 Denying merit to communism and its goal to eliminate private land ownership and transform peasants into farm workers, Moromete dies proud of "having lived like an independent man".If previous Romanian novels with similar themes (those of Ioan Slavici and Liviu Rebreanu) were centered on dramas involving acquiring plots, "Moromeţii" shifted focus on preserving ownership of the land.The example of Ilie Moromete, who sees his peasant mentalities and way of life (reliance on land ownership and family), traces the destiny of his social category between not long after the land reform to what has later been deemed "the obsessive decade" of the 1950s; Moromete and his peasant dignity are crushed by deep changes brought about by capitalism, industrialization, and finally communism.