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
Lila has told their son that John is writing his “begats,” which pleased the boy, so John thinks about where to begin. He, John Ames, was born in 1880 in Kansas; his father and mother were John and Martha Turner Ames, and his grandfather and grandmother were John and Margaret Todd Ames. As he writes, he is 76 years old, 74 of which he has spent here in Gilead, Iowa.
“Begats” is a colloquial way of referring to the Old Testament’s lengthy genealogies (in archaic English translations, the formula is usually “X begat Y”). John’s wife humorously applies the same word to John’s family history. John uses this as an opportunity to begin writing in a more formal, structured way than he’s done to this point, introducing his parents and grandparents and explaining that he’s lived most of his life in the small Midwestern town of Gilead.
Themes
When John was 12, his father took him to his grandfather’s grave. At this point, the family had been living in Gilead for about 10 years. John’s grandfather had been born in Maine and moved to Kansas in the 1830s. As an old man, his grandfather had gone off and become some kind of traveling preacher, they thought. Then he died and was buried in Kansas, near a town that had been almost abandoned due to drought. The town had been settled by Free Soilers.
John begins his family history in an unusual way: instead of beginning with his birth, he starts with a visit to his grandfather’s grave, suggesting that this was a pivotal event in John’s coming of age. It also gives John’s writing a more conversational feel—after all, people don’t often tell a story in strictly chronological order. John’s grandfather seems to have been drawn to Kansas, where John was born and lived before the family moved to Iowa. The Free Soilers were a political party that sought to stop slavery’s expansion into western territories like Kansas.
Themes
It took months for John’s father to figure out where his father was buried. After many letters of inquiry, somebody sent John’s father a package containing the grandfather’s watch and old Bible. John’s father grieved that his last words to his father had been angry ones and that they’d never reconciled. John and his father traveled to his grandfather’s grave by train and wagon, and eventually on foot over dusty, rutted roads. Because of the drought, it was a laborious, thirsty journey, and at times, John believed they would die.
John doesn’t explain what happened, but his father and grandfather apparently had a serious falling-out, after which they were estranged until his grandfather’s death. John’s father seems to have taken this rupture to heart, since he went to great lengths to locate his father’s grave, undertook a difficult search to find the spot, and took his young son along on the risky journey. These actions suggest that reconciliation between estranged loved ones—especially fathers and sons—is extremely important, even if that reconciliation can only be partial.
Themes
With directions from a lady on a farmstead, they eventually found the remote, overgrown graveyard. Finally they found a grave with “REV AMES” marked on it in bent nails. As evening fell, they walked back to the lady’s farm to sleep and got up early to do chores to thank her for feeding them. Then they walked back to the graveyard and repaired its falling-down fence and graves as best they could. When they said goodbye to the farm lady for the last time, she cried, but when they offered further help, she insisted that she’d be fine once the rain came.
John’s memory of the neglected graveyard, the lonely homesteader, and the drought-stricken landscape captures the desperation of life on the Kansas plains in the late 19th century. His grandfather’s grave, with its stark lettering, fits into that environment, deepening the sense that John’s grandfather died alone and estranged from the rest of his family.
Themes
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John couldn’t imagine a lonelier place than the drought-blighted graveyard. He still dreams about the childish guilt he felt when he accidentally stepped on small graves obscured by weeds. When they finished cleaning up, they scattered wildflower seeds they’d saved from their own garden. Then his father sat silently by John’s grandfather’s grave for a long time.
John vividly remembers his visit to the graveyard; the memory has clearly made a deep impression on him, especially giving him a sense of respect for the dead. Scattering wildflower seeds seems to have been a way of honoring his grandfather and the rest of the dead by adding some beauty to this forsaken place.
Themes
Finally, John’s father stood up and prayed a long prayer, remembering his own father before God and asking God’s pardon. The prayer was so long that John eventually opened his eyes and looked around, noting the full moon rising in the east as the sun set in the west. Not wanting to startle his praying father, John kissed his hand and told him to look at the moon. They admired the sight for a long time, and at last his father said he was glad to know that such a place could be beautiful.
Even though John’s grandfather is dead, and face-to-face reconciliation isn’t possible, John’s father seems to find a measure of peace through praying at his father’s graveside. He can’t ask his father’s forgiveness for their argument, but he can ask for God’s, and he believes his father is with God. The beautiful moonrise and sunset symbolizes God’s grace transforming even the most desolate places, similar to how the wildflower seeds that John and his father scattered might one day bloom and transform the graveyard.
Themes
When they got home less than a month later, they were so much thinner and their clothes so tattered that John’s mother wept at the sight of them. John and his father, though, looked back on it as a great adventure—even the time an old farmer shot at them for stealing some carrots so they wouldn’t starve (though his father left a dime on the front stoop of the farmer’s house). Once they’d escaped and began to say grace over the tough, tasteless carrots, they both started laughing until they cried. It was only later that John thought about how disastrous it would’ve been if his dad had been shot and killed, leaving him stranded.
The journey through Kansas is memorable for John not just because of their experience in the graveyard, but because of the time he spent with his father. Through their perilous misadventures, the two bonded in a way that has stuck with John. In a way, their journey was John’s initiation into the family legacy that John will discuss throughout the novel.
Themes
After that incident, John’s father stopped gleaning from people’s farms and started knocking on doors instead. He didn’t like doing this because when people found out he was a preacher—which they invariably did, because he somehow looked like one—they’d sometimes offer more food than they could spare. When his father would offer chores in exchange for food, they’d often ask for prayer instead. Later on, John and his father would always laugh about the worst parts of their wanderings, and his mother, annoyed by this, just told them never to tell her the details of what they went through.
John’s father’s role as a minister gave him a special status, even among strangers. John implies that his father didn’t like being recognized in this way, because people tried to give him food they couldn’t spare. This shows that John’s father was humble and didn’t see his vocation as an excuse to take advantage of people. At the same time, other people—especially isolated families on the prairie who might not have access to a church—apparently jumped at the chance to have a minister pray for them personally. To them, prayer and spiritual companionship were worth the price of precious food.
Themes
John recalls that in some ways he was his mother’s only child. Before he was born, she’d bought a home health care book, “a good deal more particular than Leviticus,” and she took it very seriously. When John returned home, his mother put him straight to bed and fed him six or seven meals a day, which was tedious. But John looks back on the journey with his father as a great blessing. He remembers his father being vigorous into old age; every day they played catch after supper until dark. Of course, John remembers being a vigorous old man, too, until recently.
Because John focuses on father-son relationships when writing to his son, most of the women in his life, especially his mother, appear more in the background. But even though his father’s company is a sweeter memory for him, John remembers that his mother doted on him, taking pains to preserve his health. The health care book being “more particular than Leviticus” is a humorous allusion to the Old Testament book, which contains detailed laws that the ancient Israelite priests, or Levites, must follow.
Themes
