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Chapter 24
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
Albert is furious when the others vote to stay in town one more night to keep Odie’s promise to Sister Eve. That night, the tent is full of people who have heard the news of last night’s healings. Emmy asks if Odie can play “Beautiful Dreamer” on the harmonica, but she doesn’t explain why. Sister Eve takes the stage, inviting everyone to be refreshed by the Holy Spirit. Singing and preaching with evangelical fervor, Eve cures a man on crutches and a woman with a stutter. A foul-smelling man with a shotgun drags his apparently sleeping wife forward, telling Eve his wife won’t talk to him anymore. It is then that Odie realizes the woman is dead.
Again, Albert’s tendency to distrust strangers in rooted in his past experiences with adults who let him down. The strangeness of Emmy’s request to Odie, combined with Sister Eve’s particular interest in Emmy, foreshadows some uncanny occurrence during the service. Hope is contagious, as demonstrated by the enlarged crowd in the tent. Seeing others healed of their afflictions draws others forward, even if their experiences have taught them that hope is foolish. In this way, Sister Eve’s services reinvigorate a sense of faith and community.
Themes
Sister Eve talks to the man, whose name is Willis, about his hardship. He carries the shotgun for fear the bank will take his farm, but he takes comfort in Sarah, his wife. Willis believes Sarah stopped speaking because of some terrible sin. Sister Eve deduces that Willis hit Sarah after an argument and has been unable to accept that she is dead. But Willis rejects Eve’s attempts to soothe him, threatening her with the shotgun. Emmy tells Odie to play “Beautiful Dreamer” on his harmonica, and he obeys without knowing why. Sister Eve sings along, and the song calms Willis, who collapses onto his wife, sobbing. Emmy tells Odie he never played better.
The kindness with which Sister Eve treats Willis is indicative of her generosity and genuine desire to serve other people. Willis’s hardships are familiar to everyone present, as the entire country is suffering. In bringing his dead wife to Eve to be healed, Willis essentially asks her to return what little comfort he had. Nevertheless, this is a grim scene that points to how human desperation can lead to acts of violence. Emmy’s instructions to Odie to play his harmonica enhance the sense that she can predict future events, somehow knowing that “Beautiful Dreamer” will calm Willis and save Sister Eve’s life.
Themes
