Peace Like a River

“I believe I was preserved, through those twelve airless minutes, in order to be a witness, and as a witness, let me say that a miracle is no cute thing but more like the swing of a sword.”

By explaining his role as a witness, Reuben justifies and gives weight to his telling of this story. Comparing a miracle to the swing of a sword engages the reader by foreshadowing conflict and tension in the plot. It also reflects a Christian vision of a mighty God and powerful protector.

“I will forget none of this. Nor the comfortable, fluttery feeling it gave me, as though someone had blown warm smoke through a hole in my center. Dad went perhaps thirty feet, paused, and started back. His eyes were still clenched shut; I don’t know whether he ever recognized how buoyant was his faith that night.”

Reuben is referring here to the miracle he witnesses in Chapter 2, in which his father walks on air as he prays. The combined literal and figurative use of the word buoyant makes effective use of metaphor to create a visual conceptualization for the reader. This line reinforces the idea that Jeremiah’s miracles are inseparably connected to his faith in God, an important thematic message throughout the book.

“For the first time the thought ingressed that if this man, my father, beloved by God, could work miracles—if he could walk on air—then fixing my defective lungs ought to be a picnic.”

This comment contributes to an authentic voice for an 11-year-old narrator who idealizes his father and expects the world to follow logical rules. It presents a potential reason for Reuben to lose hope or feel bitterness, perhaps foreshadowing his sense of injustice when Superintendent Holgren is healed instead. Such observations demonstrate how complicated faith and accepting God’s will can be.

“And now, because a story is told for all, an admonition to the mindsick: Be careful whom you choose to hate. The small and the vulnerable own a protection great enough, if you could but see it, to melt you into jelly. Beware those who reside beneath the shadow of the Wings.”

This quote, which alludes to Psalm 36 in the Christian bible, claims those who keep faith in God have his protection. This protection is evidenced throughout the narrative as conflicts and events that seem tragic for the Lands at the time ultimately turn out to serve their interest. Even Jeremiah’s death leads him to God’s kingdom, because redemption means any harm that befalls him on earth will not permanently destroy him.

“Davy hadn’t wanted to call Pullet at all. This was Finch and Basca’s third offense, and as far as Davy was concerned their woeful moon had risen. He had his jacket on and car keys in hand when Dad pulled rank and called the law. Waiting, Davy asked, ‘How many times does a dog have to bite before you put him down?’”

This quote, in which Davy refers to the family’s conflict with Finch and Basca, epitomizes Davy’s vigilante-style view of justice. He believes people should take matters of justice into their own hands. As Jeremiah explains, this viewpoint leads to escalation, not resolution. The book further develops the theme of justice, concluding with the message that God’s justice is more reliable than that of humans.

“Thinking of supper, I asked, ‘You want us to do anything, Dad?’ ‘Persevere,’ he said. It was a better answer than we wanted. What else to do when the landscape changes? When all mirrors tilt?”

This line characterizes Jeremiah as a man of patience who is loath to complain or relinquish hope. It also demonstrates the type of sophisticated metaphor and mature insight that uniquely shapes the narrative point of view. It’s written as if in Reuben’s adulthood, though still maintaining his 11-year-old perspective of events.

“My sister’s resentments notwithstanding, Margery’s pitiful recital contained a certain truth that I, at least, eventually had to face. Tommy Basca was an idiot, but he wasn’t purebred evil. You could see looking at him that he might be somebody’s Bubby. He tagged after Israel Finch because Israel Finch liked having a disciple and no one else was witless enough to want the job.”

Reuben’s changing understanding of Davy’s act, and of Finch and Basca themselves, is a central component of his character arc. Like many coming-of-age stories, his includes the loss of innocence that accompanies the journey from childhood to adulthood. For Reuben, this means gaining a more nuanced understanding of good and evil, and how humans are never all one or the other.

“I sirred him to death; I sirred him with a disrespect he had to comprehend. And hearing these things from my own mouth I thought, Not bad. Pride is the rope God allows us all.”

Reuben’s desire to remain loyal to Davy leads him to define all Davy’s enemies as his own enemies. This line refers to Reuben’s testimony during Davy’s trial, and how he responds to the prosecuting attorney’s questions. In hindsight, Reuben recognizes the naivety of his views and of his sense of responsibility for changing Davy’s fate.

“A boy on a horse can’t outride the law. Not in 1962. The police tell us so, and perhaps they are right. America is a grown-up place, after all. It’s been a long while since we loved our outlaws.”

This line points out the surprising synthesis of the story’s 1960s setting and Wild West, frontier era allusions and atmosphere. Reuben and Swede, entranced by the mythic and glamorous lure of old westerns, try to paint their reality in a similar light. Every now and then, however, reality intrudes so effectively that they’re forced to abandon their fairy tale notions.

“‘Why don’t you change it,’ I suggested, ‘make this girl his wife, see—they ride away together.’ ‘She wasn’t his wife!’ Swede flared. Past tense, you notice—history, even the fictive kind, being beyond our influence.”

Swede earlier told Reuben, “Just because I write it doesn’t mean it really happened.” Reuben says even the fictive kind of history is beyond their influence because he’s realized what she meant. The two grapple with feelings of powerlessness over the world around them, which manifests in Reuben’s dreams and in Swede’s writing.

“‘Where do you think you’re going?’ Dr. Nokes demanded. I think he feared the sickness had touched the part of Dad’s brain in charge of good sense. ‘What do you have for directions?’ he asked. And Dad, eyebrows raised in delight with his forthcoming answer, said, ‘I have the substance of things hoped for. I have the anticipation of things unseen.’”

Jeremiah says this when the Land family is getting ready to leave Roofing in search of Davy, though he acknowledges they don’t know where to go. His quote references Hebrews 11:1 in the Christian bible, which says “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (King James Bible). Jeremiah is saying faith in God will guide them and provide for them, a central thematic idea.

“[H]e looked dead, is what I’m telling you. Like a man so trampled of spirit he’d given over the strength of limbs. I watched his face and his futile, suety hands, and for the first time a question nipped at me: Was it possible that real loss had occurred at the death of Israel Finch? That real grief had been felt?”

Reuben’s epiphany is prompted by the vision of Israel Finch’s father outside the post office, looking frozen, dispirited, and on the verge of death. This epiphany marks another change in how he views the deaths of Finch and Basca at the hands of his brother. Mr. Finch’s sudden decline suggests to Reuben that he’s suffered greatly because of Israel’s death.

“‘He’s like Moses,’ Swede declared of Dad, when we lay in bed that night under a hissing gas-mantle lamp. ‘It was like going through the Red Sea!’ ‘Well, now,’ I said, riffling, at her insistence, through the Old Testament. Having witnessed her very first miracle, she’d got the idea of ranking Dad among the prophets, a notion that disquieted me.”

Swede’s first recognition that Jeremiah can work miracles comes long after Reuben’s. She says this after they drive right by countless state troopers looking for them without being seen. With her characteristic flair for the dramatic, she compares her father to one of the most central prophets in the Christian bible. Leif Enger portrays his characters with the recognition that the events of a person’s life feel as epic to that person as any historical phenomenon.

“It is one thing to be sick of your own infirmities and another to understand that the people you love most are sick of them also. You are very near then to being friendless in this world.”

This line about Reuben’s asthma evokes sympathy for what he goes through at the mercy of a severe chronic illness. Not only does he suffer physically and at times fear for his life, but he also senses that he is a burden on his family and feels isolated.

“It went to show that anyone could deliver good news, including a person like Martin Andreeson, even if he wasn’t doing so purposefully, and even if he was the king of pukes in most respects.”

This line serves as an example of one technique Enger uses to achieve a complex narrative voice. For the most part, Reuben tells his story with a surprising sophistication of language and insight, given his young age at the time the events take place. Enger sprinkles in humorously childlike observations, such as this line calling Andreeson the king of pukes, to remind the reader of the protagonist’s innocence.

“For some reason I recalled old Mr. Finch, freezing in the wind outside the post office. I felt awful about Mr. Finch and wanted to believe Davy might have too. But I couldn’t bring it up without seeming soft, maybe even disloyal.”

Reuben is conflicted by the challenge of understanding right and wrong in a complex situation and the pressure he feels to prioritize family loyalty. He eventually does bring it up to Davy later, and Davy confirms Reuben’s fear that his brother won’t feel remorse, widening the gap between them. This complication in the plot reflects a common moral dilemma faced by young characters in coming-of-age stories as they mature and probe their personal beliefs and values.

“She listened to Dad pacing in his agitation. Sometimes he spoke; at intervals Roxanna heard him savagely racing through King James, as if to back up some contention. He doesn’t know You and doesn’t want to, Dad said, gasping then as though taking a blow. At this Roxanna covered her mouth, for it occurred to her with Whom he wrestled. Having long ago accepted the fact of God, Roxanna had not conceived of going toe to toe with Him over any particular concern. Make me willing if you can, Dad cried, a challenge it still shakes me to think of.”

In this line, Jeremiah is overheard by Roxanna as he argues with God about going to look for Davy with Andreeson. His decision to do so, after he’d first refused, comes as a great surprise to Reuben and Swede. Roxanna’s revelation about Jeremiah’s apparent back-and-forth argument creates a much more compelling effect than simply telling the reader Jeremiah chose God’s will over his own.

“Of course we’d been led; why did everyone keep bringing this up? We’d had leading by the bushel! The breakdown and snowstorm had been leading, I could’ve told Waltzer; along with Mr. Lurvy, and August and Birdie, and a bunch of state troopers—in fact, I thought sourly, even the putrid fed had been part of the old rod and staff employed by the Lord to goose us along.”

Many plot developments, allusions, and symbols in Enger’s narrative contain some ambiguity as to their meaning within the story. This observation of Reuben’s, however, makes it clear that Reuben views the plot points mentioned as divine intervention. Reuben believes unequivocally that God had an active hand in shaping events to lead the Land family on his desired path for them.

“More than one teacher back in Roofing had been convinced I was short of breath simply because I hadn’t learned to do it properly. Or because I didn’t want it enough. How many asthmatics have been told, in exasperated tones, Just breathe?”

Enger was inspired to write Peace Like a River by his desire to work a miracle for his asthmatic seven-year-old son. This passage reflects the lack of empathy that people with asthma face from others are misinformed about their illness.

“Mr. Juval had discerned the cabin lying down the valley. You might expect some outburst from men so informed, but there was none. I felt instead a hush. To say I felt like a caught sneak doesn’t touch it. I was a boy caught deceiving honest men.”

Reuben says this about his choice to mislead the party looking for Davy in Chapter 20, “The Ledger of Our Decisions,” which resulted in Lonnie Ford’s nearly fatal injuries and a harsh rebuke from Agent Juval. It marks a low point in Reuben’s character arc in which he strays from his dad’s moral example, then sees how dishonesty minimizes him.

“Could you reach deep in yourself to locate that organ containing delusions about your general size in the world—could you lay hold of this and dredge it from your chest and look it over in daylight—well, it’s no wonder people would rather not.”

The low point of Reuben’s moral development, above, prompts a turning point by forcing him to confront his own sinful nature—not in hindsight as he does with many other sins in his later telling of the story, but in the moment. He recognizes how small sin makes him feel, a lesson he’ll carry with him. When he meets his father in heaven, he’s become as big and strong as his dad, and knows his father is proud of him, marking the final state of his character arc and resolving this internal conflict.

“One thing I wasn’t waiting for was a miracle. I don’t like to admit it. Shouldn’t that be the last thing you release: the hope that the Lord God, touched in His heart by your particular impasse among all others, will reach down and do that work none else can accomplish.”

As Reuben matures through the events of the story, he loses his childhood innocence. With it goes some measure of confidence in the miraculous. His loss of hope for overt divine intervention sets up the plot arc for a twist using dramatic irony, as the greatest miracles come when he least expects them. For one, he survives what should have been a fatal gunshot. Additionally, his asthma, his own particular impasse which no one else could alleviate, is cured.

“We were like two friends, and I saw he was proud of me, that he knew me better than he’d ever thought to and was not dismayed by the knowledge.”

Meeting his father in Heaven and seeing his pride in him offers Reuben confirmation of his own worth. He sees his father as the epitome of a good man and the model to strive for as he becomes a man himself. This glimpse of what awaits him after death fills him with joy and hope, illustrating Enger’s point about Christian faith.