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Pages 58-63
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 watches his son and Tobias jumping around in the sprinkler. It makes him think of how he loves to baptize people, though he sometimes wishes his way of doing it involved a little more “shimmer and splash.” The boys whoop joyfully in the iridescent drops, “as sane people ought to do when they encounter a thing so miraculous as water.”
As a minister, John regards baptism as a symbol of God’s grace, and he has come to associate water in general with God’s freely bestowed love, too. And water, in and of itself, is a beautiful aspect of the natural world he loves so much. All this being the case, it’s only “sane” for people to whoop like children when they touch water.
Themes
John recalls a time after Edward returned from Germany, when the two of them started playing catch on a side street. At first Edward was rusty, but soon he got his throwing arm back and stopped worrying about messing up his nice clothes. People stopped to watch. John thought that after this, they’d be able to have a real talk. That didn’t happen, but John felt more at peace regarding his brother’s soul when, after pouring a glass of water over his head, Edward recited Psalm 133 from memory (“Behold, how good and pleasant it is, / For brethren to dwell together in unity!”). John isn’t sure exactly what Edward intended by these words, but he finds the memory “splendid.”
John’s brother Edward became an atheist while studying in Germany, and this passage describes a moment of reconnection between the brothers despite their different beliefs. Because they were so in-sync physically, John thought it meant they’d be able to connect again more personally. Even though that didn’t happen, John regards Edward’s Psalm recitation as reassurance that they’ll never lose the deep connection between them. Psalm 133 likens brotherhood to “precious oil [poured] upon the head,” which is probably why Edward thought to recite it while his head dripped with water.
Themes
Though John believes his pious reputation is somewhat exaggerated, he doesn’t want his son to think that he doesn’t take his vocation very seriously. He and Boughton used to work on their sermons together at John’s house. Boughton came there since he knew that coming to Boughton’s house full of children made John’s home feel very empty. Boughton had four girls and four boys. Though that family has since gone through some terrible suffering, Boughton’s family life seemed “blindingly beautiful” to John at that time.
John wants his son to have a realistic view of him—to know that he wasn’t some spiritual superhero, but that he also believed what he preached and tried his best to be an effective minister. Boughton, his fellow pastor in Gilead, was a big part of that. Though they were close, their family situations couldn’t have been more different, and John envied Boughton’s full house, not realizing how much the Boughtons struggle at times (something that will be explained later).
Themes
John remembers that Rebecca looked into his eyes before she died. Now, in his old age, he realizes there’s nothing more amazing than a human face, that it has something to do with incarnation. Any human face makes a claim on a person, but this is most true in an infant’s face. John thinks an infant’s face is a kind of vision.
Before Lila and his son, John’s only experience of fatherhood was the fleeting memory of Rebecca. Their brief moments together made a deep impression on John, which he categorizes as a vision akin to his grandfather’s vision of God. By “incarnation,” John refers to the Christian belief that God became fully human in the person of Jesus Christ. Thus, looking into any human face can reveal something of God.
Themes
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When John’s son was very little, John was frightened of him. When his wife would place the baby in his arms, he would rock and pray and sing: “Go to Dark Gethsemane.” It wasn’t until his wife asked him if he knew a happier song that he even realized he’d been singing.
“Go to Dark Gethsemane” is a somber-sounding 19th-century hymn about the final hours, death, and resurrection of Jesus. That John started unconsciously singing it while holding his infant son suggests his deep awareness that life and death are intertwined, as he learned when he held his dying first child, Rebecca.
Themes
