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Contemporary Authors Shakespeare 's ' Peace Like A River ' Essay

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Dante Zambataro
11/14/16
Contemporary Authors/Dramatic Literature
Period 2A Peace Like a River Final Draft Essay

In Leif Enger’s “Peace Like a River,” the most important scene/symbol in the entire novel is the opening scene with Reuben being born and his lungs are all messed up from the start. Throughout the entire novel his lungs are brought up again and again. Reuben has asthma and breathing is a real struggle for him and if there’s anything he’d ever want in his life is a good, it’s a sufficient pair of lungs that won’t fail him. He essentially has no lungs to begin with, and it would be a miracle for him to get that precious pair of working lungs. After his first asthma attack when he was a baby, his lungs continuously got worse and worse. He begins to build up mucus and phlegm and had frequent asthma attacks and were extremely intense. Reuben’s first near death experience and the struggles with his lungs that has been a metaphor throughout the novel. He has no control over his asthma and what it does to him. He needs all the help he can and he does in fact get a lot of help. Jeremiah, Swede, Davy, Roxanna ALL help him during his tough condition. In the beginning, his father was outside getting some air at the moment that Reuben was born, Jeremiah Land insists that God told him something was wrong with his newborn son so he ran into the hospital. He returned to the delivery room to find his wife in hysterics and Dr. Nokes
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