In “Peace Like a River”, the love and care for each other is represented through the way the siblings protect one another. Jeremiah shows his children the value of caring for each other by accomplishing whatever he can for his family. He also shows his children that sometimes you may face challenges but you must keep working towards the goals God had for you. This is a quote from Jeremiah describing the battle his family was facing, “We and the world, my children, will always be at war. Retreat is impossible. Arm yourselves.” I believe throughout the story the scripture Jeremiah 29:11; “For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” It’s ironic that this scripture comes from the book of Jeremiah being that the father’s name is Jeremiah. Jeremiah is defined as “God will raise up; God will set free.” Jeremiah relies on God in every situation throughout the story by reading the word and praying for the hope in these situations. Jeremiah was raised up through the life that was presented in the novel and when he dies, he is finally set free from all the struggles he faced throughout his life to be with God. Looking at their father and his heart for them, they learned how to treat each other. I am the youngest of my family, there are two of us girls, and we are two years apart. My sister has always been the more independent out of the two of us. I like to compare her Davy in the novel. I compare myself to Rueben. Growing up, I was the kid that needed extra assistance and my sister has always been protective over me like Davy. I was born with a heart murmur, until I was ten, I wasn’t able to be very active and I had many times where I would need my parent’s assistance. Siblings are the best friends you never asked for. They are always there for you no matter what. In the novel, you can see the care for the siblings throughout the plot in many ways. Davy shows his love for his family in general and especially his siblings. When Rueben meets him at the end of the story Davy shows his dedication to Rueben.
This past week, I have spent time with my entire family sharing the memories we have experienced throughout our years together. My sister and I only see each other maybe five times a year, so during our time together I started to think about how much I have taken for granted, growing up sharing everything with my sister. Sometimes we fought and sometimes we were each other’s best friends. I believe this generation takes for granted the value of family and especially our siblings. Most families today, go their separate ways after college or high school. The American thing to do is to get married, and have children, then visit your family every holiday possible. Growing up, we are taught to chase the American Dream and that the only way we will succeed in life is to go to college or trade school. If this is true what happened to the value of the family and the close bond we all share? Another question I have is; where did the value of family go? When did we start only visiting them on the holidays or giving them a call at least once a week?
A short story comes to mind that we have read earlier in this Introduction to Literature, “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker. This story was about a mother and her two daughters that had a conflict over a valuable artifact related to their culture. Maggie’s and Dee’s relationship was the opposite of Davy’s and Rueben’s relationship. Dee had no pride for her family and moved away to make herself better in her eyes. She came to visit in the story and wanted the quilts her mother had from her ancestors. Maggie became very angry because she had so much pride in her families’ heritage and Dee just wanted to come and take the quilts to gain the pride or respect of her husband or boyfriend. Maggie and Dee never had a bonding relationship. Maggie seems to be very hurt from how Dee disowns her family until she wants something valuable. These quilts were not only valuable monetarily to Maggie but valuable to her love for her family. Today, you see families torn apart from similar circumstances as the one in “Everyday Use”. Take for example the Lohan’s; Lindsay Lohan was a famous children’s actress when I was growing up. When she became a teenager she was introduced to drugs and alcohol. At this time in her life, she is in and out of jails and rehabilitation centers. Her family has completely disowned her and her family is completely dysfunctional. I don’t know someone could go day-to-day without the support of their family or siblings. As I get older, I find myself calling my parents and sister more just to hear how their day has went. What happened to caring for those people and protecting them to the very end?
The times that most people realize the significance of family is when family members are sick or dying. This is sad to say, but is so true. I recently had a friend die in a car accident and his sister was so disturbed by his death because earlier that day she was fighting with her brother. The importance of keeping peace with your siblings, friends, family, or enemies is so significant because you never know what may happen to them in the future. What will it take for us as Americans to set-up and see the importance of one another? How do we bring back this sense of caring for our love-ones and protecting them like previous generations? This generation lacks the respect. Respect is defined in the Webster’s dictionary as “to feel deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.” Our family members have a lot of wisdom and knowledge. We should never take for granted the history and heritage that our ancestors have passed down from their generations to our generation.
My great-grandfather had thirteen siblings and was one of the oldest of the family. He is one of last two living today, but every time I visit him he always tells stories of how much he loved them and would have done anything for them. I struggle with keeping up with my sister; I don’t know how I would ever think to keep up with thirteen siblings. I am just astonished by how my generation struggles with this and it seems to not even bother us that we don’t care. My other grandfather has nine siblings, he is the youngest and there is still seven living. His brothers and sisters are his best friends. They live all over the southern states but stay in contact on a regular basis if that means visiting them or just giving them a call to talk. Every year, I enjoy going to our family reunion not to eat but to just sit at the table with them and listen to their stories about their parents, childhood, marriages, and life. I hope to one day be able to sit around a table with my family and my sister’s family to tell stories about our lives.
Another story that comes to mind when discussing siblings is Joseph and his brothers. His brothers sold him into slavery because they were jealous of him and their father Jacob’s relationship. Through this Joseph didn’t hate his brothers; rather he relied on God to give him strength. For this generation, I believe that is another problem, we don’t rely on God to fix our problems with family. Through this story we can see that God was able to show him a light to which path he should take and gave him wisdom on what he should say or do.
When describing the meaning of caring for your siblings; you may also see the similarities in having honor in your family. Family is more than just your parents and siblings. If you look or study your family’s genealogy you will find the importance of your distant family such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Families are all about the memories, traditions and laughs we will always cherish. Going back to, “Peace Like a River” we can look at the family as a whole and see how much they support each other. Jeremiah, Swede, Davy, and Rueben stay together through it all. It may seem that Davy became distant when he escaped but he was really protecting his family. Also on the other side, Jeremiah, Swede and Rueben did everything they could to help the situation. They also became closer through their situation rather than fight and argue like most would today.
