This Tender Land Themes

Through its examination of numerous communities, This Tender Land redefines the concept of a family as people with whom one feels safe and supported rather than solely people related by blood. The novel follows a group of four friends and orphans—Odie, Albert, Mose, and Emmy—on their quest to find a safe place to call home. Along the way, they encounter many different communities, including the Sword of Gideon Healing Crusade…

Odie, Albert, Mose, and Emmy escape the unjust treatment of Lincoln Indian Training School, only to discover the larger world is rife with hardship and suffering. The novel takes place in America during the Great Depression, which began with the Wall Street Crash of 1929, which sent American families into poverty and homelessness. The children at the center of the novel witness the extent of this hardship—and experience it themselves—as they travel…

The youthful protagonists of This Tender Land all experience their own coming of age in the larger context of their shared odyssey in search of safety and home. For Odie, personal growth takes many forms, including the discovery that he is capable of violence when his family is threatened, the contemplation of God, and the experience of falling in love. Odie must also confront his fear of change, especially when his companions—Albert…

This Tender Land portrays storytelling and music as methods of inspiring hope during desperate times. The novel begins with Odie characterizing himself as a storyteller and speaking retrospectively to his great-grandchildren about the events of his life. From the start, then, the novel’s structure as a frame story establishes the importance of storytelling to connect with and convey lessons to others, and also to add hope, meaning, and order to one’s life during times of…

Odie and each of his friends experience more than their fair share of broken dreams. As orphans, all of them have suffered from that particular kind of loneliness. The boys—Odie especially—have been unjustly punished by adults who were supposed to care for them, and they are perceived as criminals when they run away to protect themselves from further harm. Odie notes that he repeatedly hopes for better circumstances only to be disappointed. The cycle of…