61 pages • 2 hours read
John GrishamThe Testament
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Genre Context: Legal-Suspense Thrillers
The Testament is categorized as a legal-suspense thriller. Typically, these have three distinguishing features. First, their protagonists tend to be figures within the legal profession and are featured in courtroom scenes with high drama and high stakes. Second, their plots revolve around a mystery to be solved and include unexpected twists that keep the reader in a state of tension and suspense. Finally, they conclude with justice being served or vengeance being exacted.
The Testament both fulfils and deviates from these expectations. The main protagonist, Nate O’Riley, is a litigator, and toward the end of the novel, he is depicted practicing his craft. The plot revolves around several mysteries, including whether Rachel Lane will be found and what she will do with her inheritance, whether her siblings will succeed in challenging their father’s will, and whether Nate will survive his bout with dengue fever. The stakes are high and, in Nate’s case, life-threatening, and justice is served at the end of the novel.
What distinguishes The Testament from other legal thrillers is the execution of these stock elements. Though a litigator, Nate is ready to leave his profession behind. His scenes deposing witnesses are relatively low stakes in that they are pre-trial depositions. He does get the potential witnesses to admit that they are lying, but because this occurs during the discovery phase, it lacks the high tension of jury trial scenes. The most high-stakes tension occurs not in relation to court proceedings and outcomes but during Nate’s dangerous journey through the Pantanal. Justice, too, is achieved not through legal decisions but through Rachel’s decision to provide a will that enables her father’s estate to transfer to hers. It is her desire to help that ultimately reverberates positively to leave the reader with a sense that justice has been served, peacefully and lovingly.
Sociohistorical Context: Missionaries in Brazil
Missionary efforts to Brazil have colonial roots, tracing back to the beginning of the 16th century, when the Portuguese colonized Brazil. Currently, Christianity is the predominant religion in Brazil, with Catholicism claiming the most adherents. Protestantism arrived primarily through the efforts of American missionaries in the 19th century.
Rachel’s mission with World Tribes is to bring the Christian Gospel to communities that have never before been reached, which they interpret as a Biblical imperative. This corresponds with the work in which American evangelists have invested many human resources and large amounts of money to undertake in Brazil. The Indigenous people to whom their efforts are directed have not always been receptive to their efforts, as this work challenges longstanding traditions and beliefs and exposes them to new diseases that can devastate their populations. Furthermore, Brazil’s constitution protects people’s right to voluntarily isolate themselves, and government permission is required to contact Indigenous Brazilians who have chosen to do so.
Some missionaries have been accused of traveling to local territories illegally as invaders who destabilize local communities with new ideas and dangers. Others have been defended by Indigenous people who have converted to Christianity and become missionaries themselves. Conflicts have escalated to lawsuits and generated vigorous and acrimonious debate. Whether missionaries commit themselves to become part of Indigenous communities or not, their presence remains controversial because it inevitably changes traditional culture.
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By John Grisham
