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Pages 29-31
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Gilead, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Life, Death, and Beauty
Christian Faith, Mystery, and Ministry
Memory, Vision, and Conviction
Estrangement and Reconciliation
Loneliness and Love
Summary
Analysis
John has been acquainted with “holy poverty.” His father’s father never kept anything that he could give away. He thinks his grandfather was some kind of a saint. He lost an eye while fighting in the Civil War, but he preferred to say that he had kept one. He had a certain kind of innocence that could make life hard for his family, interpreting biblical commandments so plainly—like “To him who asks, give.”
Thinking about poverty reminds John of his grandfather, his son’s great-grandfather. In his grandfather’s case, however, poverty was a form of eccentricity, as he interpreted the Bible in a literal way. The quoted command comes from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. In the context where it appears, the verse is likely not intended to be an absolute statement, but John’s grandfather applied it that way, giving away anything to anyone.
Themes
John wishes that his son could have known his grandfather. His single eye used to stare straight through John. He was “afire with old certainties” and struggled to adapt to peace and aging. In John’s parents’ day, times were hard, and his grandfather would give away everything, even the blankets off his bed. For a while, John’s mother even made him wear his church clothes all the time so his grandfather couldn’t give them away.
John’s description of his grandfather conveys the weight of the family legacy. Though John might not agree with all of the “old certainties” that motivated his grandfather, those convictions made him a force to be reckoned with. In the absence of a war to fight, John’s grandfather looked for other ways to live out his convictions. Though comical, his radical measures could make life difficult for those closest to him.
Themes
John recalls a time when some folks approached his grandfather for help, so his grandfather asked John’s mother for money. She fished 45 cents out of a can of baking powder—a generous sum—but he wasn’t fooled. He knew she had money hidden away in the bodice of her dress, and she stared him down until he finally walked away. But she respected him, and they all missed him when he was gone.
As the novel is more focused on father-son relationships, this is one of the rare moments where John offers a more vivid glimpse of his mother. Times were obviously very difficult, and his mother was both resourceful and firm in defense of her family’s needs, though she was also able to be generous.
Themes
Looking back, John believes that his grandfather’s eccentricities were “thwarted passion” and “pent grief.” He knew his father felt judged by his restlessness and “pillaging,” and when the bitterness flared up, they would call each other “Reverend” with perfect politeness.
A Civil War veteran and slavery abolition activist, John’s grandfather struggled to find an outlet for his passionate convictions in old age. John hints at the tension between the two men, in that John’s father felt as though his father’s relentless generosity was an implied judgment of his own choices—as if his son’s way of life was too settled and compromised.
Themes
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John remembers a time when a storm blew the roof off their henhouse, the chickens scattered, dogs chased them, and the rain soaked the wash hanging in the yard. John remembers being surprised when his mother jokingly imitated his grandfather, closing one eye and saying, “I know there is a blessing in this somewhere.” His grandfather had said this about everything, even when he lost his eye in the war.
John offers another glimpse of his mother’s personality, namely her sense of humor. His grandfather, meanwhile, looked for “blessings” even in devastating events. On a particularly hard day, his mother jokingly recalls that tendency, which shows that she respected the old man’s deep convictions, even though they could make life more difficult.
Themes
After most of his grandfather’s friends began to die off, his grandfather grew lonely, and that’s when he ran off to Kansas. The other factor was a fire at a Black church. The Black church was a small congregation that eventually sold its building, and the few remaining families moved to Chicago. At the time, the church’s pastor brought John some lilies he’d dug up from the church property, and John replanted them around the front of his church. He should tell the deacons about the flowers’ significance. He hadn’t known that pastor well, but he’d said that Gilead once meant a great deal to his church.
Though elderly people don’t often go out seeking a fresh start, John’s grandfather was different. John implies that as his grandfather grew lonelier, there was nothing to keep him in Gilead, even his family. Notably, the same seems to have been true for the town’s few Black families; it’s suggested that although they loved Gilead, they didn’t feel welcome or wanted here. The church fire was apparently part of that, and it seemed to prompt John’s grandfather to give up on the town, too. John himself is unfamiliar with the Black church’s full story or doesn’t share it, suggesting that he’s not as conversant with matters of racial justice as his grandfather was.
Themes
