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Foreshadowing
Pages 17-21
Explanation and Analysis:
Gilead is an epistolary novel, or a novel written in the form of fictional letters. In this case, the letters are one extended document written from John Ames to his unnamed young son. John is a 76-year-old preacher who knows he’s nearing the end of his life; his son is only seven. John is aware that he won’t be around for most of his son’s life, and his son probably won’t remember very much of him. He writes to communicate his experiences, values, and family history to his son. In doing so, he aims to be a presence, albeit on the page, in his son’s life. The letter also serves as an occasion for John to remember and record the important events and themes of his life. As a result, the epistolary form takes on the quality of a memoir or retrospective on an entire life.
The epistolary form has several effects on the novel. For one, it means that Gilead is written in the second person. Unlike many novels, it has an explicit fictional audience. John makes frequent direct addresses to his son. This places the reader of Gilead outside of the relationship between the narrator and fictional reader of the letter. Readers of the novel are meant to understand that they’re reading intimate communication directed to someone else. This contributes to the confessional feel of the novel.
This form also complicates the reader’s understanding of the narrator, as John is shaping his life story for his son to read. John is conscious of the desire not to idealize himself on the page, but readers are only getting the version of John Ames that he wants to present to his son.
Finally, the epistolary form reinforces the novel’s focus on writing. John Ames frequently mentions the religious and literary texts that have shaped his beliefs and the beliefs of those around him. And the practice of writing is very important to him:
For me writing has always felt like praying, even when I wasn’t writing prayers, as I was often enough. You feel that you are with someone. I feel I am with you now, whatever that can mean [...]
John feels that writing to someone brings you close to them. In this light, the letters John is writing to his son take on more significance. John’s life has been shaped by written works—his own and those of other thinkers. The epistolary form makes the novel itself one of those works.
Related Themes:
