A Painted House Analysis

When we see little kids running around and playing or sound asleep, most of us think of them as angels sent from heaven. We, as parents and future parents, love to see our children grow to become handsome sons and beautiful daughters. We do everything in our hands to keep them in the right tracks to become respectful human beings. We would want to be with them every second of their lives, but at some point we have to let them go and set them free. At one point in life, everyone hold secrets, including our own children.

Luke Chandler is the protagonist in the novel A Painted House by John Grisham. He was the youngest Chandler in the family. He lived with his grandfather Eli, his grandmother Ruth, his father Jesse and his mother Kathleen in

his grandparents’ farm. Most families who lived in Arkansas at that time were farm people. They owned or rented big acres of land with fields filled with cotton. Every year, around September, the farm owners went in search for farm workers. Mexicans and hill people or better known as the people who came from the Ozark Mountain, were the ones interested in working in the fields.
In September 1952, the Chandler family were lucky to have found the Spruill family and a few Mexicans to work in their fields. They were ready to start working to earn money. “They were paid for every hundred pounds of cotton they picked” (Grisham, 1). The Spruill family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Spruill, Hank, Tally, Trot, Leon, Lucy, Bo and Dale. The Mexicans consisted of Miguel being the leader of the group. We also hear about Cowboy. We know there’s a few other Mexicans that were not mentioned much. When they arrived to the Chandler’s farm, they all seemed as if they would do no harm to anyone. But as the author moves us along the story, we start to notice that Luke witnesses things about them that may harm his family and the crop, therefore he decides to stay quiet.
For the next six weeks, everyone had to do the same thing. The days at work were long. Everyone got up very early, even before the sun was out. Everyone had their breakfast. After, the Spruill, the Mexicans and the Chandlers met to each get their bag to start picking cotton. The day was long, the sun always making them work slower, but that never stopped anyone, except Luke. Bags were being dragged along the long rows of cotton, getting heavier and heavier as the hours went by. Everyone had to work hard to get all the cotton off the field. Both Luke’s father and grandfather were worried about not being able to finish the picking. Winter was coming and the rain would not let them pick anymore.
Saturdays were days that everyone worked half the day.

In the afternoons, everyone met in town. This was a way to relax after a very long week of picking cotton. Here, people talked to each other about the latest news. Not only was news something big on Saturdays, but so were the usual fights. Everyone knows that kids should not watch anything so drastic like a fight and Luke knew it because he states “My mother had warned me against watching fights behind the Co-op” (Grisham, 86). But one particular Saturday was the exception. Luke had witness his first fight. The fight took place behind the Co-op, where it was usual for other kids to hang out. It all started when a lot of people gathered around to see what the commotion was all about. The Sisco brothers were picking fights like always. They were teasing a kid and Hank Spruill decided to go in and defend the kid. Hank taught the Siscos a good lesson to not bully anyone. This fight was so brutal that days later, the town knew that one of the brothers, Jerry, had died. Stick Powers, sheriff of the town was looking for witnesses to take Hank to jail, but no one would say anything. Luke did not say anything because he thought that by saying it was Hank who killed one of the brothers, then the crop would be at risk if the whole family decided to leave their

farm.
There was another time where Luke was holding back a secret. Since the very beginning, when Luke had seen Tally for the very first time, he thought that she was the most beautiful girl. Luke describes her as having “dark hair pulled tightly behind her head and big brown eyes” (Grisham, 10). She was of course older than he was, with an age difference of 10. He could not resist to look at her, after all she would be living on his farm for the next six weeks. It was one afternoon when Tally had approached Luke to ask where the creek was for her to bathe. Tally had asked Luke to accompany her because she didn’t want anyone to see her while she bathe. At first he didn’t really want to go, but at the end they walked together to the creek. Luke was only 7 years old, but knew perfectly fine what he was doing. As Tally was bathing, Luke was in charge of keeping an eye. He was far from the creek, but later decided to watch Tally. Luke stated “how often would I have the chance to see a pretty girl bathing?” (Grisham, 152). She was naked and that’s what Luke was looking for. He watched her making sure she didn’t see him, but Tally knew all along Luke was there. He would never forget the way she looked and was probably looking for another opportunity to do it again.
The last lie Luke held back for a while was the second fight he had witness.

It was a late night when Hank Spruill decided to leave town for the incident earlier in the story. That same night, Cowboy went after Hank to confront him because we knew that Hank was always getting into trouble. Luke had witness everything. This fight was not like the first one, it was so much worse. It started with just rock throwing to get each other’s attention. Cowboy had a switchblade in his pocket with the intentions of using it to harm. When things were getting at a max point where things were getting thrown at, Cowboy decided to bring out the switchblade out to the public to be seen. When Hank lease expected, Cowboy “drove the blade up through Hank’s stomach and chest… Then Cowboy yanked it out and thrust is in again and again” (Grisham, 330). The body was thrown down the river for the water to take away. As Luke was going back home, in shock, Cowboy catches him and threatens him to not say anything. Cowboy remarks “you speak one word about tonight and I will kill your mother” (Grisham, 334). Luke having witness this horrible deed and being warned about not saying anything brought Luke to stay quiet

again.
Many times we will also find ourselves staying quiet about something to no worry someone or to not bring problems. I can relate to Luke because I too have kept quiet about things I should have not done. When I was in middle school, I wasn’t much of a school type of person. I started to lose interest in school, mainly because of the people I would hang around with. My friends were the party type of people. They went out to parties every Friday night and weren’t interested in school either. Sometimes we would not go to school and go to eat or to the movies. Days when we did attend school, we would sometimes skip a certain period. Also, because of my lack of attendance I would get Saturday school, which meant having to attend school on a Saturday to get work done. Because I had to get my Saturday school slip sign by my parents I would lie to them. I wouldn’t tell them I had to go to Saturday school because I didn’t go to class, but rather because one of my teachers wanted me to help him or her.
Once again I lost interest in school when I was a senior in high school. Mostly because most of my friends had graduated the year before. I had known many people and out of all of them I decided to hang out with a few girls who, once again were the girls who liked to party and have fun, school was not their priority. I tried to not follow them much, but I don’t know what held me back. There was one day during lunch time when we went to get lunch in the cafeteria, like any other regular day. This particular day one of them all of a sudden decided to bring out a bottle of alcohol. I wasn’t sure what to do. One of them had poured the liquor into a Gatorade bottle. The bottle was half way filled with Gatorade and the rest was alcohol. I was going along with them because at that time I thought it was fun. I didn’t drink much, but the point is I did it and I have not told my parents or anyone really.
Keeping secrets never brings anyone anything good. As Grisham shows us through his novel, once you keep a secret, it is hard to not keep more. A secret always leads to lying. Luke so many times had to lie to keep his family protected. Looking and thinking back at what I have done makes me feel disappointed with myself. Many times secrets weight us down. The more we keep quiet the guiltier it makes us feel. I guess secrets and lies are part of growing up, we just have to know when enough is enough.