Beginning in the mid-1700s, the Industrial Revolution gradually changed the relationship between people and nature, particularly in the Global North. As people began moving into cities for factory work, their daily contact with nature diminished. Soon, the Romantics, the Transcendentalists, and other artists and philosophers in Europe and the US called for a return to nature. Their art adopted a reverence for the natural world and suggested that humans’ most profound experiences occur in nature. By the end of the 1800s, “back to nature” movements such as naturism took hold in Germany as part of a trend toward “life reform” (Lebensreform). Throughout the 1900s and into the 2000s, various “back-to-the-land” movements arose in the US and Europe, urging people to leave urban and suburban settings behind in favor of rural settings, like farms. These movements are generally popular among socioeconomic groups with the resources to finance such moves. In addition to the arts, science supports the human benefit to interaction with nature.

In Moo Reena’s love for the natural environment of Maine and the animals at Mrs. Falala’s farm, especially Zora, support the theme of The Rewards of Rural Life.