Peace Like a River Questions and Answers
by Leif Enger

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• Peace Like a River
  What are some motifs in Peace Like a River by Leif Enger?
  While there are many motifs in Leif Enger's Peace like a River, three of them are consistent, unmistakable, and connected. The first motif is breathing, and the other two—miracles and dreams—are...

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• Peace Like a River
  What are some important themes in Peace Like a River by Leif Enger?
  There are many great themes in this book, and it helps to start by taking a look at a potential list of those themes—love, family, religion, prayer, miracles, redemption, sacrifice, altruism—and...

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• Peace Like a River
  Identify  three miracles in Peace Like a River.
  Unfortunately, I had to edit out the rest of your questions, as the eNotes guidelines are clear about allowing only one question per post. Peace like a River is a novel in which miracles play a...

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• Peace Like a River
  What are some key words that explain Reuben Land in Leif Enger's Peace Like a River?
  Leif Enger's novel Peace Like a River is narrated by Reuben Land, the second son of Jeremiah Land. Describing anyone with just a few words is likely to portray an incomplete picture; however, there...

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• Peace Like a River
  What role do miracles serve in the novel? Examples of miracles?
  There are a couple of interesting points to note about the idea of miracles in this novel. First, it is Jeremiah, a humble janitor, who is able to perform them. Second, Reuben, the narrator, is...

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• Peace Like a River
  How is Reuben's character in Peace Like a River influenced by his ailment (severe case of asthma)? I need to know how his character is influenced by and how he copes with his bad asthma. Thanks!
  Leif Enger's coming-of-age novel Peace Like a River is a story of many things, including miracles. Reuben is the first and most significant miracle in the novel, and it is he who narrates this...

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• Peace Like a River
  Discuss the parallels between the adventures of the Land family and Swede's poem in Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger.  
  Swede Land is a precocious young girl who loves words and writing. Throughout Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger, Swede composes a poem which has several parallels to the journey she and her family...

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• Peace Like a River
  Explain Roxanna's role in the novel Peace Like a River by Leif Enger.
  In Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger, Jeremiah Land has two sons (Davy and Reuben) and a daughter, Swede. Jeremiah's wife left him and her children, so the family has been without an adult female...

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• Peace Like a River
  How does one summarize chapters 1-3 in Leif Enger's Peace Like a River?
  Peace Like a River by Leif Enger is a touching coming-of-age story about the narrator, Reuben Land. It's especially an account of all of the miracles Reuben witnessed his father perform and his...

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• Peace Like a River
  Jeremiah says, on page 28 of Leif Enger's Peace Like  a River, “Everybody thumps something, Reuben.” What, exactly, did he mean by this?  
  Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger, is the story of the the Land family. Jeremiah Land is a rather extraordinary man, as we discover in the opening pages of the novel. His son Reuben was born but...

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• Peace Like a River
   Find examples of his pithy dialogue & explore the meaning behind it. Jeremiah has a knack for cutting to the heart of the matter. Example page 28 he says, “Everybody thumps something, Reuben.”
  Pithy dialogue consists of concise and forcefully expressive language. Basically what this means is that the words spoken by the character, or person, are meant to evoke emotion from the one they...

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• Peace Like a River
  How do Reuben, Swede, and Jeremiah express the theme of family in Peace Like a River?
  This book is replete with examples of these three characters showing love, solidarity and concern to their family members. The book is an amazing and touching example of how close a family can be...

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• Peace Like a River
  In Enger's Peace Like a River, Jape was elusive because he was never caught, but how was Jeremiah elusive?
  Jeremiah is elusive in the sense that his actions and abilities and psyche could never quite be comprehended after his life was blown off a normal, predictable course when he was picked up and...

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• Peace Like a River
  How did Leif Enger take the non-universal experience of hunting in the freezing cold and render it a universal “moment” in Peace Like a River?
  In Leif Enger's Peace like a River, the Lands' family hunting experience in frigid North Dakota happens in two parts; they get up early in the morning to hunt and, after breakfast and a nap, they...

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• Peace Like a River
  Over the course of the novel (Peace Like a River by Leif Enger), Reuben's attitude and his physical descriptions of Roxanna change. In what ways does his view of Roxanna change?
  Reuben Land is the young, and rather precocious, boy who serves as the narrator for Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger. Miracles have consistently happened in this family since the day Reuben was...

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• Peace Like a River
  Many find the passages discussing the Lands' hunting experience to be interesting. Name three examples from these passages that Leif Enger renders universal in his novel Peace Like a River.
  Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger, is the story of the Land family: Jeremiah and his three children, Davy, Reuben, and Swede. They live in North Dakota, at least when the story begins, and the...

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• Peace Like a River
  How did Leif Enger in Peace Like a River take the non-universal experience of hunting in the freezing cold and render it a universal “moment”?  
  Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger, follows the Land family on an extraordinary journey. The family consists of Jeremiah Land and his three children: Davy, Reuben, and his daughter Swede. They live...

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• Peace Like a River
  In Leif Enger's Peace Like a River, what does Roxanne provide that the Lands had lacked before her arrival in their lives?
  Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger, follows Jeremiah Land and two of his children (Reuben and Swede) as they search for the oldest son, Davy. They have all lived many years without an adult woman in...

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• Peace Like a River
  What is the plot of "Peace Like a River"?
  The best way to learn the plot of this excellent novel is to read it for yourself. If you haven't already, I highly recommend it. If you are looking for a basic plot summary to determine whether...

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• Peace Like a River
  What does the character of Roxanna bring to the Land family in Peace Like a River? Over the course of the novel, Reuben's attitude and his physical descriptions of Roxanna change. 
  You are only allowed one question per eNotes post, so I kept your first one. In Peace Like a River, Roxanna is the only real, normal adult female. Swede and Reuben, and even Davy, are relatively...

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• Peace Like a River
  Briefly analyze this selection from Peace Like a River, exploring how Enger allows the reader to experience and appreciate the quality of breathing. On pages 19-20, Enger does an amazing job describing the act of breathing, an act that you and I...
  This particular passage in Enger's Peace Like a River is, indeed, an amazing description of something so mundane we rarely give it any thought. Breathing is one of those things we pay little...

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• Peace Like a River
  How does the Land family contend with this raw, uncivilized, and sometimes brutal landscape? Peace Like a River is set mainly in rural Minnesota and the Badlands of North Dakota during the early 1960s. Like early American pioneers, or perhaps like...
  This is a complex question, and you will undoubtedly have some ideas of your own from your reading. Peace Like a River is, as your question details, set in land which is primarily undeveloped and...

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• Peace Like a River
  What role do the miracles serve in the development of the plot of Peace Like a River ?
  I thought you might get another perspective on Peace Like a River from someone else, but I see no one has answered you yet so here I am again. The first incident in the novel is a miracle, and so...

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• Peace Like a River
  Over the course of Peace Like a River by Leif Enger, Reuben's attitude and his physical descriptions of Roxanna change. Do you think Roxanna’s attitudes toward the Lands as a family and Jeremiah as a person undergo a similar metamorphosis?
  While it is true that Reuben Land, the young narrator in Leif Enger's Peace Like a River, undergoes a change in his thinking about Roxanna Cawley, she seems to love and accept the Land family just...

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• Peace Like a River
  Pick one character and discuss the methods Enger uses to characterize him or her in Peace Like a River. Consider the following methods of characterization: speech, action, reaction, authorial/narrator comment, character comment, and narrator...
  The fact that the question contains the words "thus far" I will assume that you have not read the entire book yet. This means you only have to look as far as you have read to find examples. In...

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• Peace Like a River
  Who do you consider to be the best character in the novel Peace Like a River by Leif Enger?
  I'm glad you asked, as I do have a favorite character in Leif Enger's first novel, Peace Like a River; however, there are many ways to define "best" and every reader will not connect to the same...

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• Peace Like a River
  Find examples of Jeremiah's pithy dialogue & explore the meaning behind it.
  Pithy dialogue consists of concise and forcefully expressive language. Basically what this means is that the words spoken by the character, or person, are meant to evoke emotion from the one they...

  1 Educator Answer

• Peace Like a River
  Teaching the novel Tonight, I sit here planning the first "discussion" of this text with my students.  It's a night of many firsts... not the least of which is teaching this to my AmLit Juniors after the entire year's anticipation. ...
  I haven't read the book, but I do have a copy of it. You have inspired me to read it over the summer break.

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