Lincoln in the Bardo

Lincoln in the Bardo

by

George Saunders

The Reverend Everly Thomas Character Analysis

A Reverend who exists in the Bardo. Unlike his friends Hans Vollman and Roger Bevins III (and everyone else in the Bardo), the Reverend has no misconceptions regarding the fact that he is dead. Indeed, he understands that his time among the living has ended, but he still refuses to leave the Bardo. When he died, he very quickly passed through the Bardo and into the afterlife, where he witnessed two people receive their final judgments. The first person, a man in a yellow bathing suit, was admitted to heaven. But the second person, a man in a funeral suit, was sent to hell. When the Reverend stepped up to receive his judgment, he watched the beings deciding his fate respond quite negatively when they examined him—even more negatively, in fact, than they had responded when judging the man in the funeral suit. As such, the Reverend turned and ran, stopping only when he reached the Bardo. Since then, he has remained in this transitional space, never speaking a word to his friends about this experience because several ethereal beings whispered in his ear as he ran that he would be judged even more harshly upon his return if he ever repeated what he saw. Because of this experience, his face is frozen in a look of terror and surprise, though he speaks calmly, often giving his friends and Willie Lincoln sound advice. Indeed, he tries to convince Willie to leave the Bardo, though he’s hesitant to go along with all of Vollman and Bevins’s ideas regarding ways to do this, since he doesn’t want to act against God’s will and nullify the “grace” by which he is allowed to remain in the Bardo. By the end of the novel, though, the Reverend is the one who fights the hardest to save Willie, ultimately sacrificing himself and departing from the Bardo in order to keep the boy from getting stuck there forever.

The Reverend Everly Thomas Quotes in Lincoln in the Bardo

The Lincoln in the Bardo quotes below are all either spoken by The Reverend Everly Thomas or refer to The Reverend Everly Thomas. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Unity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 13 Quotes

I want ed so much to hold a dear Babe.

I know very wel I do not look as prety as I onseh. And over time, I admit, I have come to know serten words I did not formerly

Fuk cok shit reem ravage assfuk

[…] I did not get any. Thing.

Was gone too soon

To get

Only forteen.

Yrs of aje


Plese do come again sir it has been a pleasure to make your

But fuk yr anshient frends (do not bring them agin) who kome to ogle and mok me and ask me to swindle no that is not the werd slender slander that wich I am doing. Wich is no more than what they are doing. Is it not so? What I am doing, if I only cary on fathefully, will, I am sure, bring about that longed-for return to

Green grass kind looks.

Related Characters: Elise Traynor (or “The Traynor Girl”) (speaker), Hans Vollman, Roger Bevins III, The Reverend Everly Thomas, Willie Lincoln
Related Symbols: The Iron Fence
Page Number: 38
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 29 Quotes

The lead angel took my face into her hands as her wing swished back and forth, putting me in mind of a horse’s tail as that animal feeds.

Are you thriving here, Reverend? she said, wing extended lazily above her. Is He whom you served in life present here?

I—I believe He is, I said.

He is, of course, everywhere, she said. But does not like to see you lingering here. Among such low companions.

Her beauty was considerable and increasing by the second. I saw I must end our interview or risk disaster.

Please go, I said. I do not—I do not require you today.

But soon, I think? She said.

Her beauty swelled beyond description.

And I burst into tears.

Related Characters: The Reverend Everly Thomas (speaker)
Page Number: 100
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 36 Quotes

We are here by grace […]. Our ability to abide by far from assured. Therefore, we must conserve our strength, restricting our activities to only those which directly serve our central purpose. We would not wish, through profligate activity, to appear ungrateful for the mysterious blessing of our continued abiding. […] We must look out for ourselves […]. And, by doing so, we protect the boy as well. He must hear nothing of this rumor, which would only serve to raise his hopes. As we know, only utter hopelessness will lead him to do what he must. Therefore, not a word. Are we in agreement?

Related Characters: The Reverend Everly Thomas (speaker), Hans Vollman, Roger Bevins III, Willie Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln
Page Number: 123
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 61 Quotes

I have been here since and have, as instructed, refrained from speaking of any of this, to anyone.

What would be the point? For any of us here, it is too late for any alteration of course. All is done. We are shades, immaterial, and since that judgment pertains to what we did (or did not do) in that previous (material) realm, correction is now forever beyond our means. Our work there is finished; we only await payment.

Related Characters: The Reverend Everly Thomas (speaker), Hans Vollman, Roger Bevins III
Page Number: 194
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 80-81 Quotes

And though that mass co-habitation had jarred much loose from me (a nagging, hazy mental cloud of details from my life now hung about me: names, faces, mysterious foyers, the smells of long-ago meals; carpet patterns from I knew not what house, distinctive pieces of cutlery, a toy horse with one ear missing, the realization that my wife’s name had been Emily), it had not delivered the essential truth I sought, as to why I had been damned. I halted on the trail, lagging behind, desperate to bring that cloud into focus and recall who I had been, and what evil I had done, but was not successful in this, and then had to hurry to catch my friends up.

Related Characters: The Reverend Everly Thomas (speaker), Abraham Lincoln
Page Number: 265
Explanation and Analysis:

Whatever my sin, it must, I felt (I prayed), be small, compared to the sins of these. And yet, I was of their ilk. Was I not? When I went, it seemed, it would be to join them.

As I had many times preached, our Lord is a fearsome Lord, and mysterious, and will not be predicted, but judges as He sees fit, and we are but as lambs to Him, whom He regards with neither affection or malice; some go to the slaughter, while others are released to the meadow, by His whim, according to a standard we are too lowly to discern.

It is only for us to accept; accept His judgment, and our punishment.

But, as applied to me, this teaching did not satisfy.

And oh, I was sick, sick at heart.

Related Characters: The Reverend Everly Thomas (speaker), Willie Lincoln, The Female Voice , The British Voice , The Vermonter
Page Number: 268
Explanation and Analysis:

We were as we were! the bass lisper barked. How could we have been otherwise? Or, being that way, have done otherwise? We were that way, at that time, and had been led to that place, not by any innate evil in ourselves, but by the state of our cognition and our experience up until that moment.

By Fate, by Destiny, said the Vermonter.

By the fact that time runs in only one direction, and we are borne along by it, influenced precisely as we are, to do just the things that we do, the bass lisper said.

And then are cruelly punished for it, said the woman.

Related Characters: The Reverend Everly Thomas (speaker), Willie Lincoln, The Female Voice , The Bass Voice , The British Voice , The Vermonter
Page Number: 270
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Reverend Everly Thomas Quotes in Lincoln in the Bardo

The Lincoln in the Bardo quotes below are all either spoken by The Reverend Everly Thomas or refer to The Reverend Everly Thomas. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Unity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 13 Quotes

I want ed so much to hold a dear Babe.

I know very wel I do not look as prety as I onseh. And over time, I admit, I have come to know serten words I did not formerly

Fuk cok shit reem ravage assfuk

[…] I did not get any. Thing.

Was gone too soon

To get

Only forteen.

Yrs of aje


Plese do come again sir it has been a pleasure to make your

But fuk yr anshient frends (do not bring them agin) who kome to ogle and mok me and ask me to swindle no that is not the werd slender slander that wich I am doing. Wich is no more than what they are doing. Is it not so? What I am doing, if I only cary on fathefully, will, I am sure, bring about that longed-for return to

Green grass kind looks.

Related Characters: Elise Traynor (or “The Traynor Girl”) (speaker), Hans Vollman, Roger Bevins III, The Reverend Everly Thomas, Willie Lincoln
Related Symbols: The Iron Fence
Page Number: 38
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 29 Quotes

The lead angel took my face into her hands as her wing swished back and forth, putting me in mind of a horse’s tail as that animal feeds.

Are you thriving here, Reverend? she said, wing extended lazily above her. Is He whom you served in life present here?

I—I believe He is, I said.

He is, of course, everywhere, she said. But does not like to see you lingering here. Among such low companions.

Her beauty was considerable and increasing by the second. I saw I must end our interview or risk disaster.

Please go, I said. I do not—I do not require you today.

But soon, I think? She said.

Her beauty swelled beyond description.

And I burst into tears.

Related Characters: The Reverend Everly Thomas (speaker)
Page Number: 100
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 36 Quotes

We are here by grace […]. Our ability to abide by far from assured. Therefore, we must conserve our strength, restricting our activities to only those which directly serve our central purpose. We would not wish, through profligate activity, to appear ungrateful for the mysterious blessing of our continued abiding. […] We must look out for ourselves […]. And, by doing so, we protect the boy as well. He must hear nothing of this rumor, which would only serve to raise his hopes. As we know, only utter hopelessness will lead him to do what he must. Therefore, not a word. Are we in agreement?

Related Characters: The Reverend Everly Thomas (speaker), Hans Vollman, Roger Bevins III, Willie Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln
Page Number: 123
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 61 Quotes

I have been here since and have, as instructed, refrained from speaking of any of this, to anyone.

What would be the point? For any of us here, it is too late for any alteration of course. All is done. We are shades, immaterial, and since that judgment pertains to what we did (or did not do) in that previous (material) realm, correction is now forever beyond our means. Our work there is finished; we only await payment.

Related Characters: The Reverend Everly Thomas (speaker), Hans Vollman, Roger Bevins III
Page Number: 194
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 80-81 Quotes

And though that mass co-habitation had jarred much loose from me (a nagging, hazy mental cloud of details from my life now hung about me: names, faces, mysterious foyers, the smells of long-ago meals; carpet patterns from I knew not what house, distinctive pieces of cutlery, a toy horse with one ear missing, the realization that my wife’s name had been Emily), it had not delivered the essential truth I sought, as to why I had been damned. I halted on the trail, lagging behind, desperate to bring that cloud into focus and recall who I had been, and what evil I had done, but was not successful in this, and then had to hurry to catch my friends up.

Related Characters: The Reverend Everly Thomas (speaker), Abraham Lincoln
Page Number: 265
Explanation and Analysis:

Whatever my sin, it must, I felt (I prayed), be small, compared to the sins of these. And yet, I was of their ilk. Was I not? When I went, it seemed, it would be to join them.

As I had many times preached, our Lord is a fearsome Lord, and mysterious, and will not be predicted, but judges as He sees fit, and we are but as lambs to Him, whom He regards with neither affection or malice; some go to the slaughter, while others are released to the meadow, by His whim, according to a standard we are too lowly to discern.

It is only for us to accept; accept His judgment, and our punishment.

But, as applied to me, this teaching did not satisfy.

And oh, I was sick, sick at heart.

Related Characters: The Reverend Everly Thomas (speaker), Willie Lincoln, The Female Voice , The British Voice , The Vermonter
Page Number: 268
Explanation and Analysis:

We were as we were! the bass lisper barked. How could we have been otherwise? Or, being that way, have done otherwise? We were that way, at that time, and had been led to that place, not by any innate evil in ourselves, but by the state of our cognition and our experience up until that moment.

By Fate, by Destiny, said the Vermonter.

By the fact that time runs in only one direction, and we are borne along by it, influenced precisely as we are, to do just the things that we do, the bass lisper said.

And then are cruelly punished for it, said the woman.

Related Characters: The Reverend Everly Thomas (speaker), Willie Lincoln, The Female Voice , The Bass Voice , The British Voice , The Vermonter
Page Number: 270
Explanation and Analysis: