The River Warren and the Importance of Rivers In Our Lives :: River Warren Essays

The River Warren and the Importance of Rivers In Our Lives It was tradition. Every Sunday after church my dad, brother, and I would drive through the fields checking crops and whatever else made their homes in my father's fields. Then we'd drive down to the river to check how high or low it was, or to see how much worse the river was cutting into the land. The river flowed right at the end of the road, so my dad would always pretend he was going to drive straight into it. We live about one in a half miles from the Missouri River. We have our own private road that winds down to a small shoot that connects to it. Because of our closeness to the Missouri, I have grown to love and admire it. It is an enormous and amazing machine to me. I find peace and love for it. It's funny how much alike Jeff, Luke, (the two main characters in Kent Meyer's The River Warren) and I are towards our rivers. Their River Warren is my Big Missouri. Luke goes to the river to clear his head, to think about things, and to find himself. He also uses it as a means of control over his father. Two-Speed does not see the river as Luke does. Luke also finds understanding when he's on the river. He knows his father does not feel the same about the river, and that's why he takes him there. His father is afraid of the river, and Luke sees how afraid he really is. Before getting into the boat, Two-Speed "lifted his head like fire in the air. He realized he was alone-with someone who couldn't be conned. The river worked on him. It flowed into the moment. He knew this was my place. I saw that he knew"(223). The reason Luke brought his father out was "so that he could try to make sense of things, to make him stay put for awhile, to get enough control to where he had to talk to me, and to where he had to answer questions"(232). Two-Speed can't find himself. He's been lost all his life, made excuses for his drinking, and pretended he was someone else all his life.