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Chapter 30
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
Dr. Pfeiffer makes Albert as comfortable as they can while waiting for the antivenom to arrive. Odie moves between his brother’s room and the waiting room until his distress drives him out to the house’s porch. Sister Eve joins him and asks why he hasn’t asked her to heal Albert. Odie repeats that she is a fake with no healing power, though his anger is dull now. Eve explains that the people Sid paid did experience God’s healing, just not in that moment. Sometimes, she says, people need help in order to have faith, so reenacting past healings gives them hope. While she admits this is fraud, Eve pays her actors, who have no livelihoods other than the crusade.
Again, Odie grapples with a devastating sense of helplessness as Albert's fate is fully out of his hands. When Sister Eve asks Odie why he did not ask her to heal Albert, she highlights his lack of faith—not only in her, but in God. Eve does not argue whether Odie’s cynicism and faithlessness are justified. Instead, she gives him context for what he witnessed in the diner. While knowing the full story does not make Eve’s “healings” any less fraudulent in the moment, it does clarify her reasoning. Her lies help people open themselves up to miraculous possibilities and provide financial support to people who desperately need it.
Themes
Sister Eve explains that she sees things about a person when she takes their hand. Her father beat her mother to death before killing himself, leaving her unconscious in the horse trough of her “baptism.” Unknowingly, he gave her the gift of clairvoyance. Eve uses her ability to revive people’s faith so God can heal them, though it does not always work. Odie runs inside and begs Albert to believe in Sister Eve and God with all his heart, so he can be healed. But Albert calls Sister Eve a liar. Believing Eve can see Albert’s faith isn’t strong enough, Odie thinks of God eating another one of his flock. When a storm delays the antivenom’s arrival further, Odie flees rather than watch Albert die.
While Eve’s ability to see into a person’s past might serve as a useful tool for her con, the way she uses her clairvoyance to reinvigorate others’ faith suggests a sincere belief in God and a desire to do good. It is desperation (rather than sincere faith) that drives Odie to beg Albert to put his faith in God. Sister Eve’s reaction seems to confirm that Albert’s faith is not strong enough, although Odie interprets this as further injustice, placing the blame on God once again for not meeting his brother halfway.
Themes
