Peace Like a River

The concept of the eternal struggle between good and evil is approached in the book from a Christian perspective in which this conflict can also be viewed as that which is of God and that which is of the devil. Various symbols appear in the narrative that represent either the figure of the devil or evil itself, as the book’s young narrator conceptualizes evil through the world he sees.

The bandit Valdez in Swede’s Sunny Sundown poem is one such representation of evil. He adapts throughout the novel to help Swede, Reuben, and Davy understand the changing forms of evil they encounter in their lives, from Finch and Basca to a biased justice system to Jape Waltzer. Superintendent Holgren’s skin disorder, “his bedeviled complexion—that face set always at a rolling boil” (79), provides an example of how Leif Enger uses physical appearance to represent the evil aspect of human nature within an individual.

The little man with the skin bag in Reuben’s dreams, who steals Reuben’s breath, symbolizes the devil. Reuben describes him as a “devilish little man […] a pale one, a horror” (183). Because breath is life, given by God, stealing Reuben’s breath symbolizes the