Engineer Ethan Alternate Form?

[V5AceJazzFreak]

I noticed that Ethan also wanted to become an engineer before his father got sick... Could the engineer represent a free form of Ethan not tied to the farm and the saw mill?

[Virgil]

I noticed that Ethan also wanted to become an engineer before his father got sick... Could the engineer represent a free form of Ethan not tied to the farm and the saw mill?

Not sure what you mean by free form, but I would say the desire to be an engineer is a means of escape. Plus I believe there is a subtle theme that runs through that novel of modernism versus premodern, the new world of industrialization versus the world of farming, and unlike most Romantic notions the farming life is not idealized.

[V5AceJazzFreak]

I didn't see the theme of modernism, but I see the engineer as what would have happened to Ethan if he had lived his life as he had wanted to. The modernism theme is very insightful, though.