Loss Of Faith In Bright And Morning Star

Faith drives the daily thoughts and actions of many people’s lives, yet when faced with adversity, it causes some to lose sight of their faith. Many times, people feel lost or abandoned by their faith, yet others instead hold even tighter to their beliefs in the hope of a better outcome ahead. The short story “Bright and Morning Star,” follows an African-American family living in the rural south in the 1920s. Sue sets the tone of the story, being the matriarch of the family with two grown kids, Sug and Johnny-Boy. As the characters face prejudice and racism, they turn towards or against their faith. This idea becomes most apparent when looking at Sug, who decides to take immediate action out of desperation, Johnny-Boy, who finds an outlet in

Consideration of this reaffirms that Sue feels a strong sense of trust in her faith, and her belief that she will ultimately be rewarded in the afterlife for all of the suffering she endures. Throughout the story, she frequently refers to the image of Jesus suffering on his cross, which allows her to reconcile with her pain. Further analysis of the title of the short story, “Bright and Morning Star,” taken from the title of a biblical hymn, emphasizes trusting Jesus to comfort and fix the ails of life. Multiple times within the short story, Sue sings the words to the hymn as a symbol of returning to her faith in adversity. She sings, “He's the Lily of the Valley, the Bright n Mawnin Star; He's the Fairest of Ten Thousand mah soul.” (Wright 28). Sue repeats this section of the popular biblical hymn first when Sug fails to come back home after his arrest, then when Johnny-Boy rounds up members of the Communist Party and warns them of the sheriff’s questioning, and lastly at the end of the story when she faces her death. The phrase “Lily of the Valley” in a biblical sense, symbolizes a “return to

Sue’s last words are, “Yuh didn't git whut yuh wanted! N yuh ain't gonna nevah git it! Yuh didn't kill me; Ah come here by mahsef.” which shows that even up to her death, Sue holds a sense of both Christian and Communist ideals (Wright 39). Before her death, Sue recognized the importance of keeping the Communist Party information a secret, yet in her last moments she put her faith back into Christianity by killing both herself and her son because she still believed they could live a better life in heaven. Throughout the short story “Bright and Morning Star,” the characters struggle between having faith in Christianity, or taking direct action with the Communist Party. The characters face immense prejudice and racism from their community, which precipitates Sug’s decision to take desperate action, ultimately landing himself in jail. While his younger brother Johnny-Boy takes a more level-headed approach, he too risks his life by joining the Communist Party to fight for equality. This leaves Sue in conflict between staying true to her faith in Christianity, in that everything would work out in the afterlife, or joining her sons in the fight for