Peace/Violence:  Though Luke was beat up by some of the Latcher boys, it did not stop the Chandlers from taking in the Latchers once their house flooded.  The Chandlers did the right thing because of Rickey’s baby.  When help was needed they were there to lend their hands.

Hate/Love:  Though the Chandlers despise the fact that Ricky had a baby before he left for the war, they still provide the nurturing nature to the baby.  They do their best to make the baby feel better, and most importantly try to stop it from crying.  They even go to such lengths by driving around town, because the truck soothes the baby.

Power/Submission:  Luke submits to Cowboy’s threat after witnessing the murder of Hank.  Fear overwhelms Luke because he does not want anything to happen to his mother.  He obeys Cowboy and keeps quiet, instead of telling the truth about what really happened.

Honesty/Deceit:  Luke lies to his parents about what he saw.  Including watching Tally bathe, what really happened during the fight behind the Co-Op, and most importantly the murder of Hank.  Once the fear leaves Luke though, he knows that he should tell the truth no matter what the consequences might be.  He gathers up enough courage and tells the truth.

Peace/Violence:  The Chandlers try to stay at peace with themselves and the idea of Ricky at war.  The war is violent and they know this very well.  They pray for Ricky’s safe return and can not wait till he is back in their house safe and free of harm.  The Chandlers hope to have peace at Christmas, the date Ricky supposes he will be home.

Naturally as human beings, we are all sinners.  Only under God’s grace and wisdom do we receive redemption for the sins we commit.  In A Painted House by John Grisham, many sins are committed by various characters.  We see lying, stealing, and most unfortunately killing.

The sixth commandment of the Ten Commandment states, You shall not murder.  Though, this does not hold true in the story.  Hank Spruill, a vicious “hill-people”, violently attacks three boys and ends up killing one.  Also, Cowboy ends up gutting Hank.  However this is not the only sin Cowboy commits.  Cowboy steals from Hank the two hundred and fifty dollars that Hank won from beating Samson.  He definitely violates the eighth commandment.

The ninth commandment says, You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.  Which pretty much means you should not lie.  Luke does not follow this though.  Luke keeps secrets that are harmful to himself and to others.  In the end though Luke repents by telling the truth.

“Tell the truth or tell a lie, that was the question that always remained” (131). Luke begins to understand why he should tell the truth when he says this quote.  He knows that with every decision he makes, there will always be a consequence.

“The pressure was off; my future as a Cardinal was back on track” (145). Luke loves baseball.  It is his passion, and he works very hard to keep his dream of becoming a Cardinal baseball player alive.  He gets some of the workers together to play a game to give him some live practice, and when he is bored he tosses himself fly balls.

“Tally buys it for him, out of her pickin’ money” (274). Trot Spruill quietly began painting the Chandler’s house.  This small act from Trot sparked an urge in Luke to finish the job, no matter what the cost was.

“So I didn’t say a word” (76). Luke keeps secrets because he thinks it is the best thing to do at the time being.  However, secrets are never good.  He slowly realizes this and ends up telling each little secret when the moment is right and he no longer feels threatened.

“I’d finally seen a worse job than picking cotton” (242).  Luke thinks picking cotton is the worst thing ever.  He can not wait to grow old enough to leave the farm, because after all he has a dream of becoming a professional baseball player.  However, he realizes how bad Samson’s job was once he lost all his earnings to Hank after being defeated by him.

“All I wanted to do was paint” (381).  After Trot starts painting the house, Luke feels obligated to finish the job.

“I just couldn’t.  I was too scared” (436).  Luke admits to why he did not tell the secrets right away.  He was scared of the consequences that would result from his actions.

“I ran from the post office back to our truck, clutching the letters” (414). Luke misses his uncle Ricky very much.  Ricky is gone at war and so the family desperately awaits any news from him that will let me them know he is safe and alive.

“My father had poured his guts into the soil for six months, and now he had nothing to show for it” (430). Once the cotton was flooded, the decision to move up north was made.  Farming was getting them  no where and they desperately needed the money.

“When y’all come home, it’ll be finished” (463). Pappy promises to Luke to finish the job since Luke can not finish it himself.  The house will finally be painted, which in its self, is a major achievement.

Personally, I thought the book was very good.  Though it was slow at some points, the overall plot was very thought out.  The whole 180 that Luke took really showed his understanding of the truth, and how it is very powerful.  If I could have changed one thing about the story, I would have made the beginning more intriguing.  Grisham did a decent job of capturing the reader, but he did not fully bring them in.  He could have added a little more suspense in the beginning to keep readers on the edge and begging for more.

The sentence from the text that embodies the theme is, “Tell the truth or tell a lie, that was the question that always remained” (Grisham 131).  Luke faces a huge controversy in this story on when to tell the truth or not.  He keeps many secrets including what really happened in the fight behind the Co-Op, spying on Tally, and witnessing Cowboy murder Hank.  For a young boy, the truth may be hard to tell sometimes.  He does not want to incriminate himself or get himself into trouble either.  The results of telling the truth weigh heavily in Luke’s mind, until he finds enough to courage to tell what really happened.  Luke learned that the truth will set you free.

The story, A Painted House starts off with the Eli Chandler attempting to find workers to help harvest the cotton at their family farm.  They first found the Spruills, which were hill people, and then the Hispanics.  The Chandlers know that they need all the help they can get in order to maximize their profit and hopefully crawl their way out of debt.  Luke says, “Yes, I wanted lots of help in the fields.  Lots of hill people, lots of mexicans” (Grisham 13).  However, from the actions that follow, the Chandlers did not pick the “best of the crop.”

Like every Saturday, a fight always erupted behind the Co-Op.  However, this fight was unlike any other.  Hank Spruill decided to take part in this fight, which made it deadly.  We get vivid details of how the fight went down, especially when Luke says, “When the boy yelped, Hank let out a hideous laugh” (90.)  This fight was a stepping stone for all the secrets that Luke would eventually keep.

This act of violence is not the only one  that is committed throughout the book.  Luke witnesses the murder of Hank Spruill.  Just like before, Luke is forced into keeping a secret that should not be kept.  However, once the idea of moving up north is out in the open, Luke starts to tell some of his secrets.  He wants to have a fresh clean start, and he can not do that with secrets on his chest.  The move will provide a clean slate for all of the Chandler’s, especially his mother and father.

Luke matures greatly once he realizes how hard life really is.  From keeping secrets that he believes will save others, to the hard money times his family faces, Luke learns many things.  After he starts the project of painting the house, Luke becomes so overwhelmed with the idea of having a painted house.  The project seems to consume his entire thoughts.  He does not matter how much effort it takes as long as he gets the paint he needs.  However seeing his father struggle with the bills, and the need to move up north to provide a better life for the entire family causes him to do an entire 180.  Luke says, “I suddenly felt rotten because I had kept the painting alive after Trot had gone.  I had pushed the project along, and in doing so had forced my father to spend what little money he had” (Grisham 430).  Luke finally realizes how real the struggle actually was. Once overwhelmed with guilt, Luke began to pay for the paint with his own picking money.  Luke’s decision to pay for the paint himself showed great levels of maturity because he finally understood the fact of growing up and the expectations that come with it.

Luke is a seven year old boy who absolutely loves baseball, especially the Cardinals.  When that bright red Cardinal jacket catches his eye, he sets his mind to saving the money he earned from cotton picking.  However, Luke does not keep his eyes set on one thing for a long period of time.  His mind quickly changes from the jacket to a bigger task, such as painting the house.

Though Luke’s mind changes easily about something, he always remained set on his dream of baseball and leaving the farm. His hours of dedication to playing the game definitely showed him how hard work can pay off.  When bored, Luke would toss fly balls to himself just so he could improve on his athletic ability.  Also he would get the hands together and his family to play the game he loves so much.

One trait Luke possesses that is harmful to others and himself, is the ability to keep secrets.  He is still too young to realize what secrets are meant to be kept and others that need to be told.  Anything that is relative to a situation of life or death must be told, no matter what the circumstances might be.  Though, he was threatened by Cowboy after witnessing the gruesome murder of Hank, Luke should have spoken up once Cowboy and Tally ran off together.  Luke slowly realizes throughout the book, and begins to learn the “power” of his voice.  He started off small, by telling the little secrets to his mom, such as spying on Tally.  Once the truth came out about this insignificant event, Luke felt compelled to tell the rest.  He mustered up enough courage to tell the truth about Hank’s murder.  Through Luke, the reader learned an important lesson over the power of truth.

A Painted House by John Grisham takes place in a rural little Arkansas town during the Korean War.  The story is mainly focused around the family farm right next to a creek in 1952.  Everywhere they looked they were surrounded waist-high by cotton.  However, the Chandler land was not the best suited for farming.  If a bad storm came in the creek would surely overflow leaving the countless hours of planting and harvesting wasted.  The weather of course is very hot, which causes some characters to lose their temper very easily, especially Hank and Cowboy.  The hot weather causes some characters to be unwilling to work and aggressive towards others.  The bad land only increases the tension felt throughout the story and the desire to move up north for a better life.  The Chandlers desperately need a change of life style and the money that comes along with the work in the factory.

Even though the story is fictional, it could very easily be true in reality.  In the 1950’s it was very common for a farmer’s crop to be ruined and plunge the family even further into debt.  Hispanics were also known to just up and leave without any word of notice, which cut down the picking amounts significantly.  However, most Hispanics stayed because like everyone else, they desperately needed the money too.

The title, A Painted House symbolizes the desires of one rural farming family.  Each year crops such as cotton are planted in an attempt to crawl their way out of the massive whole of debt they have dug.  However, not enough crops are picked and as a result, they plunge further into debt each year.  With money so tight, the Chandlers never would have imagined spending money on such a silly thing as paint, until Trot came along.  Trot, a small physically impaired member of the Spruill family, secretly started painting the side of the Chandler house with the financial aid from his sister, Tally.  The job remains uncompleted once the Spruills are forced to return home.  Luke feels obligated to finish the job Trot started.  With each stroke of the paint brush, pride seems to be seeping into the Chandler family.  Everyone aids in the painting of the house including the mexicans, and Luke’s father.  With only one side of the house remaining to be painted, Luke’s parents decide to take the risk and move up north for a better life and opportunities.  The story ends with Pappy’s promise to finish the project and the Chandler’s dreams and hopes almost reached.