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Chapter 49
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
Gertie leads the group to the kitchen, where a woman named Flo is supervising a few simmering pots. Gertie tells Flo that Forrest sent the children, who will be staying with them for the night on their way to Saint Louis. Gertie speculates Forrest will visit soon to see his brother, Calvin. Odie and Albert introduce themselves as Buck and Norman, while Mose gives them the name Amdacha. Flo is sympathetic to them as orphans, declaring that everyone is living through hard times. Gertie asserts that the children will work the dinner service at their restaurant to pay for their room and food for the night. She also insists they shower.
Gertie here is characterized as generous, direct, and a bit gruff: she takes the children in without much question, but she insists they work to earn their keep. Unlike their experiences at Lincoln, this labor is requested as a fair exchange for food and board, showing that successful communities operate through reciprocative care and support. Flo has a softer demeanor and treats the children with a maternal sympathy, perhaps because they are so young. The boys’ continued use of fake names indicates that they are still cautious about which adults they can trust with the story of their running away.
Themes
The group showers in a public bathhouse on the other side of the river. Gertie’s restaurant is not yet open for business when they return, but two men are sitting inside. The larger man, Truman, tries to stop them from entering, but Gertie shuts him down with obvious irritation. The other man is Native American—it’s Calvin, Forrest’s brother. Flo appears and chats with Truman (her brother) about his damaged towboat, the Hell or High Water. Wooster Morgan won’t loan him equipment on account of his temper. Truman and his crew depend on the boat for work. Flo is sympathetic but Gertie seems to dislike Truman. The dinner service upon them, she puts the kids to work, Odie’s “first official employment.”
Again, the children find themselves privy to the adult world of suffering. Truman relies on his towboat for financial security, but his temper and tendency to drink too much have also put him at a disadvantage, making people who can help—like Wooster Morgan—unwilling to assist him. Gertie, too, seems to judge Truman, though Flo exhibits a calm acceptance of her brother’s flaws. Nevertheless, Truman’s struggles highlight the importance of being able to maintain interpersonal relationships in order to productively participate in a community. That Odie considers his shift at Gertie’s his “first official employment” suggests that this is the first time he has received fair compensation for his work.
Themes
