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Chapter 41
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
Odie worries about Mose, who is still gone the next day. He visits the Schofields again and shares Mose’s story with an inquisitive Mother Beal. Having lived among the Sioux, she tells Odie about the practice of hanblecheyapi, in which a person goes alone into the wilderness to seek a vision from the Creator. Mother Beal speculates that Mose is trying to find peace and needs to be alone. Odie spends much of the day with Maybeth, knowing he is in love with her. Seeing Mr. Schofield struggling with the truck engine, Odie asks Albert to help. Albert begrudgingly obliges after Emmy insists it’s the right thing to do, but he tells the others to stay at camp.
Mose’s absence fractures Odie’s original community, and he seeks comfort among the Schofields. Mother Beal’s insight into Sioux culture highlights the occasional human need to take time to one self for the purposes of growth. Odie’s love of Maybeth complicates his unspoken plans for the future, implying he will be torn between staying with her and staying with his family. Albert’s begrudging willingness to help the Schofields fix their truck shows how his character has changed, while Emmy’s remark that helping the strangers is the right thing to do portrays humankind as a community of people who care for one another in times of hardship.
Themes
Odie wonders whether it would be better to accompany the Schofields to Chicago so he can be with Maybeth. He tells Emmy more of the Vagabonds’ story. Picking up where he left off, Odie describes how the imp approaches a castle full of people whose souls have been stolen by the Black Witch. The imp plays his magic harmonica, hoping it will revive them, and he hears a beautiful princess singing along. The princess is named Maybeth Schofield. The music she makes with the imp returns her peoples’ souls. Before Odie can finish the story, Albert returns, having fixed the truck, which still has no gas. Forrest returns, but there is still no sign of Mose. That night, Odie sneaks across the river with the rest of Sister Eve’s money.
Even before the Schofields can act on their plan to leave, Odie feels torn between his love for Maybeth and his loyalty to his family. By inserting Maybeth as a character in the story of the Vagabonds, Odie implicitly expresses his belief that, together, he and Maybeth can revive the hopes of their separate families. Here, he begins to appreciate the wide scope of human suffering and feels compelled to help all those afflicted by it. Finally having the means and desire to help someone other than himself and his immediate family, Odie takes the rest of their money with the implication he is going to gift it to the Schofields. In this way, he imitates the residents of Hopersville, sharing despite his individual lack.
Themes
