The Secret Joad Analysis

The Secret Chord, derived from Biblical tales, has as a central character the legendary warrior David. David is the father of Solomon, or Shlomo. The story is presented from the point of view of Natan, who is a prophet and adviser. Over time, he becomes close to David. When Natan is ten years old, David begs Natan’s father for help. The father ignores this plea and is killed by a group of David’s men. Natan then has a vision of an outlaw becoming a future king. David has the same vision thus forming a bond between Natan and David that will last for their lifetimes. Why he would go on to serve his father’s killer is unclear to Natan, but he recognizes that it is part of his destiny. Loyalty and betrayal thus emerge as themes in the story.
David is a warrior, but one with shortcomings and a high opinion of himself. In his vision of the future, only his and Natan’s fates matter. Natan promises that David will have an empire that will withstand the test of time. He remains loyal to David whose main desire is the acquisition of power. When speaking to Natan about David, David’s mother and brother describe him as an outsider who needs to

The author of historical novels including Caleb’s Crossing and the Pulitzer Prize-winning March, she seems able to transport herself back to earlier periods, to time travel. Sometimes, reading her work, she draws you so thoroughly into another era that you swear she’s actually lived in it. With sensory acuity and a deep and complex understanding of emotional states, she conjures up the way we lived then. Her new novel, The Secret Chord, further arouses suspicion of such magical powers. The book gets its title from a contemporary song, Leonard Cohen’s majestic ‘Hallelujah,’ but it takes place in King David’s Second Iron Age, all of which Brooks brings to life with her customary mix of telling detail and broad