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Chapter 58
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
Two days later, Odie arrives in Saint Louis. Having only visited the city once when he was young, Odie sticks close to the river, where he finds a large Hooverville of shantytowns. A man shows him a free kitchen under the bridge, called The Welcome Inn, where a long line of people is waiting. Feeling he should have gone with Maybeth to Chicago, Odie finds the post office and asks if any letters have come for him by general delivery. Though no letters have arrived from Maybeth, another customer is able to direct Odie to Aunt Julia’s house by the details he remembers: the street has a Greek name and is near a candy shop. Odie feels he is almost home.
The presence of another Hooverville shows that economic hardship is common throughout the country. Like in Hopersville, the strangers take care of one another, and this makes Odie miss the community he had with Maybeth. The Greek name of Aunt Julia’s street alludes to Homer’s Odyssey, a work the novel references through its general plot.
Themes
Aunt Julia’s street is called “Ithaca.” The candy shop has closed since the Depression, but her house is easy to find since it is painted pink. Although it is not as welcoming as he would like, Odie knocks on the door. A Black woman in a red dressing gown answers, looking surprised when he asks for Julia. The woman tells him to wait. Odie notes that the sky is green, just like it was the day the Tornado God killed Mrs. Frost, and he worries that he will strike again now. A woman Odie doesn’t recognize comes to the door and looks at him with shock and wonder. She calls him “Odysseus.”
Aunt Julia’s house does not meet Odie’s expectations, implying that he has been romanticizing this homecoming after fantasizing about it for so long. This and his sense that the disastrous Tornado God has followed him to Saint Louis hint that Odie will be disappointed by what he finds in Aunt Julia’s house. This paranoia that he will not be allowed happiness also speaks to Odie’s previous trauma, which has compromised his ability to hope. Significantly, this is the first time the novel reveals that Odie’s full name is Odysseus, heightening his journey’s association with Homer’s Odyssey and storytelling more generally.
Themes
