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 notes that his son has started spending a lot of time with a “freckly little Lutheran” named Tobias. This is a great thing for him, but his parents miss him terribly when he spends the night with his new friend. The boy and Tobias had a backyard sleepover last night but came home at dawn the next morning and slept until lunchtime; Tobias’s brothers had growled at them from the bushes. John made the boys grilled cheese sandwiches with cupcakes for dessert. His wife hadn’t slept at all last night, though John slept surprisingly soundly.
John feels encouraged by the fact that his son, a shy loner, has finally made a friend and is starting to enjoy more typical boyhood activities like campouts. John evidently cherishes small fatherly duties like making lunch for the boys, though his wife tends to express her love for their son through worry. This makes sense: John knows his time with his son is limited and takes comfort in everyday moments; Lila is aware that she’ll be a single mother before long, solely responsible for protecting their boy. Also, as a small-town minister, it’s not surprising that John is aware of Tobias’s church affiliation.
Themes
John remembers when he and Boughton were boys (Boughton was called Bobby then), and they’d sit on the warm roof of his mother’s henhouse eating sandwiches. They both had pairs of stilts and would wander around town on them all summer, enjoying themselves. John remembers Boughton worrying about his vocation even back then—if he couldn’t be a minister, he wasn’t sure what else to be. Neither of them could think of many options.
Thinking about his son reminds John of childhood memories, especially his friendship with young Boughton. They played differently than young boys do in the book’s present, but the companionship was much the same. Another difference is that John and Boughton seem to have wondered about their future careers at a very young age. In small-town Iowa, there weren’t many choices—indeed, there seems to have been a certain pressure to think of one’s “vocation,” or calling, rather than a mere job. Boughton was more serious about this than most.
Themes
Boughton was taller than John for 40 years, but nowadays he’s completely stooped from arthritis, and looking at him, you’d never know what he used to be like. The other day John reminded Boughton of a conversation on the henhouse roof, when Boughton said that if he saw an angel, he’d be so scared that he’d take off running. Boughton laughed at the memory and added that pretty soon he’ll know what an angel looks like.
Having known Boughton his whole life, John can see how drastically he’s changed over the years. (The unspoken implication is that John, too, must be very different from what he once was.) Both men know they probably won’t be around in the world for much longer, and both seem to accept this fact. Like John, Boughton looks forward to heaven as a realm where many lifelong mysteries will be resolved.
Themes
