A Painted House

This section of A Painted House develops one of the novel’s most significant motifs—baseball. Previous sections develop Luke’s relationship with the sport: the way baseball gives him something to focus on other than farm work and gives him a goal for his adulthood; the way baseball allows him to connect with his father and grandfather; and even the way playing baseball lets him forge a new connection with the Mexican and Ozark workers. In this section, Luke attends the annual baseball game at the Fall Picnic. On one hand, this game accomplishes what the game on the Chandlers’ farm failed to achieve: It creates a sense of camaraderie among disparate groups by pitting the Baptists against the Methodists but ultimately allowing them a dialogue with one another. When the game ends, Luke notices that “It took an hour to say good-bye to everyone” because there was so much discussion of what would take place next year (258). On the other hand, while it pits the Baptists against the Methodists in a good-natured competition, the game also reinforces the Class Consciousness in Rural Mid-century Arkansas: The Mexican people, the Ozark people, and other farmworkers are prohibited from participating. The groups coming together, the Baptists and Methodists, may differ in their theology and practice, but they are members of the same white Christian community. Still, the tradition helps structure life in Black Oak. The annual game gives the community something to look forward to, a respite from the work-based rituals that dominate most of the rest of their lives.

In Chapter 24, Luke goes over to Pop and Pearl’s and watches a baseball game on their television. This is his first time seeing a game on television, and he “was mesmerized to the point of being mute. I simply stared at the television, watching but not believing” (270). Luke’s disbelief comes from finally seeing what he’s only heard before—and the sight is much grander, much more entertaining than what he could have imagined. In this passage, baseball becomes a medium through which Luke can access the world beyond Black Oak. It is the only outlet Pappy and his father allow through which Luke can study and embrace the rapidly modernizing world from which Black Oak insulates itself. Baseball both builds community and cultivates Luke’s dreams of leaving Black Oak and becoming part of a larger world.

Chapter 25 is tense and eventful—it sees the conflict surrounding Hank’s treatment of the Siscos and the Mexican people finally come to a climax as he fights and is murdered by Cowboy. Notably, this climatic moment comes relatively early in the narrative; it would be easy, with the resolution of so many driving tensions, for the rest of the novel to lack a sense of urgency and momentum. Instead, Grisham introduces a new primary conflict in the chapters after Hank’s death—the imminent flooding of the river. The introduction of this new conflict doesn’t feel rushed because Grisham has already done significant work in foreshadowing this tension. Grisham also carefully connects this new conflict to the previous one: Luke realizes that “Hank was out there, cut and dead and bloated with river water, ready to wash ashore where someone would find him. We’d have a real murder on our hands” (295). The coming floods threaten not only to destroy crops but also to expose Hank’s murder and further develop the conflicts surrounding him. This section seamlessly shifts the tensions driving the novel to set up the narrative’s final section.