Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Paradise, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Gender, Race, and Power
Community
Motherhood and Intergenerational Trauma
Change vs. Tradition
God, Holiness, and Faith
Exclusion
Summary
Analysis
Reverend Misner presides over the funeral of Jeff and Sweetie Fleetwood’s youngest child, Save-Marie. She is the first person to die in Ruby, and Sweetie refused the Morgans’ offer to bury her in the makeshift cemetery they established for their sister Ruby. Pat Best suspects that Sweetie is not simply taking revenge on the Morgans for bringing Jeff and Arnold into the massacre, but that Sweetie intends to earn favors from the Morgans by threatening their stronghold on the town. Misner and Anna Flood returned two days after the attack on the Convent, but they have yet to receive a clear account of what happened, as all the stories are told by the nine men and their families and friends. Deek is the only one not to offer a version of events.
After the attack on the Convent, the Ruby residents have lost their immortality, as if in punishment for the murders at the Convent. Save-Marie’s death marks an indisputable and irreversible change in Ruby. The community can no longer continue stagnating in the past. Death has come to Ruby, and it brings with it the promise that the old men who have enforced their traditions will soon die. Death is the ultimate arbiter of change in Ruby, and the older townspeople have no power against it.
Themes
Lone tries to spread the truth, but the townspeople dismiss her, even though she has the support of the DuPreses and their allied families. Eventually, she stops telling her story; the Convent women have disappeared, and without victims, the truth is malleable. Lone also believes, however, that the women’s absence indicates that God is granting Ruby a second chance. The young people have changed the graffiti on the Oven. Instead of “Be the Furrow of His Brow,” it now reads “We Are the Furrow of His Brow.”
Lone tries to spread the truth, but all evidence of the raid has vanished. The nine attackers are prominent, well-connected figures in the community, and without proof to condemn them, the men and their families can spread their version of events. Though the absence of evidence belies Lone’s quest for justice, she also believes that the lack of remnants of violence provides Ruby with a clean slate. The progressive young townspeople have already started asserting a stronger presence in the town, declaring upon the Oven that they will enact God’s will.
Themes
Though the women have disappeared and stories of the attack sanitize it beyond recognition, blame and uncertainty still affect Ruby in the aftermath of the massacre. Pat notes that some of the consequences are more concrete and observable. Arnold Fleetwood’s injuries from the massacre have prompted him to retire, leaving his store to a proud Jeff, and Harper Jury wears his head wound without remorse as proof that he stood against evil. Sargeant Person, the farmer, has taken over the Convent’s lands. Not all the men were so fortunate, though––Menus Jury’s alcoholism has worsened drastically, and Wisdom Poole’s family condemns him for his violence.
The lives of Menus Jury and Wisdom Poole worsen after the attack on the Convent, but many of the other attackers profit from the massacre. Their good fortune demonstrates that in a community as insular as Ruby, violence against a community of outsiders will not come with severe consequences––especially if the attackers already wield power in their own community. However, while these men individually reap the benefits of the attack, the violence has weakened the community of Ruby as a whole as it debates rage over what occurred.
Themes
K.D. and Arnette, who is pregnant again, are building a new house on Steward’s property with the hopes of earning more status in town. The distinguishing visual features between Deek and Steward are starting to fade, but the twins have become so different than everyone can tell them apart. Steward is unrepentant. He focuses on securing the finances of K.D. and his son, while Dovey starts to forgive Steward because she does not believe he shot Connie. Dovey and Soane have fallen out due to their disagreement over who shot Connie.
Steward takes the murder of the Convent women as an unambiguous victory. He perceived the Convent as the greatest threat to Ruby’s status quo––and to the Morgans’ privilege within that status quo. Now that he has eliminated this perceived threat, Steward focuses on securing the future of the Morgan line, helping K.D. build a life just like Steward’s.
Themes
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In September, Deek walks barefoot to Misner’s house. He is grappling with a new sense of solitude after distancing himself from Steward. Misner welcomes him in, and Deek speaks openly about his feelings for the first time in his life. He confesses his guilt about his manipulation of Connie, though he refuses to identify her to Misner.
In contrast to Steward, who has committed to preserving Ruby’s conservative way of life, Deek commits to change. Deek has become a broken man without Steward to depend upon. He goes to Misner, who throughout the book has represented the progress that Deek stands against. Deek’s decision to turn to Misner for advice highlights how lost Deek is and how desperate he is to change.
Themes
Deek tells Misner a story about his grandfather Zechariah, who was known as Coffee as a young man, and who had a twin named Tea. A group of white men once ordered the twins at gunpoint to dance. Tea danced, but Coffee refused, and the men shot him in the foot. The incident severed the bond between the brothers, and when Coffee left to start a new town, he did not invite Tea. Deek explains that he used to judge Zechariah for abandoning his brother, but he now understands that Zechariah might have seen his own shame reflected back in his twin. Misner suggests that to choose to lose a brother is “worse than the original shame.” Deek acknowledges that he has a long way to go, but Misner confidently replies that Deek will “make it.”
Deek’s story about Zechariah and Tea reiterates the racism that Haven was built to escape. The story also emphasizes the crisis of identity that Deek feels after separating from Steward. Steward is Deek’s mirror, and to face Steward is to face the worst parts of himself. But Deek has never lived as an individual, and he doesn’t know what to do without his brother. Misner recognizes the difficulty Deek faces, but he assures Deek that he will find a path forward, demonstrating Misner’s compassion and skill as a religious leader.
Themes
Misner and Anna don’t believe the mass disappearance of the Convent women, so they go to the Convent themselves to investigate. When they find no evidence that the women have recently been to the Convent, Anna suggests that one or more of the women survived and took the dead bodies with them. Misner is unconvinced. They both sense something in the yard––Misner believes it’s a window, while Anna thinks it is a door. Though they can’t see anything, both are certain this passageway is there. Anna wonders what lies on the other side of the door.
Anna suggests a rational explanation for the women’s disappearance, but both she and Misner sense the presence of something supernatural. Though they disagree on its specific nature, they both sense a passageway that offers an escape from the Convent. The presence of this portal suggests that some magical force––perhaps God himself––intervened to rescue the women from the Convent.
Themes
Back at Save-Marie’s funeral, Misner looks at the nine guilty men and loathes them for betraying their ancestors. They imitate the white men they think they outsmarted, and they wound the wives and children they think that they protect. As he muses that Ruby will soon become like any country town, he realizes he has to stay. He wants to help bring the future to Ruby’s “outrageously beautiful, flawed and proud people.”
Misner’s anger at the nine men makes explicit the fallacy of Ruby. In their attempts to separate themselves from white America, the townspeople recreate that society’s systems of hierarchy and exclusion in the very place they claim is a paradise. However, Misner doesn’t believe that Ruby is beyond hope. He recognizes that the townspeople will soon have to reckon with tangible change for the first time, and he wants to help them face that.
Themes
The mourners begin to lose interest in Misner’s eulogy, and he is about to conclude when he is struck with new conviction. He proclaims that Save-Marie’s life was not worthless just because it was short; her life was so full of love that her was “as valuable as any of ours and probably more blessed.”
At K.D. and Arnette’s wedding, Reverend Pulliam claimed that love was not a right but a privilege that people had to earn. Misner’s eulogy presents an alternate perspective on love. He frames love as the key ingredient to a meaningful life and as a blessing that people freely give.
Themes
Billie Delia walks away from the funeral. She misses the Convent women, but she is confident they will return someday. She imagines their vengeful figures destroying Ruby, a “prison calling itself a town” ruled by tyrannical men who have tried to destroy her family for three generations. In her more immediate life, Apollo and Brood have agreed to wait for Billie Delia to choose between them––though all three know she never will.
Billie Delia’s opinion of Ruby is harsher than Misner’s. The intergenerational trauma that has afflicted the Best family for three generations has embittered Billie Delia, who knows firsthand the brutality that patriarchal systems can inflict. The Convent was always a safe place to her, and she imagines the Convent’s community as a force of vengeance that will one day overthrow the patriarchy that tried to destroy it.
Themes
In the following years, the Convent women experience “the reprieve.” Gigi, in an army uniform, appears to her father in prison. Later, she swims naked in a lake with a companion. A bald Pallas appears to Dee Dee, carrying her baby and a sword. Dee Dee tries to speak, but she can only make nonsense sounds as Pallas retrieves a pair of shoes she left at her mother’s house. Pallas drives off into the sunset with a group of people rendered unidentifiable in the light.
The experiences of the Convent women in “the reprieve” are dreamlike. Because the story presents these memories from the perspectives of other characters, it never confirms the nature of the women––whether they are alive, dead, or somewhere in between. Gigi appears to her imprisoned father, whom she has never had a relationship with, and then she experiences a moment of intimacy with a companion in a lake. Pallas appears to Dee Dee, rendering her as dumbfounded and helpless as Dee Dee’s betrayal made Pallas feel.
Themes
Mavis appears to Sally, her eldest daughter who is now an adult. Sally reveals how scared she was as a child and how Frank’s abuse worsened after Mavis left. Mavis apologizes and reassures Sally that she always thought of her children after leaving. Seneca appears to Jean, who abandoned Seneca as a child. Seneca had believed Jean was her sister, but she was in fact Seneca’s mother, and she has been searching for Seneca for years. When she sees Seneca in a parking lot, Seneca is with another girl and doesn’t remember Jean.
Mavis always feared that Sally was in league with Frank against her, but in reality, Sally was a scared little girl whose mother abandoned her. Mavis makes amends and reclaims her role as a mother. Seneca, on the other hand, does not make amends with the mother who abandoned and traumatized her. Instead, Seneca has forgotten her trauma and left Jean behind just as Jean left a young Seneca behind so many years ago.
Themes
Connie, whose name the narrator does not explicitly mention, lays her head on the lap of a dark-skinned woman singing by the ocean. The woman is called Piedade, and her song tells of love, home, and comfort. A ship approaches the beach bearing “lost and saved” passengers. When they arrive, they will rest before undertaking the “endless work,” which “they were created to do down here in Paradise.”
Connie’s “reprieve” does not involve a spectral visit to anyone who wronged her; she simply takes a moment of rest, in which she can be taken care of after spending her life taking care of others. The dark-skinned woman’s name, Piedade, recalls Connie’s home in Brazil, suggesting that in “Paradise” Connie has finally reconnected with her home. The book’s presentation of Paradise is unclear: it is a place of peace and catharsis, home to souls who were “lost” and have been “saved.” At the same time, Paradise demands “endless work,” and its downward location mirrors traditional descriptions of Hell. The story frames Paradise as a positive place, but it is also a confusing one, and it requires believers to draw their own interpretations about its nature.
Themes
