A Painted House by John Grisham

John Grisham's "A PAINTED HOUSE" is a story inspired by his own childhood in rural Arkansas. It is a moving story of one child's journey from innocence to experience. The scene is set in the year 1952 when television and telephones were quite rare and radio and letters were the only means of communication.

Luke Chandler, the protagonist of the story, is a 7-year-old boy who lives with his parents and grandparents in a house that has never been painted. He also has an uncle, Ricky, who is fighting a war in Korea. This uncle holds a very important role in the young boy's life, but in the novel his role is quite passive. We know about him from his letters and Luke's recollections. Ricky also gets a 15-year-old girl pregnant and miserable and does not tell his family about it. The Chandlers have only the house and 3 acres of land surrounding it as their own. They rent the remaining 80 acres of land for growing cotton. Each year when the cotton is ready they hire labor in the form of hill people and some Mexicans to help them harvest it. This year too they hire a truckload of Mexicans and a family from Ozarks to help them. This hired help plays a great role in the boy's transformation.




The Black Oak is a quiet county where everybody knows everybody else. Here marriages and funerals are big events and baseball is loved by all. The farmers are a hardworking lot and are eternally pessimistic. They are totally dependent on nature for farming. If the Big Lady smiles at them then they have a good year, but if she happens to be in a nasty mood then all their hard work goes to ruin. The farmers have seen so much bad weather in their lives that they are even afraid to hope. They are constantly worried about the erratic moods of Nature. All this has been quite realistically portrayed through the eyes of a seven-year-old.

At the beginning of the story we see Luke, a big football fan, lusting over a red Cardinal jacket. His parents pay him for harvesting the cotton, like all the other help. With the earned money he plans to buy the much-desired jacket, which he plans to wear everywhere, showing it off to his buddies. But by the end of the story we find Luke gaining unusual wisdom. He has matured beyond his age. Thus he foregoes the jacket and invests his money in buying paint for the house.

Luke has to shoulder a lot of secrets, much of which he unburdens on his family. He sees murder committed twice in just two months. He takes a peek at a young girl taking a bath. He sees a child being born. He notices the budding romance between Tally and the cowboy. He also gets to know about his uncle's affair and the illegitimate child.

Tally brings eroticism to the story. A pretty and moody 17-year-old girl, she is well aware of her influence on the opposite sex and is knows of the young boy's crush on her. She has a soft corner for him and includes him in some of her adventures. She is also quite protective towards Trott and buys paint for him from her earnings to fulfill his whim. By the end of the story she runs off with a cowboy in search of a better future.

The two villains in Luke's life are Hank and the cowboy. While the first one is a downright bully who gets into a brawl with anyone and everyone, the other looks like a professional murderer with his switchblade. They both commit a murder, which terrifies the young boy.

The final disaster comes in the form of a flood, which spoils the crop. However, it is actually a blessing in disguise for it gives him and his parents an opportunity to discard farming forever and switch to an urban life