The relationship between life and death in the wild as mediated by the hunter concerns Ruark. He notes that the lion shot by the hunter for sport provides a trophy for the white man, meat for the natives, and food for the hyenas and the vultures. Their leavings enrich the earth. The earth nourishes the vegetation on which the smaller animals, killed and used for bait with which to attract the lion, feed. Life and death are intertwined and interdependent.

Ruark also believes in the healing quality of the wilderness and the nobility of hunting. Cities, which are dominated by women, corrupt a man. In the wilderness, a man can purify himself and become almost godlike through suffering hardship while devoting himself to the hunt. Hunting itself serves to weed out the unfit and keep the animal population manageable, thus insuring not only the survival of the species but the improvement of the breed. Ruark insists that the environment must be respected and that ecologically sound practices must be maintained.

Indeed, ecologically sound practices must be applied to people as well as to nature. In Africa before the white man came, the population was controlled by constant warfare between the tribes, endemic disease, and periodic natural disasters such as drought. The white man prevented war between the tribes, mitigated disease and natural disaster and so caused overpopulation, urbanization, poverty, social unrest, and crime.

If there are any solutions to these problems, they must be implemented, Ruark believes, by white men who know the land and its people. Because of the forces of history, and the foolishness of those who do not understand Africa, the novel holds out only the faintest glimmer of hope that solutions will be found.