Peace Like a River: Belief

Peace Like a River: Belief in the miraculous Miracles are proof of the living presence of God on earth, according to most Christian belief system. That is why miracles figure so importantly in the Gospels. In the novel of the American West, Peace Like a River, author Leif Enger creates a godlike figure in the persona of Jeremiah Land, a man who saves his family through the power of his healing faith and prayer.

Land's ability to perform miracles validates the truth of religious teachings and his authority as a patriarchal figure heading his family. The book seems to validate a conception of the divine along the lines of 'God the father' where Jeremiah performs both the functions of father and mother to his children -- bringing them to life, teaching for them, providing for them, and giving them life through his death. He is a miracle-worker as well as a loving father.

The first miracle that occurs in Peace Like a River is that of the narrator's birth. However, this is not an ordinary miracle in the sense that all births are miracles. Rather, it is one that occurs in the hands of Jeremiah, a kind of male-induced birth. The boy's mother, Jeremiah's wife, lies like an old woman in her bed, while Jeremiah charges into the delivery room, defies the doctor, and breathes life into his boy -- the man is the life-giving force, not the woman (Enger 2).

And the life-giving aspect of his touch is clearly miraculous. The fact that the narrator states unequivocally, in an unironic fashion, that Jeremiah's miracles are real immediately establishes them as credible within the narrative frame tale -- if miracles did not happen, then the story could not be told. Reuben Land, has severe asthma but he explains to the reader without the healing touch of his father, he would never have been able to have drawn a breath in the world at all and his story would not be told.

Reuben is a kind of an apostle, like the authors of the Gospels, telling the tales of his father's life. Reuben repeatedly calls himself, and by extension his writing, a living witness to his father's miraculous powers: "No miracle happens without a witness. Someone to declare, Here's what I saw. Here's how it went. Make of it what you will. The fact is, the miracles that sometimes flowed from my father's fingertips had few witnesses but me.

Yes, enough people saw enough strange things that Dad became the subject of a kind of misspoken folklore in our town, but most ignored the miracles as they ignored Dad himself. I believe I was preserved, through those twelve airless minutes, in order to be a witness, and as a witness, let me say that a miracle is no cute thing but more like the swing of a sword" (Enger 3-4) The narrator does not seem to be of the 'unreliable' type common in modernist fiction.

He is very direct in his statement, and nothing occurs in the book to counteract his faith in the reality of his father's miracles: unlike most children's parents, Jeremiah never descends from his pedestal of wisdom, even though at times the responsibilities his father places upon his children's shoulders to be good can feel great and terrible, like a sword. Jeremiah's love is like a weapon, but a good weapon, like that of the masculine judgment wielded by a Christ figure.

The respect Reuben feels for his father is underlined by the fact that describes himself as a "child of clay," until his father breathes life into him (Enger 2). His father functions as a creator-God, in Reuben's world, resurrecting him from the beyond. Dad lifted me gently. I was very clean from all that rubbing, and I was gray and beginning to cool. A little clay boy is what I was.

"Breathe," Dad said (Enger 2) Jeremiah resurrects his youngest son like the boy is Lazarus, but most of the book is devoted to his attempt to morally resurrect his oldest son Davy, who has escaped from jail. The Prodigal Son Davy kills the two men in what seems like a justified action of self-defense when they break into the Land home. However, his actions still tear the Land family apart.

Reuben is continually question himself if the law is right that is following Reuben or if his brother was right to attack the men. He must look to his father to provide him with moral guidance, given that his mother abandoned the family when he was just a child. Eventually, Jeremiah finds another mother figure, a woman named Roxanna, as a surrogate, but the family is always clearly dominated by the father.

The rightness of patriarchal authority is once again confirmed by the fact that Jeremiah is such a good single parent, although not by choice. Only occasionally does the utterly devoted, adorable youngest sibling, Swede perform 'wifely' duties, like cooking an elaborate Thanksgiving meal. There seems to be no real need for an equal, motherly presence.

Other than Davy's violent outburst, Jeremiah's children follow him with seemingly unflinching loyalty -- he not only brings back people from the dead, engages in miraculous healing of people and saddles, but even feeds an entire household multiple bowls of fish stew, including the insatiable family friend Lurvy with what should only be enough for four bowls.

The only difference between Jesus and Jeremiah's miracle of the 'loaves and fishes' is that Jeremiah seems more surprised that it occurred, perhaps a way of showing that although Jeremiah is godlike and God-inspired, he is not God himself (Enger 46). The ability to perform the miraculous gives Jeremiah Land authority as a prophet in the story. Like many prophets he is 'low' socially -- a mere janitor, but can do great things from his own conviction and because of God's grace.

Some of his miracles initially seem inscrutable: For example, Jeremiah heals his former employer after being unjustly fired, but does not cure Reuben's asthma, an affliction that threatens his life until the very end of the story when Jeremiah 'dies' for Reuben, and Reuben is restored to perfect health (Enger 80).

This miracle also shows Jeremiah's knowledge of when the 'right' time to do miracles may be -- Reuben has less insight as a young boy, and cannot understand why he should pray for those who are harsh towards him, much less do miracles for them. Jeremiah's actions show his deep and thoroughly Christian benevolence toward the world. The credibility of Jeremiah's miracles is reinforced over and over again by the way Enger tells the story through the first-person narration.