Chapter 7 …Or the Bible

1. Chapter 7 …Or the Bible James Rhodes 3rd 9-21-11

2. The Role of Religion in Literature • Authors use religion as a theme, that is commonly accepted, to relate to subjects such as: • Death • Loss of Innocence • Biblical Titles • Real Life Situations • Irony • “The Devil, as the old saying goes, can quote Scripture. So can writers”(Foster 48).

3. DEATH When dealing with the issue of death, authors often use well known religious stories to add depth into their own work. • “…four white men ride up to the house in Ohio where the escaped slave Sethe has been living with her small children” (Morrison 48). • This alludes to the story of the four horsemen that ride through as the last sign before the apocalypse.

4. LOSS OF INNOCENCE Authors create stories using the loss of innocence, or Adam and Eve, analogy to show an individual’s fall from grace. In one story, a young boy’s loss of innocence, or fall from grace, comes from the humiliation of seeing adults flirting in a way he has never witnessed. • “… a young woman and two young men are flirting in ways that are not very appealing to our young swain, and she can scarcely be bothered to ask what he wants. Daunted, he says he wants nothing, then turns away, his eyes blinded by tears of frustration and humiliation”(Foster 50).

5. Biblical Titles Religious themes or names are often used by authors to give the tone for a work literature. • Some examples are: • Tongues of Flame - Tim Parks • Absalom, Absalom! – William Faulkner • “You might regard that outlook with a certain irony and borrow a phrase from it to express that irony”(Foster 51).

6. Situations • The Bible can be used to create situations for characters in literature. • This is best explained by the quote, "More over, our early literature in English is frequently about, and nearly always informed by, religion. Those questing knights in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Faerie Queen are searching on behalf of their religion whether they know it or not”(Foster 51).

7. Irony • Sometimes religion can be used to create disruption or disparity through irony. • “In modern literature, many Christ figures are somewhat less than Christ like, a disparity that does not inevitably go down well with religious conservatives”(Foster 53).

8. Great Expectations • Great Expectations is closely related to the theme of irony in the case of Estella.Estella’s name means star, and Estella is a character who lacks a heart and is very cruel towards Pip. • “…and gave me the bread and meat without looking at me, as insolently as is I were a dog in disgrace”(Dickens 64).

9. Everyday Life • Religion is connected to just about everything around us. For example, pop culture has a lot of themes that the Bible does as well. A few themes are of peace, love, anger, unity, and war. The Bible can also help us with issues such as trying to get through hard times. • “You might turn to Ecclesiastes for a passage that reminds us that every night is followed by a new day, that life is a endless cycle of life, death, and renewal in which one generation succeeds another until the end of time”(Foster 50).

10. Works Cited • Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. Unabriged. Clayton: Prestwick House, 2005. Print. • Foster, Thomas. How to Read Literature like a Professor. New York: Harper-Collins Publishers, Inc.,2003.Print.