The Promise, a series of short stories combines and contrasts the themes of each other to create an effective and engaging piece of writing. Birch has based both China and the Refuge of Sinners around religious sins and hopes, acting as a last resort for each of the protagonists; Nick and cal. The protagonist of the short story Refuge of Sinners contrasts its grief with the stuck and misguided protagonist of the short story China. China, one of the short stories of The Promise is set in an outer suburb of Melbourne in the country, which takes us on a journey over a period of time centred around the Protagonist; Cal who faces a struggle due to his actions. China, Cal love runs away when he is locked up for getting into fights and beating on …show more content…
However, this time the Protagonist Nick is overwhelmed with by the loss and death of his son Josh. Nick struggles to function in his day to day life as he has no hope and finds it difficult to remain part of his existing family. The loss and struggle of losing his son and not having the ability to function properly becomes not only a struggle with himself but his family. He becomes disjointed and disconnected to his family to the point of not wanting to eat dinner with his children. However, once he receives a letter from his boss he eventually goes into the city where he finds refuge in a church. Nick lights a candle for his deceased son and look into the stain glass windows that have the words ‘Refuge of Sinner written on them’. This is where Nick finds faith which is demonstrated in the short story through religious references such as ‘I looked up at the window, and read the inscription bordering it – Refuge of Sinners’. Overall, this short story teaches us many lessons about grief, loss, faith and the unavoidable things in life. These four main lessons combine to show us how we can find hope even when we are really stuck by being guided by faith in our times of struggle; there is always a light at the end of the