Turtle Island

Starting Turtle Island was very hectic for Eustace at first. It was one of his dreams, and he wanted to have a chance to save some land that wouldn’t be torn down and built into houses. It was hard for him to ask his father for money to get his project started, since he hasn’t had a good relationship with his father. But, the start of Turtle Island was worth it. It was important to Eustace to show other people how he lived. He always wanted to teach other people how nature is important. Elizabeth Gilbert writes in the first chapter about how Eustace got into a conversation with a couple of drug dealers, and the topic of his shirt came up. Eustace explained that he had made the shirt out of a deer. Not only that, but he walked them through every step that he took to kill the deer and then sew a shirt together. He welcomed these strangers to visit him at Turtle Island and he would teach them how to live off of nature. She writes, “This is how Eustace interacts with all the world all the time- taking any opportunity to teach people about nature.” (Gilbert 13) On Turtle Island, Eustace was able to change children’s lives and show them there is more to life than the little box they were born in. He was a good influence on these kids. Eustace is very future-oriented when it comes to the environment he is happy to show the future generation that you have to value and respect nature. Turtle Island allowed him to do this. On the other hand, establishing Turtle Island and trying to make money to pay off his loan was making him overwork. He worked maybe too much, and his comfortable life was set a little off balance.