Jeremiah’s sickness throughout this part of the book is a major contribution to the Land family’s “Blue” Christmas. This is illustrated by Swede and Reuben’s conversation, “Dad’s worse, Swede said, abruptly. What’s the matter? He’s in there pounding his chest-hear him thumping? He’s been doing it all morning. It was strange. My fingers started to tremble when she said that,” (Enger 112). From this quote you can tell Jeremiah’s sickness is taking a mental toll on Reuben and Swede. Although Reuben is only eleven he begins to notice his father’s sickness in detail, “His face was too bereft of all extra so that suddenly I barely recognized him. How had this escaped me? Even his eyes had the transparency of incarceration, and he looked at me out of them with a mercy and pain that confused me beyond what small troubles I’d ever …show more content…
The lyrics by Elvis Presley, “I'll have a Blue Christmas without you/ I'll be so blue thinking about you” (1-2) illustrates the entire family’s feelings. They think of Davy all the time, Swede even reasons that Davy may send a Christmas card; “We haven’t got nothing from Davy, she said. It hadn’t occurred to me Davy might send us a Christmas card, him being a fugitive from justice,” (Enger 118). Davy’s absence is the main reason for their sadness and leads to major events, Jeremiahs loss of job and their family’s road trip. Losing a member of their family right before Christmas, a time when family is of utmost importance, affected the Land family