Peace Like A River Escalation

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In the novel Peace Like a River there are many profound motifs that can be traced and found in the book. Unlike the other motifs such as “miracles” and “make of it what you will” which show up consequently in the book, the word escalation is only seen a couple of times but the principle of escalation can be seen throughout the novel by the series of events that transpire to the Land family. The first time the word “escalation” is seen, is on page twenty-five, where Jeremiah brings up the word for the first time to Reuben. In this scene he explains to Reuben what the tar on the door meant, in which he said was escalation but in reality Jeremiah interprets this escalation as war. We actually see a hint of foreshadow of escalation earlier on in …show more content…
After the football game the two boys found themselves in the girl’s locker room where Dolly so happened to be, who was also Davy’s girlfriend. Some might argue that Jeremiah was at the wrong place at the wrong time but it was a good thing that he was there because he stopped the two boys from hurting Dolly, which Reuben described as “putting the fear of God in ‘em” (p. 25). Even though Jeremiah saved Dolly from getting hurt, the escalating war had just begun. This event then escalated Davy’s behavior and anger towards both Tommy and Israel, “Davy thinks they got off easy, can’t you tell? He’s being a grouch. Boy, I’d hate to be those guys when Davy gets a hold of ‘em”. It was obvious that he was planning something but not according to the Dad’s belief. We see that the father, Jeremiah believes that in retaliation, nothing should be done. The two boys had an upper hand by continuing to strike the Land family when the family came back from a camping trip, “they found the door tarred black, from top to
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