The Colonial Period in American Literature centered around religion, its works deeply rooted in religious beliefs that were highly valued at the time. Most writers of this period fled to America from their overseas homelands in order to evade religious persecution. With their newfound freedom, they were able to write openly about theological ideas, themes, and subjects. From this came a literary movement that was able to influence and persuade people perceive the world differently using religion.
Chillingworth is a sinner that possibly committed a greater sin than that of adultery, but is overall gray in his morality. He redeems himself when his remaining wealth is given to Pearl, and his wrongdoing is realized. This novel will be analyzed using the Mythological, or Archetypal literary criticism type. Hawthorne clearly wrote the novel with some archetypes in mind, whether they be biblical or from another source. These archetypes and the analysis of them help illuminate Chillingworth in a way the novel fails to do on its own.
Jonathan Edwards’s sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and Anne Bradstreet’s “Upon the Burning of Our House” seem at first glance quite similar to one another regarding context, however, after taking a closer look, it becomes apparent that there are some substantial differences. These differences cannot be understood without the knowledge of cultural context concerning the Puritan belief system and their lifestyle. “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was written with the sole purpose of scaring and intimidating the people that purtinans believed to be sinners. Edwards’s work contributed to a movement called “The Great Awakening”. It’s objective was to make the so-called ‘sinners’ aware of their wrongdoings and compel them to repent.
“The Devil and Tom Walker” shows religion in the way that reflects hypocrisy. Tom Walker was a religious more or less and he had sold his soul to the devil. When he had sold his soul to the devil, he was plentiful and became rich, but as time began to creep on Tom began to wonder what would become of him after he died. Tom became a notorious churchgoer, brought his Bible wherever he went and did whatever he could to try and change his fate. “He had left his little Bible at the bottom of his coat pocket, and his big Bible on the desk buried under the mortgage he was about to foreclose: never was a sinner taken more unawares” (Irving, 1824, p. 9).
Cormac McCarthy’s novel ,Child of God, is the tale of a violent, dispossessed man living on the outskirts of society. Set in 1960s rural Tennessee, the novel focuses on the life of Lester Ballard, a murdering necrophiliac who seemingly only follows his own rules. Ballard is represented as a despicable, unhuman character, who apparently is, “A child of God much like yourself perhaps” (4). While Ballard repeatedly commits evil acts, one cannot help but find a soft spot for this man who was unloved as child and seems to be a product of his cruel environment. On the surface, Ballard’s actions make him seem alien to “us” (society) but to delve deeper, one discovers a true understanding of Lester Ballard.
Literary Analysis ENG2106 Student name: Li Michaela Bernice Student ID: 4002551 Word count: Grace and sins Flannery O’Connor was a Southern author from America who frequently wrote in a Southern Gothic style and depended vigorously on local settings and bizarre characters. Her works likewise mirrored her Roman Catholic faith and regularly examined questions of morality and ethics. She created violence in the end of both “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Everything that Rises Must Converge” to put the stories to the end. She asserted that she has found that violence is strangely capable of returning her characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace, and also violence is the extreme situation that best reveals who
One single question that humans will wonder until they die, “Is God real”. This question seems to be answered for Mackenzie (Mack) Phillips in The Shack by William P. Young, a good friend of Mack’s. In this book Mack mysteriously receives a letter from someone he thinks is his father, who he doesn’t have a great relationship with, to a shack, where the last traces of Mack’s murdered daughter were found. Mack then has the most life changing experience ever and has his whole outlook on life flipped upside down :). In this journal I will be questioning, evaluating, and connecting.
“Her characters, who sometimes accept and other times reject salvation, often have a warped self-image, especially of their moral status and of the morality of their actions” (Hobby). This addresses how some of the important lines in the story describe to the reader about the extreme exaggeration and the psychological realism of the church, which O’Connor wanted to express within her story. The extreme use of exaggeration and how the use of the characters bring a sense of an uncanny feeling of good and evil within each character, portrays how deep the meaning is seen in this short story. “the story is filled with dark, grotesque humor created largely by the story 's many ironies” (Hobby). The author of this source highly emphasizes that O’Connor creates this dark humor for her characters to build on her meaning in the story and uses irony to create the distortion within her
In the two short stories, “Young Goodman Brown,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “The Prodigal Son,” by St. Luke there is a parallel struggle of faith. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “Young Goodman Brown” is a very dark tale of mystery and deceit that surrounds a young man’s test of true faith in his battle against the evil one. In the parable of “The Prodigal Son,” Christ gives the reader a picture of God’s unfailing love toward His children and His ever constant surrounding presence. Faith is tested in each of these stories and the choice becomes to either succumb to this evil world, turn to God, or perhaps something else altogether. Although each story differs in climactic endings, both protagonists in each story reflect the struggle of one’s very soul by their reluctance to fully submit to God.
Instead, Sheppard is religiously misguided, Norton does not practice the ideals of Christianity as he lies and convinces Rufus to steal, and Rufus is unsure about the existence of heaven and hell. Whereas the story tells about the challenges of the modern society in approaching touchy issues such as religion and parenting, it fails to captivate. From the start, the title of the narrative is totally
The Graveyard Book Theme The theme of the text, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is that fate and free will are apart of life and we need to embrace them. Neil Gaiman weaves this throughout his novel by showing how Bod is destined to fight the Jacks. He somehow gets lead to the graveyard where he meets people like Mr. and Mrs. Owens that take care of him. Thousands of years ago someone predicted Bod would defeat the Jacks.
The victimization of fears and securities is a main weapon in the belt of those who wish to lead and conquer. This is proved when in “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Edwards uses dark imagery and tone, telling the congregation, “O, Sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in... You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it” (156).
Redemption is the act of being saved from acts of evil and sin. The debate of whether human nature is redeemable or not has been one to plaque religious scholars. In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, this question continues in the interactions between the characters; the most notable being the Grandmother of a rather horrible family and the Misfit, a murderer. While on a road trip, these two characters’ paths collide and lead to a rather unfortunate end where the Grandmother and her family are killed. While many readers believe the ending creates and overall negative tone of the story, some believe that there is a hope for redemption; the story’s author O’Connor who is a devoted Catholic included.
A certain darkness encompasses each of these stories and helps represent the recurring themes of evil and sin throughout them. In conclusion, “The Minister’s Black Veil” and “Young Goodman Brown” are both strongly based in religion, contain symbolism, and share a dark mood. These elements enrich the stories by conveying the important points included in each one. Hawthorne synthesizes these elements in much of his literature, which explains how these stories are beautifully woven together like a well-crafted
McDowell begins the book with an anecdote of his life; a familiar story of the sceptical university Agnostic, ready to fire back a retort at the slightest mention of God, Christianity, and anything (or anyone) within. He recounted the all too common feeling of a meaningless life, the seemingly innate itch of human existence, and how it brought him to various places in his life—until he stumbled upon a particular group of people and was changed forever. This introduction, though short, is crucial to understand, for it sets the stage for the remainder of the book. It tells not only the story of a former non-believer, but the story of everyone—it presents us the life of Jesus Christ, not as a gentle sermon or a feel-good retelling, but as an assertive, rational reply to the accusation: ‘Christianity is a myth, and so is your God.’
