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Chapter 19
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Medicine Walk, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fathers and Sons
Nature and the Land
Identity and Heritage
Memory and Story
Love, Loss, and Grief
Summary
Analysis
Bunky finished the wood-cutting job he’d been doing and returned to farm work, meaning that he was around much more. When Angie brought Eldon his lunch, Bunky tagged along. Bunky walked along the new fence line and praised Eldon’s work. When Eldon said that he figured he was motivated by desperation, Bunky replied that Eldon no longer looked so desperate. Eldon just stared at his shoes.
Bunky’s presence complicates Eldon’s and Angie’s feelings for one another. Bunky seems to think that Eldon’s looking better because he’s working, eating well, and not drinking. Eldon feels ashamed that his progress is partly due to his growing bond with Angie, whom Bunky believes is devoted to him.
Themes
Eldon started getting up at dawn so he could avoid Bunky. He was used to guilt, but he wasn’t used to dealing with guilt while sober. Whenever he was around Bunky, he was afraid he’d say or do something to betray his feelings. Now that he’d stopped drinking, he also felt more physically fit. He and Bunky talked about that one evening—how good it feels to labor on the land. Bunky said it “comes to fill a man,” and Eldon agreed, but said he’s not given to poetry. Bunky protested that poetry is just expressing what’s already there, and it opens a person up. To Eldon, it seemed like Bunky was starting to talk like Angie, and Bunky laughed and said he never expected that to happen to him, but he likes it.
Eldon has always coped with guilt by erasing it with alcohol, but he doesn’t have that to fall back on now. Though Bunky is making an effort to befriend Eldon, Eldon fears getting too close to him because Bunky will inevitably pick up on his feelings for Angie, whom Bunky clearly loves.
Themes
Eldon started watching Angie when Bunky wasn’t around. He took in small details, like the shape of her wrist while stirring a pot, and her joyful and thoughtful expressions. Every once in a while, she caught him looking and gave him a small smile. He savored her storytelling in the evenings. She seemed to become a different person when she told stories, and he could picture the stories when he closed his eyes. He kept waiting for her to appear in the barn loft again, but she never did.
Eldon’s attraction to Angie grows, especially when she tells stories. Though Eldon has resisted stories—both others and telling his own—for years, he can’t resist Angie’s, and they satisfy him on a deep level. Meanwhile, she seems to wait for Eldon to approach her.
Themes
The fencing job took 16 days. That last morning, Bunky went to town for errands, and just as Eldon was finishing up, Angie walked over. She watched him splashing his water jug over himself and said it’s fun to see the pleasure men take in hard work. Eldon asked if that’s why she used to enjoy taking jobs in work camps, so she could be reminded of her father. She looked surprised and sat down on the grass, thoughtful. She told him she always knew there was more to him. He apologized for what he said, but she said there’s nothing wrong with saying what you think. People can work through its rightness or wrongness together.
Eldon’s comment shows that he’s been paying attention to Angie’s stories of her past, thinking about them, and making connections—ones she hasn’t even necessarily made herself. It’s the most he’s ever opened up to her, and she encourages him not to regret that—it’s a way of opening up to another person, something he's been afraid of doing up till now.
Themes
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Eldon sat down next to her and reflected that he got used to leaving big things unsaid. After a while, that made it hard to say anything difficult. Angie objected—she said men think that getting to the root of things is hard, but it’s not; it’s just plain speaking, like telling a story. And telling stories is good—it changes things and makes a person lighter. She’d like to know more of his stories. Eldon said he couldn’t see why, but she took his hand and kissed it, saying she just did. He took her in his arms, and soon they were making love in the grass, both of them moved to tears. Afterward, Angie told him she wasn’t sure yet what they’d do about Bunky, but Eldon should remember that this was a good thing. He promised he would.
Angie draws things out of Eldon. For example, he’s finally able to acknowledge that his habit of withholding the truth hasn’t been good for him. Angie encourages him to reconsider whether telling the truth is really that difficult, suggesting that stories have a healing function that shouldn’t be feared. They finally consummate their desire for one another, irrevocably complicating things not only between themselves, but also between themselves and Bunky.
Themes
That night at supper, they feasted on roasted moose and vegetables. Bunky told Eldon he’d earned it and that he was proud of the work he’d done. He gave Eldon a fat envelope of cash. Eldon thanked him—he felt better than he had in a long time. Bunky said that a “man’s past ain’t his measure,” and he has always figured that “ya prove who ya are in the day yer in.”
Bunky’s warmth and pride puts Eldon in an awkward position. Eldon has accomplished something to be proud of, for the first time in a long time, but the milestone is overshadowed by guilt about what Bunky doesn’t yet know. The dramatic irony builds with Bunky’s maxim about the measure of a man’s character.
Themes
Eldon offered to clean up after the meal, while Bunky and Angie went to the porch to smoke. He felt like he was waiting to be punished. He slowly washed the dishes and even cleaned the appliances until they shone. Feeling trapped, he craved a drink. Finally, he went outside and told Bunky and Angie he was going for a walk and wouldn’t be in for the nightly story. Bunky told him he was a good man and he’d hire him anytime. Eldon started walking into the field, feeling a familiar ache building up. When he heard Angie laughing from a distance, he felt sure that she’d stay with Bunky, because he was predictable and safe. He didn’t blame her.
Eldon fights the desire to cope with guilt the way he normally does—by drinking. Without the ability to drown out his guilt, the only thing he can do is avoid the others, retreating into himself. He also doubts his ability to be what Angie needs, a fear that will continue to haunt him and eventually be his undoing.
Themes
Eldon dreamed of a valley shining in the sunset and felt at peace there. Then he heard footsteps approaching and saw Angie climbing up the ladder. As they started having sex, he was unsure if he was awake or dreaming. He felt they were outside of space and time and that the feeling would never end, until suddenly there was lamplight and Bunky’s voice saying, “What the hell?”
Eldon dreams of the ridge where he felt he belonged, suggesting that’s the way Angie makes him feel, too. Because of his dream, it’s unclear at first whether his rendezvous with Angie is real or a dream, but Bunky’s interruption makes things unambiguous.
Themes
