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Chapter 27
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
Living among the crusaders makes Odie feel like he has a family. Everyone works together and trusts one another. If anyone knows Emmy’s true identity, they don’t care. Many troupe members are rough around the edges in a way that reminds Odie of the kids at Lincoln. The difference is that Sister Eve’s spirit of hope is infectious. Everyone keeps busy during the day, doing chores around the camp or helping people in the community. Odie enjoys helping people in need, as opposed to having his labor exploited. When he has some free time one day, Odie wanders New Bremen and tries to imagine growing up there. Unable to do so, he is overcome by a sense of belonging.
The mutual care and support the crusaders offer to one another and to the town of New Bremen is inspiring to Odie and illustrates how a true community operates. The roughness of the troupe recalls Sister Eve’s musings about imperfection and the divine, and there is an implication that she inspires everyone in the crusade to be their best self. Odie discovers it is part of his human nature to want to help others—quite the realization, since his labor has only ever been forced instead of welcomed. Contemplating what it would have been like to grow up in such a town is bittersweet, and such reflections hone Odie’s sense of himself.
Themes
Odie finds Sister Eve on the riverbank and asks about the long scar on her face. Eve tells him she got it after being baptized in a horse trough. Just then, someone calls for Eve: Emmy has had another fit. When they find her, Emmy wakes up mumbling “He’s okay.” She tells Odie not to worry because they have beaten the devil. They take Emmy back to the hotel. Sid says the kids are nothing but trouble. Odie eavesdrops on Sid telling Eve she has an offer for a weekly radio broadcast in Saint Louis. He agrees they can help the children find Aunt Julia, since they are heading to Saint Louis too, but Odie knows he is lying.
Eve’s scar seems like a physical manifestation of her remarks about human imperfection, alluding to a troubled past. Emmy’s fit, once again, seems to portend danger coming, despite her reassurance. Sid’s dislike for the children suggests to Odie that he will be the source of the coming trouble. Despite his faith in Sister Eve, here, Odie worries that desire for power and money will make her betray them the way other adults have done.
Themes
