Briefly touching on Flourishing in Gilead which will be expounded upon in a later post I am sure, the scene early on in the book in which Ames and his father are nearly starving in search of his Grandfather’s corpse, the two say grace before eating some stolen carrots (ironic in itself as his father was also a preacher).
“He said, ‘For all we are about to receive,” and then we both started laughing till the tears were pouring down” (15).
Food and the act of feeding people have larger biblical significance in this novel as they invoke images of communion and Christ giving up his body and blood. But this particular moment in Gilead moves away from this deeper meaning and takes an unexpectedly lighthearted approach, representing an intimate moment of Ames’ family memories. When one thinks about it everything is rather dark at this time of Ames’ life. The circumstances of this situation are all rather ironic from what would be expected of a priest and his son. They are in search of the body of Ames’ grandfather (even though Ames’ father “always said when someone dies the body is just a suit o fold clothes the spirit doesn’t want anymore.”) and his father is forced to steal carrots (although, he left a dime on the doorstep to pay for them) (14). The times are extremely hard and the two men had “both gotten thin and [their] clothes were in bad shape” yet in this one particular moment they are able to find humor in their situation in that “all they [were] about to receive” was so little (15). This is one of the first experiences of flourishing that Ames presents to the readers an it focuses on the importance of family, God, and gratitude for what you have in being able to flourish even in the most dreadful circumstances.
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