Strength is another very important, yet easily overlooked theme in The Unquiet Earth. We see the strength of the Appalachian women through Carrie freeman as well as through Flora Honaker. In the beginning of the novel we get quite a few examples of how strong of people these two women are. Carrie became pregnant from a man who was not her husband and this was looked down on by many of people in this time period. Despite how people looked at her she continued to do her job and raise her family. The father of her child had also died when the child was young so she practically raised him by herself. Floras' situation is a little different. She has to be strong in the aspect that her daughter is leaving to attend a nursing program, but Flora does not want her to do nursing. So she respects her daughter's decision and stays strong as she leaves. The women of this time period had to stay strong through hard times and situations.