow some vegetables and shoot squirrels, game birds, and deer for food. And, of course, run a moonshine business. Rawlings includes several characters in the story designed to give us a feel for the life of the Florida Cracker lifestyle: Piety’s siblings, their families, and other community members who assist and support the trapping gatoring, lumbering, and moonshining. However, the real story is about how Piety and Lant’s lives are in rhythm with nature. Everything they do relates to the moon phases, the earth’s rotation, the animal creatures’ habits, and the land’s characteristics. They live in harmony with nature and therefore survive. They take the deaths of relatives in stride, much the way their animal counterparts do, and although their habits are primitive, they find comfort in them and resent the northerners’ efforts to modernize Florida.
The reader realizes that Lant is one with the moon. His animal instincts are strong, and he thrives on enjoying the wild, open land. Some of his human emotions are repressed, but he works hard to provide for and protect his mother. He is aware, much like the animals, who his friends are, and when he is betrayed, he acts upon his disappointment as the animals would. This book is an important contribution to the literature depicting backwoods living in Florida.
