The Great Gatsby and The Great Indulgence

I have been struggling with forgiveness lately.  The struggle isn’t so much to doing it, though actually forgiving someone is a natural growth from my struggle.  Nor is my struggle knowing forgiveness’ value, though demonstrating its value is nearly impossible with my struggle.  The struggle isn’t even to want to forgive, though I know wanting to do something is not enough. 

My struggle is knowing what forgiveness is.

What does it mean to forgive someone?  I have resolved, at least today, that forgiveness is to not allow an evil event or an evil action in a person’s life (or even a series of events and actions) to allow me to judge the value of that person as a creature of God.  I’m going to use this resolution as a frame to consider The Great Gatsby. 

Nick Carraway does not forgive Jay Gatsby.  

This essay is best read after reading the novel and will reveal significant plot points.

Finding Hope in David Adams Richards' Hope in the Desperate Hour

Throughout reading Hope in the Desperate Hour by David Adams Richards I kept wondering.  Richards does a very good job illustrating desperation.  Several people are in deep trouble because of a bad business deal.  Even worse, many of those who are in trouble are culpable.  It is not simply that a good plan failed.  This was a corrupt deal that had its source in intentional ideas from many of the people now desperate.  I wondered where the hope was.  The book begins desperate and ends desperate.  Hope is always a few days away in the most literal of senses.  The activity – save for frequent flashbacks – takes place on the Thursday before Good Friday. 

 

This essay is best read after reading the novel and will reveal significant plot points.

Best Damn Sheep Dog I Ever Seen: Steinbeck and the Image of God

While reading Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the phrase “image of God” was constantly in my mind.  I have long been curious about what it means that women and men are created with this image.  It is this curiosity that pushed me to seminary to learn about poverty reduction rather than attending a more traditional social service graduate studies program.  My foundation of this belief is the first creation account in Genesis, which plainly states that people were created in God’s image.  People are the only piece of creation that receive this honour.  Despite not holding to creation as a six-day event, I contend the designation is true. 

This essay is best read after reading the novel and will reveal significant plot points.

C. S. Lewis and Moral Leadership: Opposing Injustice will not always End Injustice

The Old Narnians are an oppressed people.  There is no way to read Prince Caspian without seeing them as victims of extraordinary injustice.  The injustice runs so deep that the New Narnians, who are ancestors of the invading Telmarine people, do not believe that Old Narnia is anything more than legend.  Old Narnia, for all practical purposes, does not and never existed.  This means that the Old Narnians have a justifiable anger and we cannot argue against their desire for the end of their oppression.  There is still a choice to be made, however.  The book Prince Caspian and the character it is named for demonstrate that there is a right way to confront to injustice.

This essay is best read after reading the novel and will reveal significant plot points.

C. S. Lewis and Embracing Goodness: A Key Action for Fairness

When the queens and kings of Narnia receive their crowns, they are also given a title to describe their character.  The titles for the others – King Peter the Magnificent, Queen Lucy the Valiant, Queen Susan the Gentle – seem apt when you consider the rest of the story of The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe.  King Edmund, however, receives a name that does not always fit.  He is King Edmund the Just.  This is an odd title.  The story begins with him belittling his younger sister Lucy, it progresses to him aligning himself with the Witch, and moves toward him betraying his brother and sisters.  These are hardly the actions of a person we would describe as just.  His title implies a change, which is a change we see in The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe.  A key lesson from Edmund’s story is that repentance not only turns away from the wrong but also turns into the right.  

This essay is best read after reading the novel and will reveal significant plot points.

Fahrenheit 451, Misery, & Why I Read

On lists of the best dystopian literature, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is usually near the top.  The story is well known.  Firemen no longer extinguish fires, but instead start them.  The fuel for the fires is books.  The books are illegal and firemen are public servants, rescuing society from danger.  When I came back to reread this book about books I realized why it is I bother reading at all.  Fahrenheit 451 shows me the importance of risking misery.  How about that for an uplifting start to an essay? 

This essay is best read after reading the novel and will reveal significant plot points.

Charles Dickens and Confession: A Path to Justice

Ebenezer Scrooge is a significant symbol in Christmas celebrations.  When we think about the stingy old humbug, we know exactly what Christmas isn’t.  That is sad.  It completely ignores Scrooge’s story.   Our symbol forgets that Charles Dickens wrote more than a couple of pages about the old man.  We remember Scrooge in chapter one, but we forget Scrooge’s response to his visitors and thereby we forget something key.  Scrooge is not the villain of A Christmas Carol.  Instead, Scrooge is the confessed – and just as importantly reformed – villain of A Christmas Carol.  Scrooge demonstrates that injustice requires a villain and that one way for justice to happen is for the villain to stop being the villain.

This essay is best read after reading the novel and will reveal significant plot points.

Charles Dickens and Forgiveness: Is There a Collision With Social Justice?

I expect that “Please sir, I want some more,” is the best known bit Oliver Twist, but I don’t think it is the most significant.  Young Oliver’s request is one event in a horrific life that leads him to be injured and at Mrs. Maylie’s door.  Going to Mrs. Maylie’s door turns Oliver’s life from one of torment to one of peace.  Forgiveness leads to the change. 

This essay is best read after reading the novel and will reveal significant plot points.

Charles Dickens and Greatness: Smug + Stupid = Foolish

There is a fun bit in Chapter 39 of The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens.  Samuel Pickwick and some of his friends are doing some spying.  They themselves are spied, by a great scientist and his servant.  When the scientist sees Pickwick and company’s torches, he thinks that the lights are coming from far off in space and that he has just discovered some new comets or other celestial bodies moving into orbit.  He calls in his servant, who speculates that what they are seeing is the light of torches carried by thieves.  The scientist calls his servant a fool and sends him on his way.  He dozes off, dreaming about his future greatness.  Alas, Dickens only provides us with one fool in this passage – the scientist.

This essay is best read after reading the novel and will reveal significant plot points.