Run

This theme is an important proposition that Ann Patchett develops over the course of Run, suggesting to readers vast differences in the effects of legacies and stories in the life of a family. Through plot development and Kenya’s characterization, Patchett shows how the Doyle family’s legacy is changed—even strengthened—when certain family stories fade.

In Chapter 1, Bernadette shares her family story about the Virgin Mary with Doyle. His remark about the statue’s resemblance to Bernadette makes her want to look at the statue differently, to change all that she knows is associated with the heirloom via story: “Bernadette cocked her head and tried to divorce herself from her history. She tried to see it as something new. ‘It’s art,’ she said. ‘It’s me. Pretend she’s naked’” (4). Thinly veiled by her joke, Bernadette hints to Doyle about the negative motivations and emotions associated with the heirloom’s origin story. However, Bernadette’s hints only pique Doyle’s interest in hearing the story, which she attempts to forestall: “My mother never told you this story? […] She’s afraid of boring you. […] It’s a sad story” (4). Simultaneously, Patchett uses Bernadette’s stalling to pique the reader’s interest. Though Bernadette relays the tale to Doyle, she hesitates again after revealing Billy Lovell’s lie about the statue’s origins: “‘Things go downhill from here,’ Bernadette said. ‘There’s no redemption’” (10). Not only does her family keep the stolen statue, they pass it down through four generations alongside its story; this not only perpetuates negative family behaviors associated with the statue, it preserves the difficult emotions connected to the statue’s entrance into her family.

Bernadette’s feelings about the story’s associations return to the narrative when she ashamedly thinks about her habit of praying to the statue: “[it] never failed to make her feel selfish and childish” (13). “Selfish” and “childish” are adjectives that also describe the motivations and emotions of Billy and Doreen Lovell in the context of her family’s story; they also describe her family members’ historical behavior toward the statue, jealously coveting it from their sisters. Bernadette’s sister, Serena, tries to justify taking the statue from Doyle, who does not have a daughter: “‘[S]ince we have daughters,’ Serena said, she was the older of the two, ‘and the statue always passes on to a daughter—’” (2). Although Patchett’s narrator does not directly explain Bernadette’s desire to distance herself from her family’s story, context clues indicate that, for the sake of her husband and children, she seeks to separate her family’s legacy (the statue) from the stories and historical emotions attached to them.

Patchett enacts this separation following Bernadette’s death, fading the statue’s association with Billy and Doreen. She does this to show that the family’s legacy need not remain permanently attached to the Sullivan family’s story; the legacy, an object, is thus freed to hold new emotional associations, a point that drives the plot and leaves the novel with a sense of hope (though ambiguous). Following Bernadette’s death, neither Doyle nor the narrator repeat her family’s story about the statue. This suggests that the Virgin Mary statue takes on new meanings after this event: Without the story’s reiteration, the statue has renewed emotional associations. Readers see this in the comfort found by Tip and Teddy during childhood as they pray for their mother to the statue every night. The statue’s likeness to Bernadette is also comforting to the boys and Doyle alike, standing atop the boys’ dresser long after they move out. Kenya finds similar comfort in its presence after Tennessee’s accident. Finally, “divorced” from Bernadette’s family history, the statue’s beauty palliates those new to seeing it, rather than exciting envy: “[Kenya] saw that lovely statue with her arms open wide and saw how the light painted the side of the woman’s face and made the halo shining on the back of her head seem almost like a living thing” (158). The “arms wide open” reflect a new family legacy of welcome.

Kenya eventually receives the statue from Doyle for her 12th birthday. Through the statue’s new context and Kenya’s characterization, Patchett shows the once ominous Doyle family legacy take on new, hopeful dimensions.