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Chapter 20
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in This Tender Land, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Family, Community, and Home
Hardship, Injustice, and Compassion
God, Fate, and Choice
Coming of Age and Personal Growth
Storytelling, Music, and Hope
Acceptance and Forgiveness
Summary
Analysis
An older version of Odie imagines watching his younger self and traveling companions, encouraging them on their journey. Leaving Jack’s farm, the children feel dejected. Albert forbids Odie from playing his harmonica, fearing someone will discover them. With no money, Albert scrounges for food in the trash of the towns they pass through. Once, he finds a newspaper reporting that DiMarco’s body has been found in the quarry, along with Billy Red Sleeve’s body. Though police speculate Emmy’s kidnappers are to blame for the murders, the paper doesn’t mention the boys by name. Emmy cries at night, feeling alone, and Mose comforts her, insisting she is “Not alone.” Odie knows her emotional wounds are still fresh and painful.
This interjection from the elder Odie reminds the reader that they are hearing Odie’s story retrospectively, which leaves open the possibility of embellishment and misremembering. Additionally, reflecting on such a low moment in his life with the advantage of future wisdom, Odie encourages himself to be brave, implying that better things will come if he can persist. The harmonica’s absence emphasizes how hopeless the children’s situation feels: they do not even have music to distract from their unhappy circumstances. Mose’s reassurance that Emmy is never alone demonstrates that family is not solely defined by blood relation: friends can be family, too.
Themes
One night, the group camps in a hollow and builds a fire. Feeling comforted, Odie plays his harmonica. Emmy says she wants to have a fire with them every night until she dies. Someone interrupts their conversation, saying Indians believe smoke carries prayers to heaven. The speaker—a Native American man—emerges from the dark and asks to join them, offering to share some catfish. Starving, the children agree. Dressed as a cowboy, the man claims to have come home: he explains that this land belonged to the Sioux before it was stolen. He tries speaking to Mose in Sioux, but Emmy answers him—her father taught her to speak the language. The man introduces himself as Hawk Flies at Night, but most call him Forrest.
Again, the harmonica’s appearance suggests the group’s spirits are lifting and that they have rediscovered hope for the future. This sense of safety is immediately undercut by Forrest’s appearance, despite his seemingly benevolent character. By referencing the Sioux’s stolen land, Forrest highlights another community that has succumbed to greed and injustice in the same way the children lost their birth families. Mose’s inability to understand his Native language is proof of the harm that has been done by separating him from his birth community.
Themes
Forrest asks their names. Odie and Albert become Buck and Norman again, while Emmy gives Mose’s real name, along with her own. Forrest cooks and shares the catfish. Later, he asks Odie to play the harmonica some more, singing along and drinking from a jar of moonshine. Unlike Jack, Forrest doesn’t get mean when he drinks. But suddenly, Forrest tells the boys there is a $500 bounty on their heads. Producing a Minneapolis newspaper, he shows them an article stating the Brickmans are offering the reward. Despite knowing their identities, Forrest is not worried about Emmy being in danger. Odie calls himself and his friends desperadoes, like Billy the Kid. Everyone goes to sleep.
Emmy’s willingness to trust Forrest with her true identity characterizes her as innocent and naïve. Lured into a sense of security, the revelation that Forrest knows the boys are fugitives is startling, as it implies he may have been searching for them in order to collect the Brickmans’ bounty. Despite his reassurances that he means the children no harm, Forrest still has the potential to betray the group out of personal greed.
Themes
