52 pages • 1 hour read
The Masterpiece
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Themes
The Journey From Brokenness to Healing
Content Warning: The source text and this guide include references to addiction, abuse, domestic violence, death by suicide, and the neglect and exploitation of children.
Among the most important themes of The Masterpiece is the journey from brokenness to healing. While it is a romance novel, it is also—importantly—a novel about the journeys of personal transformation that both of its main characters take. This element of the story is so pronounced that even the story arc of Roman and Grace’s romance occasionally takes a backseat to it. Especially in the final quarter of the novel, a prolonged interruption in their relationship makes room for each character to explore aspects of personal healing—Roman in his pursuit of faith, and Grace in processing her childhood traumas with Aunt Elizabeth.
Roman and Grace both have backstories full of personal trauma, and the novel is structured to highlight those stories with its frequent flashback chapters. Roman suffered several hardships from his childhood through his teenage years, including an unstable living situation as a young boy, the death of his mother when he was seven years old, and a long cycle through foster homes while also being involved in the dangerous gang world of the San Francisco streets. Despite all of Roman’s current outward success, he still bears the scars of his earlier traumas, which come out in his feelings of discontent, his split identities of Roman, Bobby Ray, and “the Bird,” and his continued dabbling in illegal forms of artistic expression.
Grace’s brokenness stems from living with an angry and abusive father in her early years, leading to the murder-suicide of her parents and her placement with Aunt Elizabeth, where she grows up in an emotionally restrictive environment. Grace experiences further heartbreak in her late teens and early twenties as her marriage to her high school sweetheart Patrick falls apart when she discovers his infidelity and a one-night stand with a stranger leaves her struggling to stay afloat as a single mother.
Both protagonists walk a journey toward healing throughout the novel. For Roman, this healing comes largely through his exposure to the Christian faith, which enables him to perceive the events of his childhood through fresh eyes. He is able to forgive his mother, and he also begins to notice the many ways that God was present in his early life, protecting him from worse fates at critical junctures. For Grace, the journey toward healing is partly achieved through her romance with Roman, finding a stable, loving relationship with a man who, unlike her ex-husband, is not simply taking advantage of her. However, Grace also finds healing from other sources, such as her reconciliation with her Aunt Elizabeth, and together, they process the emotional baggage of their family history. In the novel’s Epilogue, Grace says, “It’s what God has done in my life and yours, and Aunt Elizabeth’s and so many others we know” (484). She credits God and her Christian faith with helping her and Roman to heal and move on from their past traumas.
The Role of Faith in Personal Growth
The role of faith in personal growth is a central theme of The Masterpiece. Faith is a core element of Grace’s character from the beginning of the novel, and it becomes a major aspect of Roman’s character by the end as well. As a Christian romance novel, The Masterpiece highlights faith in a way that is atypical of other novels of personal transformation. In this novel, faith is not merely a factor in one’s personal transformation but is itself the substance and goal of that very transformation. Roman’s move from a nonbeliever to having faith in God is just as important in the plot of The Masterpiece as is the story of his romance with Grace. This is substantiated in the novel’s closing remarks, voiced by Grace, which draw attention not to the romantic relationship between herself and Roman, but to God’s work in their lives: “We’re all God’s masterpiece, created anew in Christ” (484).
Depending on where a particular character is in their spiritual life, faith can operate in several different ways to influence their arc of personal growth. For Roman, who begins the story without believing in God, faith is the entire goal of his personal growth. The evangelical Christianity reflected in Francine Rivers’s work puts primary emphasis on salvation—that is, on the question of whether a person has received redemption from their sins by faith or not. Roman’s journey into faith is thus the story of his salvation, and the mere fact of him becoming a Christian commands ultimate importance in his character arc. Beyond that central issue, however, faith also assists in many other factors in his story: moving him toward emotional healing from his childhood traumas, enabling him to forgive his mother, and teaching him wisdom and maturity for how to deal with relationships like his romance with Grace.
Since Grace is already a Christian at the beginning of the novel, the issue of salvation does not carry the same overwhelming importance in her character development as it does with Roman’s, simply because she already has it. In her case, faith still holds a central role, but largely in the form of offering guidance and stability. Grace leans on her faith whenever confronted with difficult decisions. This is shown in her internal prayer dialogue with God, in her habits of reading the Bible, and in seeking counsel from her Christian friends. Faith also offers stability in Grace’s life. It gives her an inner steadiness that allows her to interact with all the ups and downs of her relationship with Roman with a measured calmness, never falling victim to either rage or despair, even when they are faced with challenges.
The Search for Genuine Identity and Purpose
In both Roman’s and Grace’s lives, the novel traces a theme of searching for genuine identity and purpose, but it is especially highlighted in Roman’s story. Both characters enter the novel’s narrative with a sense that they are searching for something. In Roman’s case, he has all the hallmarks of outward success and financial stability, but he searches for contentment and inner healing. While Grace has a sense of inner stability afforded to her by her faith, she seeks some stability in her outward life—dealing with questions of jobs, relationships, financial stability, and family life. Both characters are searching for contrasting things: Roman searches for inner fulfillment to his deep-rooted questions of identity, while Grace searches for an external purpose.
Roman’s search is one for inner healing, for contentment, and for finding the purpose of his life. He often gives voice to the sentiment that he is searching for “more,” though he is not able to articulate the sentiment beyond that general sense of the matter. When Grace asks him what he is looking for, he says, “I don’t know. I want more, I guess. […] More life” (218). One of the crucial issues in this inner search is the quest for identity. Roman lives in three different worlds and with three different identities: In the professional art world, he is the artist Roman Velasco; in his memories and among acquaintances from his childhood and youth, he is Bobby Ray Dean; and in his hidden life as an illegal street artist, he is “the Bird.” These separate identities are manifestations of the deep brokenness Roman feels inside of him, since he is unable to reconcile his previous trauma with his current life. He thinks that he doesn’t “know who he was anymore. Somehow, Bobby Ray Dean had gotten lost between the Bird and Roman Velasco” (22). His behavior shows that he is unconvinced that either of his public identities, as Roman Velasco and Bobby Ray Dean, really capture the essence of who he is.
Roman ultimately finds a resolution to this search for identity from two sources: his newfound faith and his relationship with Grace. His faith gradually allows him to perceive himself as loved by God and to see his tortured backstory as one in which God’s mercy was nonetheless present at every turn. His relationship with Grace brings him into contact with someone who, for the first time, can draw all of his disparate identities together, knowing and understanding each of them. Grace first knows him as Roman Velasco but gradually comes to hear the stories of his life as Bobby Ray Dean—both from Roman and his Masterson Ranch friends—and she also figures out his undercover identity as “the Bird.” She is the only one who can regularly spot the hidden things he puts in his paintings—the clues he leaves as signs of his true feelings and of the issues closest to his heart. By understanding all these aspects of his life in a way that no one else can, Grace can help him consolidate all the aspects of his identity.
As for Grace, she is in search of a purpose in life—an external course that will set her on a path of stability. She has had little of that in her life—moving from the difficult circumstances of her younger years straight into an unhealthy relationship with Patrick, and then into the financial and familial instability of being a single mother with no reliable means of providing for her son. Just as Grace proves to be part of the solution for Roman’s inner quest, Roman eventually proves to be the solution for Grace’s search as well, offering her a stable job, and finally, the stability of a healthy family life.
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