Symbolism In War Room

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War Room The film War Room begins as an older lady, Miss Clara, is visiting her late husband 's grave. Miss Clara is a devout Christian women, who even has an entire room dedicated to prayer. She calls this room her war room. Miss Clara believes that people need to learn how to fight what is actually worth fighting, which she believes is Satan and sin in general. She puts her house up for sell, eventually working her way into her realtors personal life, believing God is sending her on a wonderful mission. She takes Elizabeth Jordan under her wing to help guide Elizabeth back to God, as well as fix her broken family. Elizabeth’s husband, Tony, is a wealthy, as well as self-centered, salesman. All he does each time he returns home is argue …show more content…

Symbolic interactionists focus more on the symbols, such as the cross in Christianity, to define the meanings that believers give their personal experiences in religion. The cross to the characters in the movie is regarded as holy and represents to them that Jesus, God’s only son, was sent to die on a cross so that believers in Christ shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Meaning that if their faith in him is strong, their spirit will forever be alive in heaven. Beliefs are also apart of a symbolic interactionists viewpoint on religion. An example of their viewpoint in the film War Room is when Miss Clara is saying what God is and what a good Christian is, using her example of lukewarm coffee being distasteful to God too. This concept puts meaning behind Miss Clara and Elizabeth’s faith to be on fire for their Lord, as described by symbolic interactionists. Ritual is another term that comes back up in a symbolic interactionists viewpoint as well. War room in and of itself is about a ritual. Elizabeth was fighting herself and her husband, tearing herself and their marriage apart, because she wasn’t fighting the root of the problem: sin. So, she follows Miss Clara’s ritual of going to war against the sinful nature in her life and home, to join forces with God, no longer fighting him. This gives meaning to Elizabeth 's experience in her own personal war room, correlating with the symbolic interactionists viewpoint on religious