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Pages 99-104
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 tells his son more old stories. Most of these he learned from his father during their wanderings in Kansas, and he supposes he wouldn’t have heard most of these if they hadn’t been in such dire straits, often thirsty and hungry. Once, when owls woke them up, his father told him the story of waking up and seeing John Brown’s mule being led down the front steps of the church, followed by several horses, a wounded man being led on one of them, and John’s grandfather following. Not yet 10 years old, he went up and sat in the dark church. As light rose in the church, he noticed blood on one of the benches. He dragged the bench outside and tried to scrub the bloodstains, but he stopped, figuring that someone might come looking for evidence of the men.
John has just talked about the fact that meaningful stories don’t often get shared in the course of ordinary life, and here he relates stories that his own father shared during their difficult travels. When John’s father was a boy, he witnessed the radical abolitionist John Brown apparently receiving shelter in their church. Even as a young boy, John’s father apparently felt a sense of responsibility to grapple with his father’s bloody activities and try to protect him—a heavy weight that shaped their relationship later on.
Themes
That morning, it occurred to John’s father that it was strange that his father had left in the middle of the night without leaving any instructions. A little later, he noticed a soldier sitting on a bench in the church. The stranger asked if he could borrow a horse, but he noted that John’s grandfather had probably ridden off on the horse he hoped to borrow. He asked if John’s father has heard of Osawatomie John Brown. The man mused that he couldn’t understand why a minister would let Brown into his church. He told John’s father that hid platoon has ridden in the general direction that Brown’s men are thought to have gone. John’s father noticed the man was limping and believed his father had shot him.
John continues relating the childhood memory that his own father shared with him. The unfamiliar soldier seems to have had a violent encounter with John’s grandfather before coming into the church. John’s grandfather’s association with John Brown—called “Osawatomie” after the Kansas town where he lived—would make him complicit in Brown’s brutal tactics against pro-slavery forces, at least in many people’s eyes. John’s father would have realized that his father could get into serious trouble not just for aiding Brown, but for shooting a soldier—a terrifying memory for a young boy.
Themes
After they’d left the church last night, Brown’s men had headed for the hills, knowing they were being followed. Later, John’s grandfather was heading back home carrying his gun and foolishly carrying two bloody shirts, too. This soldier came upon him and questioned him, and John’s grandfather shot him. He’d promised to try to cover Brown’s retreat, and he did. What else should he have done—brought him back to the church, which was filled with secret hiding places and tunnels for freed slaves? His grandfather’s association with Brown would have been given away at once. Later, his grandfather warned his father never to tell the truth about having seen the injured soldier.
After John’s grandfather returned home, John’s father learned what had happened the night before. It’s now clear to readers that John’s grandfather did shoot at least one person—the soldier who questioned him about Brown— with questionable justification. But John’s grandfather was so committed to his antislavery efforts that he believed he couldn’t risk exposing his church’s activities for the cause. It becomes easier to understand why John’s father always struggled with his own father’s legacy, as he was entrusted with such heavy information and carried such fears at a young age.
Themes
When nobody came to question them about the injured soldier, they figured he must have died on the plains, and John’s father was sickened by the relief he felt. He said he never forgave himself for not going and looking for the man. The next Sunday, his grandfather had preached in a bloody shirt while clutching his gun. From then on, he often disappeared for days at a time, and John’s father couldn’t bear to know where he went.
Even though he was just a young boy at the time and knew the soldier’s survival could have led to his father’s arrest or worse, John’s father felt responsible for not trying to help the injured man. Though he doesn’t say so directly, this seems to have been the point in John’s father’s life when his deep ambivalence about his father took root.
Themes
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