47 pages • 1 hour read
Wiley CashA Land More Kind than Home
Wiley CashFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 11-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary: “Clem Barefield”
Barefield recalls the incident when his son died. He was notified to come to the location of a dead body in a road. When he arrived, he found that the body had been dragged into the woods and covered with a sheet. It became apparent that Jeff, an electrician, had died during some type of electrical accident on the job. Barefield, angry that the foreman—Jimmy Hall—was not there, asked the crew if Jimmy had been drinking when he left them, but they were unsure.
Barefield drove to Jimmy’s home, but he was not there. As Barefield drove away, he noticed tire tracks in the snow, leading up a hill. He followed them until the police cruiser became stuck in the snow. Barefield continued on foot up the hill until he reached Jimmy’s truck. Jimmy was inside, drunk; Barefield pulled him out and beat him with the barrel of his gun. Jimmy insisted that Jeff’s death had been accidental and that his crew could attest to this. Barefield considered shooting Jimmy but instead removed the keys from his truck and threw them far off into the snow so that Jimmy could not drive home drunk.
He walked back to the cruiser and radioed dispatch to come tow him out. However, before help arrived, Jimmy appeared in his truck with a tow strap. He told Barefield that he kept spare keys in the truck, and though Barefield did not want his help, Jimmy towed the cruiser out of the snow.
Barefield drove home afterward, trying to determine how to tell his wife that their son was dead.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Adelaide Lyle”
Adelaide recalls the sheriff coming to speak to her after Stump’s death. Then, she thinks back further to growing up with only her great-aunt. At age 14, Adelaide was instructed by her aunt to go out into the world, so she moved to Asheville. There, she found work in a laundry facility until the tobacco harvest began.
One day, Adelaide had a premonition telling her to return home—she knew, somehow, that she would find her great-aunt dead. Adelaide suspected that she might have died of the “Spanish flu.” A neighbor couple helped her bury her aunt.
Chapter 13 Summary
Adelaide recalls the birth of Stump (whom she refers to as Christopher, his given name): She was awakened in the night during a snowstorm by a neighbor named Gertie, who asked for Adelaide’s help in a delivery. Gertie explained that the expecting couple—Julie and Ben Hall—would have difficulty reaching a doctor because of the storm. Adelaide noted that the elderly doctor was likely drunk anyway and that though she never intended to become a healer like her great-aunt, many people come to her in search of medical care.
Adelaide finally arrived at the Hall home, having had to walk partway due to the snow. It was not long after her arrival that Christopher was born, bearing the caul, which Adelaide explained to Julie meant good luck. As Julie fed the baby, she worried because he was not crying. Adelaide tried to assure her that the baby was fine but knew that he was not. She attempted to make tea from certain roots for Julie to drink, but Ben prevented this, calling the remedy unchristian.
Adelaide recounts how Christopher received the nickname “Stump,” noting that Julie hated it and refused to use it. A state agent had come to inspect the tobacco and noted how quiet Christopher was. The man complimented Christopher, calling him a “deep thinker” and going on to say to Ben, “Any little boy who can stand like a stump in a cleared field is a deep thinker” (209). Ben took offense to this, telling the man that Christopher couldn’t speak, and the man apologized.
Adelaide is certain that Stump would have been unable to speak even if the doctor had been the one to deliver him. She recounts a story that her great-aunt told her about a young Confederate soldier who found himself among a group of deserters. The deserters wreaked havoc on a nearby town, and the boy was captured. Though he had not participated in the destruction, he was deemed guilty by association and killed. Adelaide believes that there is a parallel between this boy’s situation and Stump’s.
Chapter 14 Summary
Adelaide explains that Ben and Julie grew apart after Stump’s birth. Julie took comfort in religion, but Ben seemed to lose any faith he might have once had.
Sometime before Stump’s death, Julie came to Adelaide, asking for help to induce an abortion. Julie indicated that it was Chambliss who suggested that Adelaide would be able to do so. Adelaide was suspicious about the pastor giving this kind of advice and told Julie to wait another month to determine if she was truly pregnant. The next month, Julie told Adelaide that her pregnancy suspicion was a false alarm.
Chapter 15 Summary
The day after Christopher’s death, Julie arrives at Adelaide’s house. She says that Ben will not allow her to be with Jess and blames her for Stump’s death. Ben has been drinking, and Julie worries that he will turn into his father. Adelaide offers to let Julie stay at her home but does not want Julie to see Chambliss while she is there. Julie argues that she trusts Chambliss, who insisted that he could rid Stump of the evil that was preventing him from speaking. She does, however, consent to Adelaide’s request.
Chapters 11-15 Analysis
This section provides backstory that contextualizes the present-day tensions in the community, which rear up in light of Stump’s death. For example, the accidental death of Barefield’s son, which parallels Stump’s death, impacts Barefield greatly and plays an integral role in his commitment to The Pursuit of Justice and Healing. In the case of both deaths, Barefield looks for someone to blame—an outlet at which to direct his rage and frustration. The revelation that Jimmy’s negligence led to Jeff’s death explains Barefield’s discomfort and wariness around Jimmy. Similarly, the information about Jimmy’s struggles with alcohol use explains, in part, the estrangement between him and Ben. Ben is aware of his father’s mistakes and does not want to repeat the same mistakes his father made in raising him. Ben’s distancing of himself from his father demonstrates his love for his sons and his desire to be a good father to them, but Julie’s comments to Adelaide in Chapter 15 foreshadow that Ben may end up following in his father’s footsteps regardless of his intentions. Meanwhile, the question of whether Jimmy has grown and changed since Ben’s childhood and Jeff’s death remains ambiguous.
Adelaide’s narrative also provides a fuller picture of Stump’s life and disability. Her insistence that Stump possessed the disability from birth—and that it was not the result of any trauma that occurred during the birth itself—absolves her of any wrongdoing but also suggests that Chambliss and his congregation had no valid reason to attempt to “heal” Stump. His muteness was simply an aspect of who he was—and, importantly, not something that seemed to cause him distress. Moreover, the love that his parents held for him is unmistakable, as Adelaide describes Julie doting on him and Ben fiercely defending Stump against criticism, protecting him and also treating him as an equal to Jess—an indication that Ben did not believe that Stump’s disability made him any less of a person. Nevertheless, Adelaide suggests that the challenges of raising a child with a disability placed a strain on Julie and Ben’s relationship, which created a motive for Julie’s infidelity and turn toward Chambliss.
Adelaide’s explication of the conflict between Julie and Ben is particularly important given that the novel provides relatively few insights into Julie’s character. Though Julie is at the center of the novel’s key plot points, she does not serve as a narrator and remains somewhat shrouded in mystery. In the immediate aftermath of Stump’s birth, it is not Julie but Ben who seems prone to The Influence of Religious Fervor, as it is he who stops Adelaide from administering an “unchristian” herbal remedy. That it was nevertheless Julie who ultimately fell prey to Chambliss’s influence hints at the complexity of her inner life. Her inquiry to Adelaide about an abortion is proof of how far that influence extended, as it was Chambliss who instructed her to pursue this—the implication being that a pregnancy would be proof of Julie’s infidelity, which Chambliss wanted to keep secret (furthering the theme of The Danger of Secrets and Silence).
This section also provides characterization of Adelaide, who emerges as a foil to Chambliss, countering his grandiosity and manipulativeness with a quiet commitment to helping others. Her backstory reveals a determined, hard-working individual who did not have an easy life. She was undeterred by challenges, going off into the world at a young age and supporting herself financially. She showed this same tenacity when she traveled on foot during a snowstorm to help the Halls with Stump’s birth—Adelaide is stalwart and asks for nothing in return for the kind deeds she performs, which include providing natural remedies for her neighbors’ ailments. Where Chambliss captivates his congregation with claims of healing by faith, Adelaide earns both their trust and a place as an important member of the community by practicing real healing. Indeed, Julie trusts her immensely, having turned to her for help delivering Stump and then turning to her again after his death. That Julie agrees to Adelaide’s mandate that Chambliss cannot visit her in Adelaide’s home is a testament to just how much Julie respects Adelaide.
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