Tasha Harper’s newest literary work Hypocrite, offers readers spiritual food for thought, and emancipation of the spirit, with her soulful and affecting blend of temptation, faith, romance, conflict, forgiveness and anguish. Overall, the story heartily embodies a striking examination of the struggles that many Christians face while experiencing life in a world where the focus of life seems to aim at the basest of behaviors, this narrative strikes a deeply relatable chord.
Central to the story is Sophia Middleton, who seems to have it all, she is a successful and well loved Christian, who dedicates her time and efforts to bringing young people to Christ, she speaks about it, teaches it, as well as leads bible studies. Additionally, she even believes she can change the world with love, one person at a time. As a matter of fact, she has had a powerful effect on many lives, although she also suffers from her own vices as she lives her life as a lie. Consequently, immersed in stupendous hypocrisy, Sophia leads a double life, one facade, her public image, presents a loving, faithful servant of God, and a shining example of a seemingly faithful Christian, however, on the other hand, she gives into worldly temptations by leading a life rife with sin, unmarried, she lives with her boyfriend Derek, parties, drinks and indulges in sex.
…show more content…
How can she speak to youth about living a life of purity, and creating a God centered life when she does not adhere to her own tenets of faith? Hence, accordingly what follows is the story of Sophia’s conflicted life which artfully brings to the forefront the result of her infidelity to her spiritual self and God. With her mind cluttered with the emotions of love, guilt, and shame she found things increasingly difficult to manage until she finally faces the reality of her
The religious imagery in Flannery O'Connor's 'The Life You Save May Be Your Own' gives the story a cynical undertone along with a healthy dose of irony. O'Connor uses allusions to Jesus and Christianity to examine the hypocrisies of the religion and its adherents. Her character Tom T. Shiftlet is portrayed paradoxically as both the embodiment of Christ and an immoral, utterly selfish miscreant. By presenting these polarities side by side within one persona, O'Connor shows the dichotomies between so-called Christian morality and the reality of the Church.
Barbara Kingsolver is a fictional writer who enhances the richness of imagery, language, and alongside with feminist rights. Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible depicts the Price family on a religious mission in converting the Congolese into Christianity. That is, Reverend Price is extremely devoted in converting the Congolese to Christianity, where eventually his family eventually give up on treating him as a husband and a father to four divergent daughters. Reverend Price and Orleanna have four daughters: Ruth May Price, Leah Price, Adah Price, and Rachel Price. Through the journey that Kingsolver creates, the readers are able to
Flannery O’Connor believed in the power of religion to give new purpose to life. She saw the fall of the old world, felt the force and presence of God, and her allegorical fictions often portray characters who discover themselves transforming to the Catholic mind. Though her literature does not preach, she uses subtle, thematic undertones and it is apparent that as her characters struggle through violence and pain, divine grace is thrown at them. In her story “Revelation,” the protagonist, Mrs. Turpin, acts sanctimoniously, but ironically the virtue that gives her eminence is what brings about her downfall. Mrs. Turpin’s veneer of so called good behavior fails to fill the void that would bring her to heaven. Grace hits her with force and their illusions, causing a traumatic collapse exposing the emptiness of her philosophy. As Flannery O’Connor said, “In Good Fiction, certain of the details will tend to accumulate meaning from the action of the story itself, and when this happens they become symbolic in the way they work.” (487). The significance is not in the plot or the actual events, but rather the meaning is between the lines.
...Christian values in her own way in order to justify her character’s actions, in addition to using religion as a way of explaining what she thinks of herself. On the other hand, Margery Kempe was a woman who took religion to a new level as a result of “supposedly” having very intense visions and experiences with Jesus Christ. The result was a woman who believed that she had more religious authority than an archbishop of the church and who possessed the strength to continue on her path, despite allegations of being psychotic.
Saint Barbara’s life was undeniably an isolated one. Her parents built a vast tower with all the necessities and accommodations for her to live in 290 AD, in the Anatolian city of Heliopolis, where her father, Dioscuros, was the governor. While locked away, she had two windows in which she could gaze upon the outside world. Every day she looked out of those windows and slowly discovered Christianity by the amount of beauty in the outside world. Even though she was utterly isolated from the outside world, she was still an admired woman. Rumors of her beauty and charm spread throughout and many military officers asked her father for her hand in marriage. Barbara did not like the idea of her father picking her husband for her and once she became aware of these offers for marriage, she told her father that she would commit suicide if she was forced to wed. One day while she was still coming more and more into Christianity, her father left town for another city giving specific instructions and building plans to workers for a new bathhouse for her daughter. Knowing that her f...
One of the many themes shown in Maggie: a Girl of the Streets is that of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy occurs when one pretends to be something that he or she is not. Most people associate hypocrisy with a person that speaks poorly of something, yet commits that something him or her self. In Maggie, many of the main characters in the novel display the trait of hypocrisy. The trait is displayed by the characters of Pete, Jimmie, and both Mr. and Mrs. Johnson. They pretend to be what they are not.
A Christian, when faced with the challenge of writing, finds himself in a dilemma: how is he to complete the task? Should he create an allegory? Should he try to teach a lesson reflecting God’s glory? Or should he follow secular trends and current desires in literature? To this, many Christians would say, “Certainly not!” Dorothy L. Sayers and Flannery O’Connor both aim to answer the first question of any Christian writer: How do I write a story with my beliefs?
In explaining the “confined” world to her late husband, Anna immediately sets contrast between her vibrant mind to that of the narrow views embedded within the patriarchal society. In addition, Anna’s descriptions of her sons serves to heighten the depression and misery she experiences in their passing, and presence in moments of “poppy induced serenity” and inner eruption of jealousy emphasises the vulnerability of Anna, which in turn strengthens the intrepidly progressive transformation she undergoes. Anna’s voice, despite subjective emotional levels, allows readers to identify richly with her sense of isolation, need for love and changes she undergoes to evolve from timidly submissive maid to one willing to confront those n the upper echelons of power. Moreover, commentary of her existential questioning occurs sporadically and adds to one of the novels primary concerns regarding the role of nature and its fluctuating course. However, Anna speaks of the “debt” Josiah owes her, casting him all the more unsavoury in the readers’ eyes. Similarly, the harsh characterisation of the rector following his slump into self-reproach, unearthing his apparent selfishness, consequently promotes veneration towards Elinor Mompellion in
...manic depressive state which leads her to her suicide. She no longer has a will to repress any untold secrets from the past or perhaps the past. Since she has strayed far from her Christian beliefs, she has given in to the evil that has worked to overcome her. She believes she is finally achieving her freedom when she is only confining herself to one single choice, death. In taking her own life, she for the last time falls into an extremely low mood, disregards anyone but herself, and disobeys the church.
Freeman is contradictory and stereotypes. She says everyone is different but she doesn’t accept others opinions. She allowed her daughter to have an education and she got a PhD on philosophy, but still she wasn’t pleased with her daughter. People can say “My daughter is a nurse, a school teacher, a chemical engineer” but can’t say “My daughter is a philosopher” according to Mrs. Hopewell. She supports the idea to have an education, but according to her, her daughter has gone too far. She doesn’t accept her daughter as she is and she is judging what she wears. Her outfits, changing the name to Hulga and behaviours shows she was still a child according to Mrs. Hopewell. Hulga was as contradictory as her mother. Due to an accident at the age of ten she has lost her leg and she has heart problems. Her inability to have a normal life makes her a nihilist. She pretends to be above the typical Christian believers and to be an atheist. “You’re a Christian” she heisted. “You are a fine Christian! You’re just like them all-say one thing and do another. You’re a perfect Christian..” she says when she understand Manley’s intentions. Hulga pretends to understand more people but she gets easily manipulated. Both woman say something and do something else, they pretend to be smart enough to control others but they get easily manipulated.
...e relationship with men, as nothing but tools she can sharpen and destroy, lives through lust and an uncanny ability to blend into any social class makes her unique. Her character is proven as an unreliable narrator as she exaggerates parts of the story and tries to explain that she is in fact not guilty of being a mistress, but a person caught in a crossfire between two others.
Through her many allegories, Hurnard echoes God’s call for His children to joyfully love, trust, and obey Him. She encourages her readers through the call of the Shepherd to strive after true satisfying love by forsaking thei...
Throughout time, readers have learned many different lessons from their favourite books. In The Chrysalids, John Wyndam used his story to teach his readers valuable, lifelong lessons. He makes it evident to his readers that prejudging certain people is not right. Also, he relates how change is possible, but hard to achieve. More specifically, religion often influences one’s point of view. John Wyndam’s, The Chrysalids was written with a purpose that teaches his readers about discrimination, about how change is possible, and how religion often influences one’s point of view.
Rich, who often teetered the lines of domesticity and prophecy in her literary work (Halpern 54), delivers the poem’s most telling line in the last stanza: “your details sound like a portrait of your confessor”. This allusion is in reference to the Great Persecution and confessors of sin. Under the sovereignty of Constantine the Great, Christians who had had been tortured and victimized, were forced to repent for their “sins” to a confessor in order to be restored in the eyes of society. The cop plays the role of confessor in the poem; the woman, shaken into repentance. Contrarily, Plath’s biblical allusion is undoubtedly less revelatory. She explicitly recounts the third blessing in the Gospel of Matthew, ‘Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth,” (5:5). As weak as women of the time may have been perceived to be, though they faced great adversity, will eventually succeed due to their
This long ordeal of suffering came to an end when her daughter Rebecca remarked on seeing the scar in her eye, “Mommy, there is a world in your eye” (G: 393). The scar was seen by her not as an imperfection or flaw but as a “world”. A new realization dawned on Walker. She comprehended that life is after all a matter of perception; it depends on how one acknowledges and denies the perspective. In her dream that very night she is joined by “another bright-faced dancer” in her joyous dancing. She is “beautiful, whole and free and Walker adds “she is also me” (EGG: 393). Most of the women in this collection of stories, like Walker, realize that definition of self must come from within and eventually discover or rediscover their “hidden, beautiful, whole and free”