What is Hoeing in the Fields?

Hoeing the ground represents Eva Kluge's determination to root out the undesirable portions of her past and start a new life that is fulfilling and productive. Eva resigns from the Nazi Party and flees to her relatives in the country to escape any further consequences of her decision. The night before she leaves her home, she dreams of working in a potato field and she smiles in her sleep, pleased with her life and work. Fallada writes, "She smiles, picks up her hoe, there's a clink of a pebble, a weed falls, she hoes her own row" (85).