History

The Ironic Jesus of Our World

An essay response to The Power and the Glory


Jesus Christ was a saint--he committed no sins in his lifetime, had no faults in his lifetime, and had nothing to remorse in his lifetime. The whiskey priest was the antithesis of this, and this showed the ironic parallelism to the Passion. Throughout the novel, The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene uses Jesus Christ and the Passion to parallel the novel with the whiskey priest; demonstrating irony, the priest is a drunken, heinous man--exactly opposite of Jesus.

A conspicuous parallelism to the Passion from The Power and the Glory is Judas to the Mestizo. Graham Greene makes this comparison clear. From the first time the priest met the Mestizo, he knew he was in the presence of Judas. Judas was a disciple of Jesus--one who betrayed Jesus at just the right moment--just like the Mestizo was a follower of the priest. "'I wouldn't betray you. I'm a Christian.'" (91) The Mestizo tagged along with the whiskey priest throughout his journeys; the priest believed that the Mestizo would turn him into the government right away, but just as Judas did, the Mestizo waited for the perfect moment to convict the priest.

As Jesus sacrificed himself for everyone that would set foot on our earth, the priest sacrificed himself for the Lehr's. The Lehr's were Lutherans, while the priest was Catholic, yet they decided to house the priest for a few days and an event similar to the Last Supper took place. When the whiskey priest was about to leave for Las Casas, Mrs. Lehr-- who followed her convictions for one of the first times in her life--offered sandwiches and coffee for the trip. This small gesture helped the priest. It showed the difference that the Priest made in these people's lives, and also symbolized how Jesus changed the lives of many of his followers.

Many people in our world prove themselves to be cowards through actions. When the priest arrives to help an American man, the Mestizo, just as the priest thought, brought the police. "Even a coward has a sense of duty." (190) The Mestizo himself knows that he's a coward, but he does what he feels is necessary in the situation. This same pattern took place during Jesus' betrayal. Although, the irony presents itself when Judas regretted betraying Jesus, while the Mestizo had absolutely no remorse.

Pontius Pilate and the Lieutenant portray similar characteristics because they believed that the criminal they were pursuing was innocent, but eventually fell to the pressure of those around them. John 18:36 says "'What is truth?' Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, 'I find no basis for a charge against him.'" Even though Pontius Pilate believed that Jesus was not guilty, just like peer pressure in today's world, he gave in to the government, while trying to establish peace in the society. The Lieutenant was the same way. As the whiskey priest was standing before the Lieutenant, waiting to be released from jail, he was in front of his wanted picture on the wall. Conspicuously, the lieutenant could see the picture and realized that this man in front of him was wanted by authority--yet he let it go and dismissed the priest for the price of peace in the world and no trouble.

Jesus Christ never sinned because he was perfect: sent down from Heaven by God to sacrifice his life for everyone else. The priest, too, sacrificed his life, but it took him a while longer than Christ to see that this was the way to live. The priest and Jesus were parallel characters throughout The Power and the Glory and the Passion, but they were different in one major way: the priest committed many sins, such as drinking, having an affair, and not following his convictions.

Life of Pi Essay

Seeing Isn't Believing

In the novel Life of Pi, Pi shows that believing is something that comes from inside; sometimes it can take a while to find enough comfort and courage to truly believe in something besides the facts. Some people have a difficult time putting all their trust in something that they are not totally sure of, or something that they can't "see". To believe, you don't have to see--just take a leap of faith and trust that someone, or something, will help you along your journey.

While on the ocean, Pi ran into another blind man on a lifeboat--who seemed to be the light at the end of his tunnel. This man turned out to be a greedy, corrupt person who wanted to take advantage of Pi. In reality, the chances of finding someone in the middle of the ocean is very rare. Pi realized this when he heard the man's voice and thought that he had lost his mind. "I concluded that I had gone mad. Sad but true. Misery loves company, and madness calls it forth." (pg. 242) Even Pi knew of these chances--but because belief is a crucial theme in this novel, Yann Martel placed this other man in the ocean to show what can happen to people who truly believe.

While there are rare chances proven by facts, some people just don't believe things because they have never experienced them--like the two men that Pi talked to in the hospital. "'Tigers exist, lifeboats exist, oceans exist. Because the three have never come together in your narrow, limited experience, you refuse to believe that they might. Yet the plain fact is that the Tsimtsum brought them together and then sank." (pg. 299) Many people in our world are like these Japanese insurance agents--they don't trust that things could happen. These men live in their own worlds with their own conventions and refuse to explore new possibilities. Although many people in our world are like these men, some also fear becoming one, and the only way not to is to trust your instincts, follow your heart, and just believe.

Everyone believes that their own religion is the "right" or "true" one to follow, when in fact, there isn't just one. Muslims think it's Muslim, Hindi people think it's Hindu, and Christians think it's Christian. Pi wasn't raised with a religious background, and when he was old enough he decided to take a chance with these three religions. He believed in all of them and wanted to accept each one with its full potential . Even though many people must see things to believe them, religion is almost a given. Take the Christian religion for example. We follow God, the one and only, according to us. He helps us through dark times, finds us when we are lost, and saves us from evil. Believing is vital to religion; most of the leaders are not visible to the eyes, but to the hearts of those who believe.

When trying to discover the truth, or what we believe is the truth, we get caught up in the facts and can completely lose our beliefs. TV shows claim that they will find the "real thing" by looking at pure facts that they can find about the subject. While, in reality, sometimes believing is worth much more than seeing. If we start believing what's on TV, we can lose our conventions, which shape our lives greatly. Some people would argue that losing all conventions could deeply help our world; this is true in a few ways. When Pi lost his conventions, he showed how this dramatic change can influence your life in a positive way. Though, the negative side is if everyone on this planet left their old lives to find new ones, our world would become an insane, lost place. Everyone would become the same: same looks, same feelings, same actions.

Pi realized that believing is not about seeing when he was placed in a situation where he was forced to believe things that he couldn't "see". With our world becoming more and more corrupt every moment, nobody can find room in their hearts to trust or believe in something that's not conspicuous. Believing is an action that you have to truly complete with all your mind, all your soul, and all your heart.

Forgiveness in Great Expectations

Forgiveness in Miss Havisham

Most people in our world have the ability to forgive, giving them the ability to live, the ability to have happiness, and the ability to love. Without this ability, the world turns upside down. In the novel, Great Expectations, Dickens shows, through Miss Havisham, how some people can't forgive and refuse to let go of their past.

Fire symbolizes starting over—something Miss Havisham should've discovered earlier in life. As Pip forgives Miss Havisham for all her wrong doings, a sense of relief, a sense she has been desperately craving all her life, washes upon her. "Though every vestige of her dress was burnt, she still had something of her old ghastly bridal appearance; as she lay with a white sheet loosely overlying that, the phantom air of something that had been and was changed, was still upon her." (pg. 404) She once was a lady who lived for pain and breaking people's hearts, but now she lives for happiness and loving. Like Dickens said, the answer to the question, “What is the greatest expectations any of us have of life?”, is to love, and be loved by another. Miss Havisham shows this at the end of the novel.

The change that takes place in Miss Havisham is one similar to a process for metal. As Miss Havisham enters her own, vital crucible, change takes place within a moment, separating the impurities from the superior. Crucibles were used to sunder the cherished metal from the impure metal. This reflects exactly what happens to Miss Havisham. When the fire surrounded Miss Havisham something had changed; the inability to love and forgive had found its way into Miss Havisham's heart.

While the majority of people in our world do own the strength and courage to forgive, the minority don't. Some think it's a sign of failure, or even a sign of weakness. Love comes with forgiveness, and when you love, someone will return the favor and love you back—showing Dicken's answer to the question, “What is the greatest expectations any of us have of life?” The people in our world who are unable to forgive are shown through Miss Havisham in the novel Great Expectations.

Veteran's Essay

When Veteran’s Should Be Honored

When is the right time to honor our veterans? The answer to this question is simple. Always. When they have risked their lives fighting for us, the least they deserve is to be respected. They receive nothing in return for sacrificing their lives so that we can live. One day out of the year is dedicated towards them. Is that all the time we have, or is it just all the time we wish to give?

Veterans; when you think of that word, a lot comes to mind. Like how they fight for our country, and are honored on Veterans Day. But have you ever thought about the fact that they have one day, out of 365 days, to be proud? Sure, they can be proud of themselves every day of the year, but they won’t be recognized by others. One day in the whole entire year is set aside for these men and women that risked their lives for us.

Think about what our lives would be like without the freedoms that we now have. Without these veterans, we would have to live every day scared of what could come hurt us. These veterans have put their lives in danger so we can live long, successful lives. They might get hurt in the course of fighting, or even die, but that doesn’t stop them from showing the love they have for their country. These people are courageous, and when entering war, these issues don’t show up in their mind.

Veteran’s Day is a day important to everyone in the United States, or it should be. We honor those who fought, and think of those who are fighting. This one day that is set aside for Veteran’s we should make the best of. They need to know that we appreciate what they do and risk for us. So always honor our veterans, because people come and people go. But the ones who are fearless will fight in the middle.

The Good Earth Summative Essay

In the novel, The Good Earth, Pearl Buck shows how a few wrong choices can change your life–for the better or the worse. For Wang Lung, these changes were for the better, but everyone else saw it as the worst. All of the choices he has made would affect him in the future, but by then, it would be too late. The main character, Wang Lung, was once a strong man, with a prosperous life ahead of him, and he ruined it by making poor choices that he would regret and being never pleased with what he had.

Wang Lung was a poor man, with good morals and true values. O-lan, his new wife, had a place in his heart. "Moving together in a perfect rhythm, without a word, hour after hour, he fell into a union with her that took the pain from his labor." Pg. 29 He became close to O-lan, and knew what it’s like to feel secure and to feel loved. He took care of his father’s every need and opened up his heart to him; children were blessed to Wang, and he would love them forever. These ethics helped to keep him grounded, and helped him lead a successful life.

Buying a wife is the one of the first decisions that turns Wang Lung’s life around. Instead of treating women as people as they are now, in this time in China, women were treated as property. Wang Lung started having feelings toward his wife, and immediately thought he was doing something wrong, because no other men in his town loved their wives for who they were. “And then he was ashamed of his own curiosity and of his interest in her. She was, after all, only a woman.” Pg. 29 It’s hard to believe that women were treated in this way, but it was considered adequate at this time.

Moving to the south was supposed to be better for Wang’s family, but he was selfish and thinking of only himself, and not starving when he left his home. This caused him to make decisions he might regret. Robbing a rich man in a great house displays one of these decisions. “It was this word ‘money’ which suddenly brought to Wang Lung’s mind a piercing clarity. Money! Aye, and he needed that!” Pg. 139 Within one moment, all of the once satisfying things in Wang’s life were flushed away, and money was all that mattered. When it comes down to the moment, who you are inside will emerge, breaking through all of the lies and covers hiding your true self.

One of the last things that changed Wang Lung was buying Lotus. Lotus was bought purely for Wang’s satisfaction. "So these two women took their place in his house: Lotus for his toy and his pleasure and to satisfy his delight in beauty and in smallness and in the joy of her pure sex, and O-lan for his woman of work and the mother who had borne his sons and who kept his house and fed him and his father and his children." Pg. 216 Wang Lung showed his egocentric side in this part of the novel, when the only person he thought about while buying Lotus was himself. No family members had a say in when she came, why she came, or if she came. Bringing another woman into the town, into the house, and into his family’s lives proved just how bold Wang Lung had become.

The House of Hwang—these words come with such a distinct background—brings back memories of harsh times and evil people. Wang once hated these people and wanted to prove that he could live his life just as well as they could. Though, when he struck rich, all these ideas, hopes, and dreams weren’t as hard to achieve as they used to be, so Wang had more time on his hands. “So not because of his son and not because of his uncle’s son he dreamed that he could live in the House of Hwang, which was to him forever the great house.” Pg. 291 P2

All these events changed Wang Lung’s life greatly, and made him a different person. Once with true values and morals, Wang Lung was a good man who took care of his wife, took care of his children, and took care of his land. Still caring for his land, he decided to return and die a slow death on the farm where he was born, for one who was born in the land must die in the land. "And the old man let his scanty tears dry upon his cheeks and they made salty stains there. And he stooped and took up a handful of the soil and he held it and he muttered, 'If you sell the land, it is the end.'" Pg. 360

Wang Lung was once a man with strong beliefs who was true to himself and his family. Money went and changed it all. Wang longed to live the fancy life and did anything to get where he wanted to be, even if it meant knocking down others in his way. Wang Lung was never pleased with what he had and made decisions he would regret, ruining the path of his prosperous life.