PEACE LIKE A RIVER BY LEIF ENGER-STUDY GUIDE

LITERARY ELEMENTS

SETTING

The Places: Roofing, Minnesota and the Badlands, North Dakota
The Time: predominantly the early 1960’ around 1962, but also 1951 to the present day.

CHARACTER LIST

Major Characters

God
Although he never actually speaks to anyone of Jeremiah, his presence is a constant as He gives Jeremiah the ability to do miracles and is always with them. He leads Reuben when he goes to the “other country” and sends him home again. He is the one all but Davy turns to when they are most in need.

Reuben Land
Reuben is both narrator and main character of the story. He is eleven years old when the main events begin, although he gives us insight into events that happened from the time he was born until the present day. He is a severe asthmatic and witness to many miracles the least of which is his own cure.

Jeremiah Land
He is the father of the Land family and because of surviving being pulled into a tornado, he is very devout and as Reuben witnesses, the performer of many miracles.

Davy Land
After his girlfriend and later his family are attacked by Israel Finch and Tommy Basco, the town bullies, sixteen year old Davy sets a trap at his own home and shoots them both to death. He is arrested, because he is accused of not just defending his home, and put on trial. However, he escapes his jail cell and heads for the Badlands of North Dakota. Soon, his family follows, trying to find him and bring him home.

Swede Land
She is the nine year-old sister of Reuben and Davy and is extremely intelligent. She is a writer of an epic poem based on a character named Sunny Sundown whose exploits mirror what happens to her brother, Davy, and the rest of her family.

Martin Andreeson
He is the “putrid Fed” who goes after Davy Land when he escapes his jail cell and crosses state lines. He is hated by the children for seeking their brother and dogging their steps, but he gives his life when Jape Waltzer learns of his pursuit from Reuben.

Roxanna Cawley
She is the woman who opens her gas tanks, her propane tank, and her home to the Land family when their car will go no farther. She soon becomes the mother the children have never had and the woman that Jeremiah marries.

Jape Waltzer
He is the dangerous and very strange man who is also on the run and is living in an abandoned shack on Lonnie Ford’s ranch. Davy comes to stay there when Reuben finally finds him. Waltzer is the one who tries to kill all of their family.

Minor Characters

Dr. Nokes
He is both doctor and friend to the Land family. He was the doctor who told Jeremiah that Reuben was dead and couldn’t be revived and then saw the man do so. He has helped tend Reuben and other family members all these years and is there in the end when the family is attacked.

Sara
She is the young girl whose father gave her to Waltzer who raises her as daughter with the intent to make her his wife when she is of age. She is very reluctant to talk, because of her experiences with Waltzer, but eventually after living with the lands and Roxanna, she blossoms. She eventually becomes Reuben’s wife.

Harper Juval
He is the other federal agent who comes to find both Andreeson when he disappears and Davy who he believes is responsible. When Reuben misdirects the posse on the search, he punches the boy twice in the head for lying.

Lonnie Ford
He is the renter of the ranch where Davy and Waltzer are living in an abandoned shack. He nearly dies when his horse slips down a steep hill in the search for Davy. He wouldn’t have been so badly hurt if Reuben hadn’t misdirected the posse.

Israel Finch & Tommy Basco
These are the two bullies who first attack Davy’s girlfriend, Dolly, and are beaten by Jeremiah. They later target the Land family, molesting Swede when they catch her alone. They are eventually lured into the Land’s home by Davy who then shoots them both.

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