The things about Buck's mother which draw his attention show he was fully aware at a young age of what a toll a lifetime of grueling farm labor took upon a person entering middle-age. Buck continued to exhibit this keen sense of future-time orientation with the introduction of his father, Joe Bannon, in the second scene of the chapter. In the simple act of standing up from his bench beside the family table, Joe's authority fills the room as Buck's mother grabs his arm anticipating that the head of the household is about to show his oldest son and that he's not too old for the belt since Buck had decided that his anticipated emancipation from the Bannon household entitled him to suddenly forget "you ain't to use the Lord's name while you're in the house...". It was a false alarm but it lets the reader know that these parents have high expectations of righteousness from their offspring. It was a desire that Buck did not necessarily aspire to after he was introduced to Aven. The rural ideals of his Christian parents and the reality of cutting corners so you could get rich quick in Aven create a conflict which will drive all the action for the rest of the novel.

On the second page of the novel a foreshadowing of the coming moral conflict between Buck and his parents comes when the author describes the "sense of power" Buck experiences as he plows up his mother's meticulously swept yard that has him "swingy in the hips like a dirt-road sport." The use of the term "dirt road sport" tells the reader that even though Buck's parents may have wanted Buck to follow the moral compass they provided for him in their home, the realities of winning the daily commercial battle on Aven's dusty streets would require some bending of "the Golden Rule." As Buck would ask his brother, Jeff, later in the novel, "Don't you know a man is bound to stir up some mud when he kicks off from bottom?"

The things about Buck's mother which draw his attention show he was fully aware at a young age of what a toll a life-time of grueling farm labor took upon a person entering middle-age. Buck continued to exhibit this keen sense of future-time orientation with the introduction of his father, Joe Bannon, in the second scene of the chapter. In the simple act of standing up from his bench beside the family table, Joe's authority fills the room as Buck's mother grabs his arm anticipating that the head of the household is about to show his oldest son and that he's not too old for the belt since Buck had decided that his anticipated emancipation from the Bannon household entitled him to suddenly forget "you ain't to use the Lord's name while you're in the house...". It was a false alarm but it lets the reader know that these parents have high expectations of righteousness from their offspring. It was a desire that Buck did not necessarily aspire to after he was introduced to Aven. The rural ideals of his Christian parents and the reality of cutting corners so you could get rich quick in Aven create a conflict which will drive all the action for the rest of the novel. 

On the second page of the novel a foreshadowing of the coming moral conflict between Buck and his parents comes when the author describes the "sense of power" Buck experiences as he plows up his mother's meticulously swept yard that has him "swingy in the hips like a dirt-road sport." The use of the term "dirt road sport" tells the reader that even though Buck's parents may have wanted Buck to follow the moral compass they provided for him in their home, the realities of winning the daily commercial battle on Aven's dusty streets would require some bending of "the Golden Rule." As Buck would ask his brother, Jeff, later in the novel, "Don't you know a man is bound to stir up some mud when he kicks off from bottom?"

In the first chapter, eighteen year-old Buck takes every opportunity to speak dismissively about life on the family farm. When his father remarks about how much Buck resembles members of his mother's family, Buck jokes that his nose has a hump in it because "that comes o' rootin' for vittles in his here sorry clay." At that smart remark, both Bannon parents defend their agrarian lifestyle. Buck's father responds, "We made vittles out o' that clay, Buck. And you et 'em. Don't run the land down." 

The toll that a life behind the plow takes on a man is described with Joe Bannon's manner of walking, "His shamble was a little stiff now, bringing the hunch back to his shoulders, as if he were still thrusting hard against a plow stock." Buck's excitement about his move to Aven comes from his commitment that life away from the farm will be easier for him as well as for his entire family. Buck firmly believes the Bannons might not live longer in Aven but they'll sure want to live longer than they would growing cotton year in and year out. No matter how much he or his parents enjoy the love, companionship or other rewards of their family farm or how much Buck might miss it during his lonely hours alone in Aven, the promise of a new life outside the farm fills Buck with excitement from the first page of Chapter 1 to the last, "Buck didn't know what it was, but he knew he was too full to hold it."