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For most people, all you have to do is hear the words "literary terms" and your brain shuts down. Who needs to know boring terms you will never use, right? Wrong. Any time you pick up a book or newspaper or magazine you're reading an author's story. Authors use literary terms like symbolism, allusions, and figurative language to convey their own personal emotions about their message- changing normal facts into a tale that will capture a reader's attention and reel in their intrest like a fish on a hook. Authors understand this, and more importantly, so do we, the readers. Take, for instance, the movie Lord of the Rings. I guarantee that the movie would not have had people waiting in lines hours long to see it if the script was "He got the ring. The evil guy wants it. Good prevails over evil" Boring! No one would watch that. But they would read Peace Like a River, if for no other reason than the fact that Leif Enger is an artistic genius with words. His use of literary elements such as allusions create such a spellbounding story, that it makes you feel as if you are living it.
Leif Enger's most distinguishing characteristic in his writing is his myraid allusions to the Bible. He takes a famous parable from biblical stories and recreates it in the time setting of his characters- most particularly Jeremiah Land, Reuben's father. Take for example, when Reuben, Swede and their father drive a "green Plymouth station wagon, pulling a twenty-foot Airstream trailer" through a whole town swarming with cops looking for them, and not one of those cops caught so much as a glimpse of them. As Swede aptly puts it, "He's [her father] like Moses....It was like going through the Red Sea!" (Enger 167). Of course, allusions work two ways, authors like Enger
"must presuppose that readers in general will posses the knowledge to recognize the allusion. Because of the connotations allusions carry, they are used to enrich meaning or broaden the impact of a statement" (Murfin et al.9).
If one did not understand the allusion, it would be like listening to one of Josh Groban's songs. (Listen to the CD). Not everyone can speak Italian, therefore they don't understand a word he sings, but Josh's music is still popular. Why? You do not have to understand the words of a song to understand the "feelings" expressed by it. And this applies not just to allusions, but what all the literary elements do for writing- create the spirit we are attracted to. Just like music speaks in a universal language, even if we don't speak it, we know. Just so with Enger's writing; you may not be able to grasp all the symbolized meanings, but your heart enjoys and understands the story. These stories that truly touch us reawaken our hearts and minds allowing us to hear, see, experience, and remember. Truly inspiring books are a stop sign in our hectic lives that makes us pause and think about something more meaningful and true than a lousy day at work or school. It is those stories that create a song in our heart, pure and strong it makes you want to just run, run for the joy, tirelessly never stopping. This is what Peace Like a River did for me, and what it will do for you.
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