59 pages • 1 hour read
Leif EngerPeace Like a River
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Rewards of Faith
Miracles, morality, and the practices and beliefs of Christianity are woven throughout the story of Peace Like a River. The concept of faith sits at the center of this tapestry of ideas. Thematically, Leif Enger described it simply as belief and disbelief. Through characterization of Jeremiah and Reuben’s morality and religious beliefs, a plot arc rife with miracles and divine intervention, and a resolution that justifies the Land family’s trust in God, Enger’s theme about faith culminates in a simple message: Faith in God will be rewarded.
Reuben and Jeremiah’s beliefs and values are portrayed through character development. Reuben is characterized by his choices, as well as the preceding struggles to understand right from wrong in a complex world. Even when he falls short, his narrative humility in hindsight demonstrates his desire to act with honesty and integrity.
Jeremiah is characterized throughout the novel as a man of great faith. He prays often, chooses God’s will over his own, and teaches his children to believe in God’s guidance and protection. His choice to change which church the family attends establishes his beliefs about what’s important in life. While their former pastor chased popularity and adopted trendy views in his sermons, their new pastor “had a plain Bible, […] and preached right out of it” (28). This shows Jeremiah believes in the importance of having faith in God’s word.
Jeremiah’s character also illustrates the power of faithful prayer. His communion with God is so effective, in fact, it buoys him above the laws of nature when he walks on air in Chapter 2. He successfully models the power of prayer to Reuben, who believes praying more about Waltzer may have prevented the man’s attack on the Lands. Jeremiah’s words to his family, “We and the world, my children, will always be at war” (3), reflect a belief in the biblically proclaimed conflict between the faithful and a faithless world. Again, Reuben is led to accept his father’s beliefs through the events of their journey. In one example, seeing that Andreeson has state troopers at every gas station looking for his family makes him feel as if the whole world is against them.
Nearly every plot development in the narrative can be viewed in terms of divine intervention, justifying Jeremiah’s faith in God’s presence and guidance. Some of these events seem at first like terrible misfortunes, such as Jeremiah’s job loss and his migraines and pneumonia. Others are minor burdens, like Lurvy’s routine intrusions on their peaceful evenings. However, these events all move the characters in the direction of what Reuben considers to be God’s plan for them. He acknowledges this when Waltzer asks if the Lands were led to Davy, thinking:
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 (232-33).
His acceptance of this explanation is a product of his faith.
The events in the story deemed true miracles by Reuben are what most significantly shape and illustrate his faith. As he defines them, miracles are things that contradict the will of earth. They seem to Reuben to be clear evidence of God’s power and presence in their midst. That he stops expecting miracles after not observing any for a few months emphasizes, by contrast, his prior certainty that his family would continue to be blessed by the miraculous. Reuben correlates the end of observed miracles with Roxanna entering their lives. Despite his theory that God tired of having to help them and offered Roxanna as a parting gift, no evidence confirms this correlation. Rather, Reuben’s character arc suggests the absence of miracles may relate to his ability to perceive them.
If faith is rewarded, then doubt must have its own consequences. Reuben makes his most regrettable choice, to mislead the party looking for Davy, when he begins to doubt his original decision to share Davy’s location. His doubt can be seen as a lack of faith in God’s guidance, which leads him astray. The consequences take a heavy toll on his sense of self, as evidenced when he asks, “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” (285). Though he’d rather not confront his shame, Reuben nevertheless internalizes the lesson that his faith can survive moments of doubt.
Once doubt passes, he says, “Certainty enters me like a light” (311). Witnessing God’s miracles, including those that bring him back from death and cure his asthma, help make him certain. The blessings he describes in the story’s resolution, his joyful life with his wife and children and his siblings, add to his certainty that faith in God will always be rewarded.
The Spectrum of Justice and Forgiveness
In Peace Like a River, the concept of justice takes on varied meanings. It refers to the legal justice system, tasked with arresting Davy and trying him for homicide, as well as apprehending him after he escapes. Ideas of what’s fair and unfair in life are viewed in terms of justice and injustice and explored from the perspective of a young boy as he sheds the innocence of childhood. Finally, justice in the text refers to God’s ultimate punishment of unrepentant sinners, his battle against evil, and his protection and reward of salvation for believers. The events of Peace Like a River demonstrate that justice is flawed when governed by society and influenced by public opinion—often escalating conflicts rather than resolving them—but where man’s justice fails, God’s justice won’t. Enger’s message suggests the best response to injustice is forgiveness, along with faith that God will right all wrongs.
Part of Reuben’s coming-of-age story involves his recognition of injustice in the world, resulting in a loss of innocence. Feeling frustrated by the perception of unfairness is perhaps a universal part of moving from childhood into adulthood. Peace Like a River employs compelling examples of injustice, such as bullies and criminals like Finch and Basca, and the way society caves to their abuse of fear and power. Reuben’s asthma feels wholly unfair in the way it limits him and causes suffering, portraying it as a different type of injustice. That the bandit Valdez and his real-life counterpart Waltzer are never caught epitomizes the idea of worldly injustice in Reuben’s world.
The concept of outlaw justice from the Wild West era forms one end of the spectrum of justice in the novel. Outlaw justice is woven into the story via Swede’s Sunny Sundown epic and tales of old western bandits like Butch Cassidy and Cole Younger. It esteems men and women who abide by their own code of honor, like Cassidy, and who take justice into their own hands when society won’t, like when Sunny kills the Reddick brothers to protect his wife.
Davy’s character embodies this view through his sense that Finch and Basca deserved worse punishment than Jeremiah gave them and his preference to deal with them himself rather than calling the police after Swede’s abduction. An authorial tone early in the narrative also seems to favor this type of justice by criticizing Davy’s arrest, regarding it, as one citizen says, like “a sorrowful commentary on the way we treat those who dare to do what is right” (60). This tone is developed further as public sympathy shifts from Davy to Basca, emphasizing the inappropriate influence of public opinion on the justice system.
Enger’s thematic message begins to shift away from favoring outlaw justice through exploration of the concept of escalation. As Jeremiah points out, the Lands’ ongoing feud with Finch and Basca only makes the situation worse. Some characters, like Davy, hardly question the desire to retaliate. For others, the decision whether or not to retaliate is ultimately a decision between man’s law and God’s law, between “an eye for an eye” and “turn the other cheek.”
Plot developments, along with Reuben’s assessment of them, provide evidence of God’s justice, the other end of the spectrum. For example, though Davy escaped the legal consequences of conviction in court, Reuben believes living with Waltzer is an equal punishment, perhaps one arranged by God’s intervention. The health and happiness Reuben is seen to enjoy in the story’s resolution also demonstrate God’s justice, as Reuben is rewarded for his faith and sacrifices.
Jeremiah modeled forgiveness in response to injustice, providing a path for his son to follow. For example, he healed Superintendent Holgren after being fired by him. It riles Reuben at the time, prompting him to ask, “What business had Dad in healing that man? What right had Holgren to cross paths with the Great God Almighty? The injustice took my breath away, truly it did” (79). He calls it an injustice because of his dislike for Holgren, but in time he learns his idea of fairness doesn’t define what is just.
Reuben’s narrative doesn’t portray him as perfect or without sin, yet his experience in Heaven before his life is miraculously restored assures him he has access to salvation and eternal life. This is possible because of God’s grace, which is the forgiveness of sin. By these examples, Reuben learns to forgive so his life isn’t ruled by bitterness. Trusting in God’s justice allows him to continue loving his brother, and to not despair over the presence of evil men like Jape Waltzer in the world.
Defining Family, Loyalty, and Sacrifice in a Complex World
In the course of Peace Like a River’s narrative, Reuben discovers there’s a complicated relationship between loyalty, sacrifice, and doing what’s right. The love of family can offer guidance, or it can complicate things further. In interviews, Leif Enger has said Reuben’s never before thought to question his loyalty to his older brother. Doing so is a big part of his journey and of growing up. The book’s thematic exploration of family, loyalty, and sacrifice begins with Reuben having certain ideals, both conscious and unconscious, about these concepts. Through the events of the narrative and his coming-of-age transformation, he’s forced to question how those ideals align with his moral compass, and to confront the challenges of living up to them in a complex world.
The Wild West tales of cowboys and bandits revered by Reuben and Swede glamorize loyalty and sacrifice. In the real world, Reuben finds, loyalty and sacrifice are messier and more painful. Being loyal to one person can mean betraying another, for one thing. If Reuben keeps the secret of Davy’s whereabouts, his loyalty to Davy means betraying his father and his sister. Unable or unwilling to decide who is more deserving of his loyalty, Reuben resorts to a bargain in which Davy can earn it by showing Reuben where he’s living. He’s still beset by guilt, though, posing the question, “What else exhausts like sustained deception?” (247). His lies to his father and his sister, told for the sake of loyalty to Davy, wear on him.
Reuben initially sees Jeremiah’s choice to help Andreeson find Davy as a betrayal. Roxanna’s description of Jeremiah wrestling with God over the matter complicates his assessment, and perhaps reveals a thematic message that seeking God’s will can help resolve conflicts of loyalty.
Reuben also experiences internal conflict between loyalty and his sense of what’s right. His discovery that Davy lured Finch and Basca to their deaths prompts him to question how loyal he should be to his brother if it turns out his brother was in the wrong. When the brothers reunite, Reuben wants to believe Davy feels remorse for his actions, based on his ideas of right and wrong, but fears bringing it up would portray him as disloyal to his brother. He chooses loyalty. When the choice is between loyalty to Davy and trying to save Andreeson’s life, however, Reuben chooses to do what he believes is morally right over loyalty. Though it turns out to be too late for Andreeson, the book’s resolution suggests Reuben made the right choice.
Another painful aspect of loyalty, Reuben learns, is that it often requires sacrifice. An early example is the choice he must make between spending his hard-earned Christmas money on the canoe he’s been dreaming of, or on groceries for the family. Of Swede pushing him toward the right choice, he says, “But I was more interested in canoes than gallantry. […] I was annoyed that I’d worked hard to earn twenty-five dollars and now would have to give my twenty-five dollars to Otto Schock, the Red Owl man” (122). In Reuben’s youthful innocence, this personal sacrifice feels huge. Not long after, he begins to note sacrifices made by those he looks up to. August Shultz risks his own freedom by harboring Davy and giving him a car to help him evade capture. Jeremiah puts his family ahead of his health, though pneumonia and chronic migraines leave him weak and skeletal.
Ultimately, it’s his notions of loyalty that Reuben must sacrifice. He learns, however, that he can still love Davy and accept his brother’s flaws without straying, through blind loyalty, from his own moral path. In doing what’s right he sacrifices his treasured position as Swede’s best friend and confidante. By trying to help his father after Waltzer shoots him, Reuben nearly sacrifices his own life. He’s later rewarded for these sacrifices. The most meaningful sacrifice in the story is not one Reuben makes, but one his father makes to save Reuben. Jeremiah’s sacrifice of his own life symbolizes Jesus dying to save humanity, thus tying the book’s thematic ideas of loyalty and sacrifice to its overarching Christian outlook.
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