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 was just listening to a song on the radio when his wife came in, embraced him, and gently danced with him to the music. She asked him, “Why’d you have to be so damn old?” John wonders the same thing.
John’s memories and family stories are often interspersed with everyday moments, suggesting that past and present can’t be perfectly separated from each other—something John’s mature mind instinctively grasps. John’s age haunts his loving relationship with Lila, because no matter what, their years together will be limited.
Themes
A few days ago, John saw his wife and son come in with flowers, and he knew at once where they’d been. She takes their son there “to get [him] a little used to the place.” His son showed John some honeysuckle he’d picked and taught John how to suck the nectar from the blossoms, and they laughed together.
Obviously, John’s wife has been taking their son to the cemetery, so that after John dies and is buried, their little boy won’t be quite so shocked when the time comes to visit John’s grave. Life and death feel close to each other as John and his son laugh over the wildflowers the boy picked at the graveyard.
Themes
That afternoon John was struck by the way the light felt, like a weight resting familiarly on everything. His wife brought the camera out and took pictures of the father and son sipping honeysuckle nectar. But, as usual, the film ran out before John could get a picture of her. She always hides from the camera, not believing she’s pretty. John doesn’t understand why. He would never have dared ask her to marry him; it was all her idea.
Throughout the novel, light symbolizes God’s blessing, which seems to fall on the peaceful family afternoon in a special way. Lila is elusive in this passage—John’s inability to get a picture of her points to how her personality is difficult to capture, and how her full story remains a mystery to the reader.
Themes
John would never have believed he’d get to see his wife doting on his child. If his son ever wonders what he’s done with his life, he should know that he’s been “God’s grace to me, a miracle.” He wishes he had the words to tell him that.
John wants his son to know that his mere existence in the world is an expression of God’s grace to him. After many lonely decades, Lila and the boy came into John’s life as an extravagant, unexpected gift.
Themes
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John reflects that his son is nice-looking and polite, but it’s his existence he loves him for—existence seems to him the most remarkable thing imaginable. By the time his son reads this, John will have become “imperishable, somehow more alive than I have ever been.” He doesn’t want his son to think he’s waiting for him in heaven, though, because he wants his son to live a long time and love this world. He can’t imagine not missing this world, even as he longs to be reunited with Louisa and Rebecca and has long wondered what that will be like.
John’s son isn’t a particularly unusual child, but the simple fact that he exists in the world is wonderful to John. Getting to live in this world and experience its beauties, John suggests, is a marvelous thing. He believes that life after death will surpass earthly life in every way—yet that doesn’t mean he is in a hurry to leave behind the world’s wonders.
Themes
