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Analysis Of Doubt: A Parable By John Patrick Shanley

1486 Words6 Pages

The power of belief shapes events into hardline certainties and creates situations where opinions will define the term success. In John Patrick Shanley’s story Doubt: A Parable, Sister Aloysius forms doubts about Father Flynn’s actions and diligently tries to expose Father Flynn based off of negligible evidence. A Catholic school in the Bronx is stuck at the crossroads as a rigid disciplinarian nun and the liberal parish priest share different views pertaining not only to their religion. The principal, Sister Aloysius, accuses Father Flynn of having inappropriate relations with the school’s first black student. She goes on a personal crusade to expunge Father Flynn from St. Nicholas without a fragment of validation expect her moral certitude. I believe Father Flynn is innocent because of Sister Aloysius’ paranoid demeanor and he has reasonable explanations for everything he is accused of. …show more content…

First off, Father Flynn is being victimized by the fixated principal Sister Aloysius. She accuses him of inappropriately having relations with a child. Every action Father Flynn makes, Sister Aloysius seems to have a certain reprisal for his decision. Sister James, the history teacher for the 8th graders realizes that Sister Aloysius is adjudging Father Flynn’s opinions and calls her out on it:
You just don’t like him! You don’t like that he uses a ballpoint pen. You don’t like that he takes 3 lumps of sugar in his tea. You don’t like it that he likes “Frosty the Snowman”. And you’re letting that convince you of something terrible, just terrible! Well, I like “Frosty the Snowman”! And it would be nice if this school weren’t run like a prison! And I think that it’s a good thing that I love to teach history and that I might inspire my students to love it too! And if you judge that to mean I’m not fit to be a teacher, then so be it! (Shanley

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