Sociology

The book is set out in the later half of the 19th Century in Southern Ontario.  It is a reflection of the typical modern era thinking brought on after the Industrial Revolution has completely set in the world and has been able to penetrate the thinking of even an average individual, in this case a farmer.
There are two main characters in the story. Robert Fraser, the most important character, is the person around whose perpetual motion the story revolves. He is a typical farmer going about his usual business of slaughtering pigeons and digging up fossils. He may be regarded industrious and hardworking, if only a shade hyperactive. He fantasies of the time when a machine shall be invented and available which would be able to catch pigeons from their nest, thus, making his job considerably easier. 

Mary is Roberts wife who is a quiet and attractive lady, a typical 1860 girl. However, the story takes a turn when she gives birth to an abnormal baby who eventually dies in 1865. She does go on to have other children in the next few years, but loses all interest in the same. She develops a strange disorder due to which she tends to eat whatever she can find. By 1879, she is almost completely alienated with respect to other characters in the novel.

The book now and for the most part turns to Robert and in his inner self, feelings and conscience. After his sons death in 1865, he increasingly becomes much more detached from his work. He mostly prefers to delegate his work to others and is always preoccupied with his thoughts about his son. He is even detached from his wife, who is meanwhile battling with her own problems, and thus, couldnt care less.

The perpetual motion machine of Robert occupies the novel. This machine is simply moving but is not supposed to accomplish anything constructive or any task in particular. The plot is full of irony and subtle developments which culminate into the complete devastation of the couples relationship. Marys disease turns out to be a very rare and complex one (celiac disorder) where despite her eating an enormous amount of food, enough to feed an army, she doesnt get fact due to a digestion disorder whereby her body is unable to digest the food she eats. Further, she gets hallucinations that her perfectly normal food has been poisoned accompanied with bouts of depression.

It is however debatable whether its Marys illness which leads to Roberts obsession or is it the other way round. In the larger context of the novel, this determination would not appear to be very relevant for it chooses to focus on the sad perpetual motion of Robert.

The novel attempts to bring out strong themes, albeit in an ironical way through a series of tragically engineered events. The Man v. Nature theme is beautifully brought out, showing how the full circle always come through, and man can never fully control the nature around himself.

This theme also leads us into another theme which is the relation of man with machines. This is arguably the most important theme brought out through the novel and perhaps the most critical one as well. Robert, the main character in the novel, is posited as an average human who desires better machinery by the day to make his tasks easier and smaller. He is a typical human product of the industrial revolution and advancement of technology and has grown to love machines and their ability to reduce the common mans workload. However, when an abnormal son is born to him, he is shown to be totally unable to concentrate on any work whatsoever and has to even resort to employing others to work on his farm. This is probably when he realizes, within himself, that machines are but tools for working and are no way any more important in his life or anyone else. It is the humans which make this world beautiful through love, care and familial bonds (in Roberts case, the lack of them caused misery and tragedy) and machines have a much more insignificant role to play.

Stemming from the man  machine theme and somewhere related to it is also the relationship between man  money. Money doesnt prove to be much useful to Roberts family. It is unable to save their son or cure him. Later, when Mary falls ill too, again money has little help to offer. This could partly have been because Robert was to obsessed in his own perpetual motion but money has clearly been shown in a negative light, in a way that it is not likely to be of much help in joining broken familial bonds.

In the larger context, another theme that the novel touches upon is the entrepreneurialprofit motive financial system versus a traditional economy based on farming. Roberts desire to have a mechanized farm run by machines and his workers, while he can relax does come true in an ironical way, but given the way his family life breaks into pieces, this change in his farming style brings very little relief to him. Again, through this theme, the importance of core things in life such as family, love, care etc. is stressed, which if missing, would not be compensated by other material comforts brought by machines and other man-made tools.