A Painted House

Front Cover of A Painted House

A Painted House is a novel by American author John Grisham, published on February 6, 2001. Seven-year-old Luke Chandler is witness to many atrocities in the fall of 1952 as his struggling family of cotton farmers works hard to earn enough to pay their debts. The novel portrays the experiences that bring this child from a world of innocence into one of reality. An interesting novel that portrays the life of a Southern farmer very well, A Painted House has found much acclaim within the literary community.

Summary

The story begins to unfold as Luke Chandler and his grandpa, "Pappy," search for "hands" to help them with the cotton picking. They initially consider themselves lucky to find the Spruills, a family of "hill people", looking for some work. Along with the Spruills, the family hires a few of the Mexicans that come to the area annually looking for work.

Luke gets caught up in trouble with these two groups as he first sees Hank Spruill attack three of the notorious Siscos, boys from an irreligious farming family who constantly picked fights, and beat them so severely that one of them died from the wounds. Luke also witnesses the awful killing of Hank Spruill by a Mexican nicknamed Cowboy, who catches him watching the murder and threatens to kill his mother if he reveals anything. Apart from these killings, Luke also learns that his admired Uncle Ricky has fathered a child with a daughter of their extremely poor sharecropping neighbors. With each event, he grows and realizes that the life he once lived could no longer be perceived in the same light.

The "painted house" of the title is the Chandlers' own unpainted farmhouse, the painting of which becomes a shared project over the course of the autumn picking. It symbolises a new life, a change from the unchanging thirty-seven miles per hour life of his grandparents.

Luke and Maturity

by Miller Brummett

In John Grisham's A Painted House the main character, Luke Chandler sees many horrible events occur. Luke is subjected to hard work and labor, as he and his rural grew in 1952 up farming cotton, and is paid very little for his efforts. His dad and grandfather, who run the farm, hired a combination of immigrant Mexicans and the proud hill people, The Spruills. The Spruills, especially Hank Spruill, makes Luke's day to day labor generally not pleasurable. These events are what lead to Luke's maturity from a boy to a young man. The year that the book begins is 1952. It is in this year that Luke learns the general lessons of humanity. He learns to love and hate, he begins to consider questions of right and wrong, he becomes interested in the opposite sex, particularly Tally Spruill. The first big event occurs when Luke sees Hank Spruill kill two men in a fight, and injured one very badly. This not only made Luke become aware of some men's hatred toward his fellow man, and this also puts Luke in a witness position. Being a good-willed innocent boy, he seeks to tell the truth, but to avoid punishment from hank Spruill; he would only tell if someone asked. A policeman shows up at the Chandler farm and asks to speak to Hank Spruillâ€"and Luke Chandler. Luke is a witness to the crime and ends up lying to the town's sheriff due to fear of hank Spruill, who was standing right there. The defense wasn't that he didn't kill them, but it was that it was in self-defense, and initially, it was in self defense. When the three boys that he was defending himself against were on the ground and badly hurt, Hank acquired a baseball bat and starting trashing them with the bat. In order to qualify as self defense one of the boys that Hank was fighting, the Sisco boys, had to have been wielding a weapon, which they were not. Luke lied to the cop and told him that one of the boys was wielding a weapon, again, in fear of Hank Spruill.Luke is only seven in this novel, but at the very beginning of the book when the Spruills pull up in their truck, Luke describes the unmatched beauty of Tally Spruill. The most important detail about Tally Spruill is that she is seventeen, whereas Luke is only seven. Luke describes her as having beautiful black hair, and being the only Spruill that he really cared about. As the novel progresses Luke becomes more and more interested in Tally. This shows us that Luke is becoming more mature and is starting to become intrigued by the opposite sex. After one long day of cotton picking Tally is tired and dirty, and she tells Luke that she needs bathing. She requests that Luke follow her down to the pond so he can "make sure nobody watches her". In this Chapter looks ends up seeing her bathing, and this is the biggest turning point in Luke and tally's character relationship (Tally had planned on Luke seeing her). The following night, Luke's mother receives a phone call from the mother of a thirteen-year-old girl hat was rumored to be pregnant. Mrs. Chandler had helped this family with their financial issues before, feeling sorry for them and their undeserved poverty. The rumors are true, and the girl is in labor. She fears that if she takes her daughter to the Hospital the rumors will be confirmed, and the family name will be disgraced. Mrs. Chandler agrees to perform delivery on the baby, and rushes over to their house followed by Grandma Chandler and Luke's father. Luke had to stay home, and Luke's grandfather agreed to stay with him. Luke's grandfather goes to bed very early and Luke sits out on the front porch. Time has passed by as Luke sits out on the porch and then suddenly he is approached by Tally Spruill. Tally asks him if he wants to sneak over and watch the baby being delivered. Luke is hesitant, but tally forces him to go long. Knowing how much trouble he would be in if he got caught, Luke drudges along very nervously.The one to two walk run elapses and they arrive at the house. They observe the house and its sizable corn field. They notice the younger kids are out in the field under the watch of their father (this family has many kids). The father is yelling at the kids for wanting to see what is going on, but Luke and Tally are hidden in the ears of corn. The little girl is yelling and screaming, his horrifies Luke because he does not know why she is doing so. Tally further explains the female anatomy to Luke, and why this is so painful for premature girls. This is where Luke first discovers where babies actually come from, and this also is a major turning point in the novel. Luke and Tally run back home only to just barely beat Luke's mother and father, Luke's father comes in the house and checks on Luke (who has rushed into his run just seconds earlier), and finds him in his bed with dirty clothing on. He asks why he went to bed with his field cloths on, and Luke simply said he was too tired to change. This makes Luke's father suspicious and this is where the reader pretty much assumes Luke's father knew that his son was there, hiding in the cornfield. Luke's father ever addresses Luke the entire novel about this issue.Luke has always been friends with the Mexicans who come out to help with the cotton fields. He would usually try their food against his parents wishes, he would usually play baseball with them (he discovered that that Mexicans are really good ball players). This year there was one Mexican in particular who started a lot of trouble around the farm…Cowboy. The other Mexicans call him Cowboy because he never takes off his cowboy hat. He is the only Mexican who seems to not take a liking to Luke. Hank Spruill has had problems with the Mexicans as soon as he arrived at the farm, and Cowboy has problems with anyone who angers him. During one baseball game, Hank Spruill was up to bat with Cowboy pitching. Cowboy struck Hank out, but Hank being as arrogant as he is, refused to believe that the last pitch was over the plate. At first it was a quarrel, but then it became a physical fight. The Mexicans came to Cowboy's Aid, then the Spruills came to Hank's aid. Cowboy pulled out a switchblade and Hank and told him to back off. Luke was then horrified, but learned from hanks mistake what child-like arrogance will get youGrisham created all of these events to show us what a child takes to grow up into an adult. Luke starts off the novel an innocent child, and the novel ends as him being an experienced young man. He has discovered life, love, hatred, punishment, friendships, and consequences for his actions. This also shows us that a kid can not grow up without his parents or other loved ones guiding his way. This is a powerful, suspenseful, well-written novel that lets us peer into the mind of a young child and see what maturity really costs.

Film

DVD Cover

A made for television movie premiered on the Hallmark Channel on April 27, 2003. It starred Robert Sean Leonard and directed by Alfonso Arau.

Arkansas State University in Jonesboro teamed up with world-famous author John Grisham in 2003 to host an event that promoted the television movie "A Painted House" and raised funds to benefit the university's newest doctoral program.

The world premiere of the Hallmark Hall of Fame film, "A Painted House," based on the Grisham novel, was held at 8 p.m. April 14, 2003, in Riceland Hall at the Fowler Center.

"A world premiere is sort of unique for us," said ASU President Dr. Les Wyatt. Grisham made remarks prior to the screening.

Proceeds from the premiere and associated events were directed to an endowment fund for the ASU doctoral program in heritage studies in what Wyatt described as a "unique funding activity."

"It's a great academic story that will be matched with a great fictional story," Wyatt said.

"A Painted House" is a fictional coming-of-age account told through the eyes of its main character, 7-year-old Luke Chandler, a member of a poor Black Oak family of sharecroppers during the early 1950s. The extended Chandler family lives in an unpainted farm house in the cotton fields, where the Chandlers rent and farm 80 acres with the help of a truckload of hired Mexicans and a hill family from the Ozarks.

"It's a boy's journey from innocence to experience -- a story John Grisham knows well," Wyatt said.

Wyatt said word of the Jonesboro premiere traveled quickly. Prior to the formal announcement, he said he had received calls from people in Dallas, Birmingham, Ala., and the Northeastern U.S. who were interested in attending the campus event.

Six options were available for world premiere and dinner packages. Two $10,000 table package choices included a wine and cheese reception, dinner with Grisham, a signed copy of "A Painted House" and a ticket for the premiere for each person at the 10-person table. Tables were sponsored by a business or an individual and included a souvenir program with a complimentary full-page business advertisement. The second option includes the same, but with 10 friends and a half-page business ad. Other options were available.

The "event of national significance" had a limited number of tickets available, Wyatt said. Riceland Hall seats 975 individuals, and 350 of those seats were dedicated to individuals who attended the fund-raising reception. However, more than 600 tickets were placed on sale, he said.

Some of the cast members were on hand for the premiere, and artifacts from the production were on site, he added.The film was broadcast on CBS April 27.

The heritage studies program began in the fall of 2001. The doctoral program in heritage studies utilizes multiple academic perspectives within a laboratory of the Mississippi River Delta. The goal is to develop heritage professionals who identify, preserve, interpret, manage and promote regional history and culture for non-specialist public audiences. Dr. Clyde Milner is the director of the program.

Wyatt indicated that Grisham asked if the screening could be held at ASU, which is about 20 miles from the story's Black Oak setting and about 35 miles from Lepanto, where a major part of the made-for-television movie was filmed. Other parts of the film were shot in Crittenden County.

Born at St. Bernard's Medical Center in Jonesboro, Grisham spent his earliest years in Northeast Arkansas, including Black Oak.

Grisham has never forgotten his roots. Since he became famous, Grisham has visited That Bookstore in Blytheville several times and was the guest speaker at an ASU commencement ceremony in 2000.
In addition to "A Painted House," Grisham is known for legal thrillers, such as "A Time to Kill," "The Firm," and "The King of Torts."