Home > Gilead Summary & Study Guide

Gilead | Introduction

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson was published in 2004 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005, amid widespread acclaim. This epistolary novel presents a sympathetic portrait of Reverend John Ames, who writes about his life and his beliefs ever mindful of the fact that he has only a short time to live. Reverend Ames takes up the task of writing in the hopes that his little boy will read this book when he is an adult and thus become acquainted with the father he may barely remember otherwise.

This is a story of fathers and sons. John Ames, the narrator, tells a story of three generations of fathers named John Ames, addressing it to the single direct descendent, the unnamed son readers may assume is the fourth John Ames. The story of the Ames family includes the story of the narrator's best friend, Robert Boughton, and his son who was named after the narrator, John Ames Boughton. In order to reduce confusion, these characters are referred to here in terms of their relationship to the narrator, that is, the narrator's grandfather, the narrator's father, and the narrator's son, to whom the narrator addresses himself in this text. As in the novel, Reverend Boughton's son is referred to by his nickname, Jack.

Gilead Summary

This novel is not divided into chapters, and the events are not presented in chronological order. Rather, in the letters to his son, the narrator describes events that transpire in the immediate present, while he is writing this journal, and he narrates old family stories as they occur to him, along with other subjects that matter to him. Certain dominant memories that span his seventy-five years in Gilead, between 1882 and 1956, are referred to repeatedly, and the narrator also tells important stories that stretch back through his father's and grandfather's lives.

The Present Year: 1956

The immediate present spans the late spring, summer, and fall of 1956 in the fictional plains village of Gilead, Iowa. Through these months, the narrator, Reverend John Ames, who turns seventy-seven in early fall, keeps a journal in which he writes a series of letters to his son, who is not yet seven. The narrator hopes that as a grownup, the son will read this book and come to know the man his father was. The narrator is dying of heart disease, and while he is able, he wants to commit this personal history to paper as a legacy for his son.

Writing about himself causes the narrator to examine his private feelings, his religious beliefs, the role sermon writing has played in his life as a minister, his study of the Bible and various philosophical and psychological questions he has been unable to resolve. As the narrator records the events of 1956 and summarizes a family history that covers 120 years, he digresses frequently into topics connected to his ministry, to his congregation, and his lifelong friendship with Robert Boughton. These parts inter-rupt the plot line but effectively reveal the narrator's mind and his personal challenges, his grief and regrets. Through the journal, the narrator hopes to present himself to his son with a candor quite different from his day-to-day reserve.

The narrator begins writing by reporting a conversation the previous night between him and his son in which the narrator broached the subject of his illness and possible death. The son refused to believe the narrator may die. The narrator assures the son that "there are many ways to live a good life"; this journal relates one of them, a minister's life in service to others.

The son struggles with his school work, needs prodding to get to bed at night, and tolerates the concentrated attention of both his mother and the narrator in morning preparation for school. During this spring, the narrator feels pretty good, though on some nights he has difficulty sleeping and goes to his upstairs study to write or read or doze in his chair. Some nights he leaves the parsonage and walks through the neighborhood to his church; he sits in the sanctuary awaiting the dawn. On some afternoons, he walks to the home of his friend, Reverend Boughton, the father of eight children and now a widower, who is cared for by his daughter Glory. Their good news is the expected arrival of Reverend Boughton's son, John Ames Boughton, whom everyone calls Jack.

The narrator's son plays with the family cat, spends an afternoon blowing bubbles with his mother, and draws airplanes while lying in a square of sunlight in the narrator's study. The son also plays with his Lutheran friend Tobias Schmidt. On pleasant evenings, the narrator, his wife Lila, and the son sit on the front porch. On Sunday afternoons, the wife and son study their lessons, the wife reads her western novel, and Reverend Ames falls asleep over his books.

Slight hints appear that through the summer the narrator's health declines. He reports having trouble breathing, lifting his son, and going upstairs. Jack Boughton arrives in town, much to his father's delight, but he is an irritation to the narrator. Jack visits the Ames family at the parsonage, and once he attends service at the narrator's church. During the summer months, Jack plays catch with the narrator's son. Jack also helps Lila move some of the narrator's belongings from his upstairs study to the ground floor parlor, in the process handling the journal, which the narrator takes as an affront to his privacy. On hot days, the son and Tobias play in the sprinkler; once they attempt to camp out in Tobias's backyard, but noises frighten them, and they end up coming to the parsonage for some late-night sandwiches and a safer sleep indoors. As the narrator's health declines, members of the congregation send in casseroles and donate a television so Reverend Ames can watch his baseball games.

The narrator confesses in his journal to being troubled by Jack Boughton's presence. At... ยป Complete Gilead Summary