Redemption is a theme that is prevalent in many works of literature. As it has its basis in religious belief, religion is often an accompanying theme to stories about redemption. Two stories that involve redemption are James Baldwin's Sonny's Blues and Flannery O'Connor's Good Country People, but both do so in very different ways. While Baldwin's Sonny's Blues portrays redemption in a more traditional way, O'Connor's Good Country People demonstrates redemption in a dark and somewhat tragic way. But in both stories the characters, after some pain and suffering, do gain redemption in their own ways. Baldwin's story is a take-off of the "prodigal son" story from the Bible with two brothers, one good and one a troublemaker. The narrator in Sonny's Blues is asked by his dying mother to take care of his younger brother Sonny who is a drug abuser.(Baldwin, 1995, pp.118-119) After an initial attempt, he turns his back on Sonny when his problems lead him to jail. The...
On the other hand is the character of Hulga in O'Connor's Good Country People, who may have only one leg, but has a modern education and intelligence. Her studies have caused her to give up her belief in God in favor of a more rational, intelligent approach to life. However, her faith in her own intelligence is put to the test when a fake religious man seduces her and steals her wooden leg. Hulga is in need of redemption from her lack of faith in God and her absolute faith in herself and her intelligence.The door itself is a barrier, and she does not realize what is behind that door until she is inside and it is too late. This kind of innocence is repeated in other Griffith films, and some of his biographers have speculated that the sort of character represented mirrors Griffith's view of his older sister, who raised the family after the mother's and father's deaths and who herself never married
Silas Marner: Suffering, Love, and Redemption One of the most prevalent themes in human existence is the terrible toll that suffering can wreak on the manner of one's existence. Indeed, a good, happy, and honest person can quickly, though the course of adverse life events, become a shallow, negative, lurking shell of what he or she once was. Further, although society generally places little weight on the cause of one's "fall" into
Unfinished Life America is a diverse country with a diverse past, and therefore it myths are as diverse as the nation. One of the most prevalent types of myths in American history has been the western, and in a western setting, the most complicated personal, emotional, and social issues can be explored. One example of such a case is Lasse Hallstrom's An Unfinished Life, which looks at a number of different
Discipleship Counseling, Dr. Neil T. Anderson seeks to integrate Christianity with counseling, and demonstrate to the reader how a Christian focus can make someone a more effective counselor. He disagrees with the approach taken by secular psychology and suggests that only Christian counseling can help people overcome the fact that they are born spiritually dead and can only achieve spiritual life through Christ. Anderson suggests that secular psychology can
" The use of "coffins in black" as symbolism for death aptly justifies the use of the word "weep" to capture the abusive nature of the sweepers' work, not to mention the unfair conditions in work these young workers were forced to agree with. Lacking any choices or rights, the young, alienated sweepers became victims of moral degeneration, a condition only found in Blake's modern society. Abuse of the youth's innocence
The novel vividly illustrates this event, stated as follows: The scorching blade slashed at my eyelashes and stabbed at my stinging eyes. That's when everything began to reel. The sea carried up a thick, fiery breath. It seemed to me as if the sky split open from one end to the other to rain down fire. My whole being tensed and I squeezed my hand around the revolver. The trigger
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