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Peace Like A River Character Analysis

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Throughout my reading of "Peace Like A River," I found the Land family to portray an honest interpretation on the day-to-day struggles with reality. Each member is immersed with realistic issues, but nevertheless their faith plays a key role in their spiritual growth as individuals. Leif Enger, makes some of the most miraculous occurrences seem so authentic within the story. Reuben's sincere portrayal of events, ensure me as the reader that things will be ok. I believe Enger's use of characters such as Jeremiah and Reuben, is to convey similar aspects of faith seen in the Bible by Jesus Christ and his disciples.

Reuben Land, the main character of the story, has a severe case of asthma. Although he struggles a great deal throughout the book Reuben learns to cope well with his ailment through faith in his spirituality (Which appears to be Christian, though it is not identified in the book). Shortly after his birth Reuben was unable to breath for 12 minutes. Consequently, leading Dr. Nokes( who you could say was Reuben's Pediatrician) is …show more content…
Reuben, Swede, and Jeremiah take a liking to Roxanna. They are quickly reminded of what it really feels like to have a motherly presence in their lives. Reuben's mother had left Jeremiah for a man in Chicago due to her lack of coping with the distress of family issues. On the contrary, Roxanna embraces her motherly role, as she is very supportive of Jeremiah's Christian upbringing with the kids. She seems to fill in the void missing in Jeremiah's life, as she soon becomes his wife. In addition to her new role, her genuine compassion is noticed by Reuben, as it is Roxanna who nurses him back to health when he contracts a fever. He begins viewing her in a different manner, realizing that she is “all but his mother now.” (289) Reuben is shown the act of selflessness. He learns that sometimes it's good to do for others instead of always doing for

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