Gilead: Response

This response is based on the book Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

I found this book a little difficult to get into at first. For the first thirty pages or so I found it difficult to follow the list of characters and put the stories together. Actually, not until about halfway through the book did I really begin to fit pieces together and figure out everyone’s relationship to each other. At that point, the reason for the John Ames writing this series of letters finally became clear. Although my discourse is not to be a literary response, I think the structure of the book really plays on the interpretation of it.

I found myself so preoccupied in trying to figure out the storyline that I found I was missing a lot among the details. Not until the emotional content was mentioned in class did I really begin to pick up on it. Once the story began to fall into place, I also began to notice other nuances that I hadn’t picked up on in the first part of the book.

Ames seems to have been rather in tune to the emotion of others around him, but does not seem to put his own affections into the historical aspects of the story. However, there is a lot of emotion portrayed through his writing and the present recollection of the past.

The generation gaps really play out as well. He mentions on numerous occasions while reflecting on the past that those times were different. He also acknowledges that his interpretations of his life as a child had changed over the years as he matured and looked back on his past. His perception of his father and grandfather, and the tension that existed between them, changed over the years, and seems to continue to change as he recollects the past and tries to recount this past to his son. Interestingly, he does not tell his young son these things, but writes them in letters.

The lack of immediate communication with his son is an interesting aspect of this book. Perhaps because of the age gap that exists between the two Ames is not able to communicate with his son well. Ames even writes the letters with his son in the same room, and even on his lap! Perhaps he feels his son would not be able to understand; perhaps he feels that his son is making the same types of interpretations of his life experiences as Ames did while a child. At any rate, Ames’ desire is definitely to pass on these stories to his son in such a way that he will be able to understand them as an adult; thus Ames chooses to write.

I suppose Ames also chooses to write because as a pastor for the past thirty odd years he has only delivered sermons that were methodically thought and written down on paper- he seems to be doing the same here. He writes in such vivid detail on some events, and repeats some events as well as his interpretation of those events several times over.

This is an aspect of the man that I really admired in this book: his ability to take in and appreciate seemingly mundane details. He mentions things like light patterns, the wind rustling through the trees, and the changing of the landscape over the years which cause him to reflect on the goodness of God. However, his years of introspection seem to keep him silent in his interpersonal communication, and he still seems to spend a lot of time in solitude.

For all this, he does show that he loves his son, and his wife, and his congregation, although the thought of his impending death troubles him a lot. To me it seems as though he is losing his feeling of worthiness toward his congregation and possibly his family as well. He reflects a lot on his grandfather’s change in attitude toward his congregation after the war, and how he seemed to slowly fade away (and eventually running away), as though he might actually identify with his grandfather at this point in his life.

Personally, I was affected by the lack of communication between the male figures in this book in general. Both Ames’ father and grandfather seemed to be gruff, distant men. Although Ames himself does not seem to share that character, it is possible that he seems this way on the exterior, but inside is quite the pussycat. I can identify with his Ames’ experience to the degree that I do not have a great relationship with my father or my grandfather. I can appreciate how difficult it must be for him to communicate with others on a personal level, as well as the freedom there is to rather write things on paper than express them in person.

Further, Ames’ relationship with his wife seems a bit odd. There seems to be a significant age gap between them, and it is clear that they love each other. Ames praise her in his book, but records very little of the dialogue between the two. He also seems to speak of his first wife and daughter more than his present wife. Perhaps their deaths have not been fully mourned or otherwise processed. Moreover, it seems strange that Ames is writing such a long series of letters to his son, and not to his wife. The father-son relationships definitely dominate the bulk of this book.

Finally, I found it odd that there was such little spiritual instruction in these letters. I would have thought that the letters of a dying preacher to his son would have included admonitions and encouragements to love and serve the Lord. Instead, Ames seems to refer to the myriads of sermons that he had stored in the attic as the message he has left for his wife and child to read for themselves, but in the end intends to simply burn. I find his especially tragic as he makes a point of blessing his best friend’s wayward son, and leaves off blessing his own.