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¶ … Painted House by John Grisham
The semi-skillful use of an unskilled child's perspective on racial tensions in pre-civil rights Arkansas
Contrary to the expectations that might be generated by the author's name, which virtually constitutes a 'brand name' of a kind of fast-paced yet moralistic legal thriller, A Painted House is narrated by a seven-year-old child, named Luke, and does not contain a single lawyer in its storyline. Rather than being set in the fast-paced world of corporate or criminal law and injustice, Grisham's setting for A Painted House is that of a farming community in the state of Arkansas during the early 1950's. However, the theme of injustice is still present, perhaps even more palpably than some of Grisham's more overt attempts at setting a pulse-pounding pace of events in the legal world.
This work of literature work begins in a rural setting, where the young narrator is picking cotton, along with migrants and transients of diverse races, including many Mexican individuals. Grisham does not romanticize this backbreaking work, to his credit, nor is...
Furthermore, as the farm belongs to the boy's family, Luke Chandler experiences a sense of discomfort and guilt, because he knows his family is profiting off of the labor of others, gotten for a pittance.
Luke's stance as a seven-year-old sensitive to racial injustice strains the reader's credulity at times. Sometimes all Luke seems to care about is becoming a great baseball player for his favorite team, the St. Louis Cardinals. Other times he expresses horror at the attitudes of racial bigots like the white cotton-picker Hank. He has a transparently ironic view of his family's Christian faith. He expresses anxiety at the simmering Korean War, which is tangentially on the horizon and in the story's background, as a kind of international, political mirror of the Red Scared era Luke and his family are living in, in the South, and also a metaphor of…
Works Cited
Grisham, John. A Painted House. New York, 2001.
A teenage girl from the hill family gives Luke his first exposure to sex, the sight of a naked female body, which convinces him that he has indeed grown up and is no longer a mere child but definitely on his way to becoming a man. He is also exposed to other events during this cotton season, including a murder, that peels away the layers of skin of childhood innocence
She feels she doesn't really belong to that house because that is not the house of her dreams. That is what prompts her to start writing. Her creative pursuits help her stay sane so she doesn't feel so trapped by the "ghost" of the sad red house. "I put it down on paper and then the ghost does not ache so much. I write it down and Mango says
She says she envies Seldon's work, even though he is not of the highest orders of society, but she cannot emulate his masculine example: "Ah, there's the difference -- a girl must, a man may if he chooses." She surveyed him critically. "Your coat's a little shabby -- but who cares? It doesn't keep people from asking you to dine. If I were shabby no one would have me: a
Line 12 - Again, he notes that the land and country will change, but it will still remain close to what it is today. Line 13 - This line talks about creation and the birth of Earth, just as the poem celebrates creation and the birth of a building. Line 14 - This line continues the theme of creation, using a metaphor of "Orion in December" to describe the theme of creation,
future house, to be built in the tradition of the Gothic Revival style. This description will include an explanation of the general layout of the house, as well as address the elements of light, acoustics, and color. Further, issues of living space will be addressed, including sleeping, entering, food and storage, and bathing areas. External structure and landscaping will be outlined, as well as internal infrastructure like heating, and
However, there is also danger to the sexuality that lies behind sweetness, as when a girl Sally, marries a marshmallow salesman to escape an abusive father, entering a union that seems as bad as the home she is leaving. A final symbol of the novel is that of play -- few adult women, except for the insane Ruthie, are seen enjoying themselves over the course of the novel. Girls can