A Parallel Story

Authors Note- This is a response to the way Graham Greene parralleled the novel The Power and the Glory to the Passion out of the Bible.

A vision of two individuals traveling down the same path, the one of death, both the only one of their kind, willing to sacrifice everything for their people. Graham Greene incorporates the parallel to the Passion through this novel in hopes that he can show the different paths and choices that can be made here on a sinful world. Throughout the novel a parallel to the Passion story is created in a way that relates to life today and is able to create a vision of the inconceivable events of Christ's life.

From the beginning, the priest being the Christ figure that he is, always feels pulled to the ill so that he may lay his blessing upon them. A perfect instance is in the beginning of the novel when instead of catching a boat that would save his life he went to go help a girl that was dying. This is parallel to Jesus going out and saving different individuals who are on their death beds. He may be a man of conviction to do the right thing but he often strays from his ways and proves to be a man of despair over time. For him it is not the desired life but rather one of uncertainty. This parallels to the passion because Jesus lived a pure life quite opposite of the priest's.

Though he manages to do the right thing he still fits under the title of whisky priest. A man of guilt and sin he still finds a way to go and do the right thing when it matters giving him the name of the whisky priest; a man of values that can be strong as a rock or weak as a feather in the wind. He follows that line throughout the novel just as Jesus lived his life of purity. They may follow their different ways and ideals but a parallel is still formed. Through such a parallel the brickwork for the novel is laid.

Created by the brick is the plot for the entire story which takes many twists and turns but still follows a single path that is shown through the actions of the priest and those around him. As he enters back into his own town he comes on a donkey just as Jesus did but the parallel is not in his arrival but rather departure as he leaves in solitude and without love for his existence. For this situation Greene uses not a similar parallel, but rather an opposite. Not an entrance of gratitude and adoration but an exit of betrayal and hatred.

Not only his life but also his important death is parallel in the novel. He suffers under the chief who will take no action to save him, brought out to the firing range in front of the public and dies. Three days later the next priest began his rise to save the country. So well paralleled by Graham Greene that it can fit into a common Christian phrase. Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilot, was crucified, died, and was buried. Three days later he rose again. A relation such as this gives meaning to the story so that it can be understood by many and a inspiration to others.

From characters to events to actions the story was paralleled and brought into the new times for us to relate life today to life so many years ago. All revolves around the whisky priest representing the Christ figure. From the start it is a clear extended metaphor of the passion with all the decisions and actions forced upon the priest. Different people pose different threats, different styles of life, and all fall into their own place in the Passion.

What We Don't See About Ourselves- Life of Pi by Yann Martel

A desolate expansion of blue, expanding in every direction as far as anyone can see. Death looming in every corner the will to survive must outlast the will to be humane as life shall go to extreme measures to stay alive. Pi is  put into a place that could be found in a nightmare as he sails the seas in his terrible state. Yann Martel created a showing of what we really are as humans through his novel Life of Pi, as Piscine experiences the worst of himself as borders are crossed, values broken and the uniform picture of humanity shattered.
 
Throughout the novel two stories are developed as Martel gives the reader a choice of what they want to believe as the truth due to the horrific scenes and occurrences described in the book. One story describes all these horrific happenings as being the acts of a tiger which is well accepted by the average person and the other has Pi taking the place of the tiger and breaks all the barriers accepted by the human population as he lives like an animal. The question pondered upon by many who read this very novel is which story to believe. Much easier to believe is the acts of the tiger Richard Parker rather than the same things being committed by Pi. However I believe that Pi stretched the limits and created the alternate story of all the animals as a cover for his shame. Even though he has a reason for each and everything that happened in the animals story it is so unlikely that a boat such as he was in could support the life of such beasts for as long as it did.
 
A pair of parallel stories such as created by Yann Martel isn't created for the fun of it, but rather to relay a message to each of it's readers. One of the messages passed on by Martel is one of the reality of human nature. We are not the perfect, clean people that we are thought to be by many. Rather we are a group of controlled killers ready to burst at the slightest inconvenience to our simply lived lives in which we are given everything we need to live our comfortable lives.  A population growing like a moss covering a wide expanse of its habitat with a dirty fungus over all the beautiful nature of the Earth. Slowly nature is falling victim to human nature as we continue to neglect it because of an installation in our minds that we are perfect. All points to the neglecting of our very own impact on everything around us.
 
Our hidden nature as humans brings an interesting topic to the novel but even more so is the question of faith. "If you stumble at mere believability,  what are you living for? Isn't love hard to believe?"(297). Here Martel is trying to express how we as people think about foreign things and happenings that we our selves have not seen or experienced are blocked out by our mind as being impossible.  It will not come easy but believability comes with trust and if you do not trust you will be left from the experience and will never find your way in life. However I am not saying to trust everyone and everything but rather to open your mind to the world around you that is being hidden by a barrier created long ago.
 
Faith and your nature as a person doesn't come simply through a few thoughts but rather values that have been instilled inside you since you were old enough to make a decision. Personal values are barriers never meant to be broken as they make up who you are as a person throughout your life. Pi was pushed to extreme deprivation and to the verge of insanity by the ocean. He broke through even the most widely recognized of taboos, cannibalism. One choice so bad can tumble into many more as now the value has been broken and the reason to stay above such a terrible broken life is gone and life will become a bottomless pit such as what happened to Pi. Values are a way of life and without them a mess is what will soon become your life.
 
Even though we live our lives by the way of value in reality, conventions come along for our moments of unreality. Constantly we look for safety, comfort of the limited world of taboo and convention. Often the things we say, the things we do are dictated by the conventions of what is right created by those before us. Conventions are carried down and passed on so that those older do not see a better life in those that are young and full of life. Still wishing to stay close, to never venture out from the safety of the rail, there is a small few that will take the leap and reap the rewards.
 
Life will challenge, death will loom, and life must go on as some will go to extreme measures to stay alive. Our conventions and values will be broken and our nature as human beings will be brought out into the light with simple challenge to life.

Joe- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

An orange glow illuminating the small room with warmth and comfort of home. Joe beside the great forge with young Pip at his side working the bellows. A scene of brotherly love as well as the small glimpse of a great life that Joe gave to Pip. All throughout the novel Great Expectations Pip is shown love and forgiveness by his sister’s husband Joe only to leave them in the dust and stomp on them with his dirt covered foot once he was given the chance to become higher than them.

Joe never looks for more, never asks more of those around him. He is content with what he has and has no unreal expectations to live by as he will stay by his forge everyday of his life in perfect harmony with the world. In truth he walked in the same all the days of his life. Bringing him happiness was that he didn’t seek revenge but rather forgiveness in every aspect of life. Very easy was the option to shun Pip from the loving, warm, extraordinary family that he left behind for something he thought to be greater but in reality a fake life of fame and money. However Pip’s side was never left and he stayed with him through it all bringing Pip forgiveness when asked for and help when needed.

Forgiveness that relieves the pain of the world and brotherly love given out to Pip isn’t the only wonderful aspect of Joe Gargery’s life as he also shares a shining wisdom hidden deep down in his heart of the life lived by different people. Saying that the life you are given should be the one that you live and simply be yourself to live a content and happy life. Contradicting to this is Pip’s sad fake life that takes away from his life. Dickens throughout the entire novel shows his thoughts that the greatest expectation in life is to love and be loved. Joe finds his love in work and lives fully through that finding great happiness in his work.

Blown away and forgotten, Joe remains loving and forgiving to even the worst of people ready to welcome them back into his wonderful life at any point in time. He becomes the warm welcoming character whome everyone loves, living his life richly and to the fullest with happiness showing everyone the way to live life happily and successfully.

Veteran's Essay

People darting here and there, sparing themselves from the constant fire of the adversary, bombs dropping left and right, yet not the slightest sign of fear can be found in these men’s eyes. These people are putting their life on the edge day after day without thought of their well-being but only their countries’. These men and women are part of a small portion of the population who are the heart and soul of our country. Now with all this bravery and time that they put forth for our country one would think that these people would get a great recognition and be treated incredibly well in society. In reality this is quite the opposite of what is occurring. All of these heroes of our country get one hardly noticed day a year to be reflected upon by the rest of the country for what they really are, our protection.
The right time to honor our veterans is always, these people can be honored anytime anywhere with something as simple as a gesture or a thanks here and there. Most of these people have almost nothing because they have sacrificed everything to go serve our country and I believe that they need to be treated with the utmost respect. These people go off to fight and face death in the eye only to return to find that they are in a dark hole of ignorance and without the slightest bit recognition outside of Veterans Day. In the instance of Vietnam War not only were people not given any respect upon return but were considered outcasts among society. This just shows how ignorant people are today of the hard work and bravery these people provide us with. All the while actors and sports icons are being treated as royalty and are given all the attention of our nation. This would be quite bothersome to me if I just came back from risking my life for the well being of my neighbor back home and upon my return all I receive is a welcome home card and outside of that given absolutely no respect from the majority of the general public. We the people of America can do so much more and I truly believe that we can honor the veterans who have risked their very lives for the security of ours at anytime.

Contentment and the Constant search for more-Good Earth-by Pearl S. Buck

The Good Earth

People running everywhere scavenging for a little bit of grain, others lining the streets begging for some small cash so that they may eat that evening while others are sitting among their families eating of only the finest foods so that they may say that they are the best. This is the time of famine in China that Wang Lung was able to experience both sides of. In the novel, The Good Earth, Pearl Buck creates an easily recognized tragic plot including a bit of difference from the typical western tragedy, with a unique explanation of human nature as well as the reward of hard work and smart investments while crafting a wild environment where someone can become what they have despised their whole life without realizing it.

An incredibly important figure in the novel is the House of Hwang as they are the rich house in the town that Wang Lung Lives on the outskirts of. As a young boy Wang was scared of this place as he went there to ask that one of the slaves be his wife but as Wang rises and becomes more rich and powerful the House of Hwang starts its fall and eventually is nonexistent. Wang slowly changes into the character that the Old Lord was as the old Lord becomes the type of person Wang was which creates one of the many paradoxes found in this novel. A wise figure in this novel said that “there is a way when the rich are too rich…”(p 121) This will become one of the building blocks for the novel as power shifts and rich families fall and new ones rise up in their place.

Although the House of Hwang becomes a very influential character in the novel the rise of Wang Lung becomes the most important part of this novel as it sets up the large, sweeping, epic, tragic plot that creates the story of Wang Lung. A young boy running about getting what he can with the few coins he has so that his family might eat well that night and in the midst of these simple errands he will stop at the richest house in the town to ask that he may wed one of the slaves that lives there. This is where you may have found Wang Lung in his early years, as a humiliated filthy, poor farm boy. This is the start of Wang Lungs Rise as he is content and a hardworking man that earns his way through life. Though all this is great for Wang’s character it isn’t enough and soon famine hits sending his once prosperous family into turmoil. This forces them to travel to the city in the south and the rise of Wang Lung has finished setting the stage for his tragic and incredible fall.

The rise of Wang Lung is very important to the large sweeping plot but his fall that the rise sets up is even more important to the story. Once Wang gets to the city he gets right back where he left off, hard work allowing his family to eat enough that they wouldn’t starve. But soon the tough times push him too far and he breaks his moral values which in the plot is his tragic flaw. Carl Jung put this problem into a famous quote by saying “What we resist, persists” which correlates to this story because all throughout his life Wang had decided to do what is right but eventually it pushed him too far and he stole from the rich house in the southern city. "Hunger makes thief of any man."(p.143) This to proved to be true for Wang Lung. With all the gold and Jewels that Wang and his family now had they could go back to their land and that they did. Then with the jewels he bought land from the house of Hwang and this provided him with riches not previously known to a farmer and soon his little earthen house was turning into a little palace. He even went as far as getting a concubine. Throughout all this Wang thinks he is on a rise to power in his community but it really proves to be his fall as without knowing it he slowly turns into the Old Lord of the House of Hwang. This changed him into something he never wanted to be and with all the slaves taking care of the land he became ill from being too idle.

Wang Lung’s fall creates a situation where not only he starts to wither away but also creates a figure of a not a content worker but a sad and non content land owner on the verge of turning into the resemblance of a Old Lord of years past. Now a man of ignorance to his land and especially his wife his riches make him ill. It is too much different from the simple life he had once lived and the only cure is to go back to the land and work as he had once worked. This heals him of his sickness and he becomes whole again. This doesn’t last however and his idleness keeps him in a glass box where he can only walk around and see the land outside but doesn’t put the hours in on working the land. He soon becomes immune to this sickness and that is the last straw for Wang as that turns him into the figure of idleness that he had looked up at his whole life. Now this may seem as though Wang Lung is still rising to power and that this might not be a tragedy but this novel isn’t like the common western tragedy read today. Instead it follows the tragic plot but instead of everything going in the dumpster for the character the fall doesn’t appear to the character who is oblivious to what’s going on it only appears to the reader who can see what’s really happening to that character. This style that Pearl Buck writes in creates an atmosphere where the reader can create their own interpretation of what is really happening to this character which allows the readers mind to flow which allows this book to be widely appreciated as a great piece of literature.

With Wang slowly deteriorating into an idle self-centered, not to mention foolish old man

he still manages to turn his life into a definite pattern. This pattern is a very interesting one and is part of Pearl Bucks description of our simple nature as human beings. The pattern that Wang follows in this book consists of four parts and he repeats the pattern multiple times in his life without realizing it. In the first stage he is the farmer who is simple, pure and inexperienced, he soon moves on to wealth which is of the land and from the land due to his hard simplistic work. That wealth eventually turns into experience and he desires more and more which turns into a huge mistake as he gets greedy which will in turn cause him to turn back to poverty and it all starts over again. This is part of human nature and is installed in our brains and if you can’t handle it like Wang the desire to have more will take over your life and you will never become happy as your mind tells you that you will when you get those things that you desire. Wang’s desires controlled him throughout his life and he went around the pattern again but only this time his greed changed him and he became immoral and stole great amounts of money which allowed him to stay on that wealth part of the circle and there he stayed the rest of his life thinking that this would make him happy and it never did. In his final days he finally realized the true key to happiness, simplicity and purity. So with that he went to live out his final days on his land wishing he had realized this earlier in his tragic life. Bob Bowden once said “Don’t go to your grave with a life unused.” Wang was surely feeling that he was going to his grave with a life unused in his final days.

The pattern of human nature is a very important implement to this novel but the actual description of our nature as human beings is described in a very accurate and unique way through the main character Wang Lung’s actions throughout the novel. As the novel progresses Wang follows a path from being an incredibly hard working poor man with nothing but his land to a self- centered fool that resembled the persona of the Old Lord who he had looked at with much anger and humility as a child and young man. He portrays the human nature as being a nature of always desiring what we don’t posses convincing ourselves that those things will fill the void so that we may have happiness but instead it only opens a new hole that is incredibly hard to climb out of in our lives. Throughout the novel Wang Lung goes from a poor farm boy to the head of a great family by always wanting more and eventually even though he thought he was a success he was a failure in the eyes of many others. This is the fate of those who desire everything they don’t posses which will hide the truth of what will bring them true happiness. Now where you look for happiness is your decision, whether it be religion, simplicity, purity, family, friends or if you feel the same way Wang did you may look for happiness in possessions and what others think of your stature.

Character, its part of our human nature but it’s an extension of that and requires a strong mind that will choose what we do with our lives. We emphasize character, yet we look for the easy way out; we look for the flaws in others, yet we praise prowess; we look past the hardworking poor; yet we look at the fat rich as though they are all mighty, powerful, controllers of the world. This is the world we live in and we must choose what is truly right. It has been said that “Your thoughts determine your words, your words determine your actions, your actions determine your character, and your character determines your destiny” (unknown). This relates to Wang in the way that he started with some thoughts and it turned him into a horrible creature that was despised by many. This shows just how important every thought, every decision is so important, whether you are being watched or if you’re all alone to make some of the most important, influential decisions of your entire life.

Your character may not be what you thought it would be, as our unique nature of human beings may take is in a unique direction, as happened to Wang Lung in the tragic novel The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck. Whatever you choose to do in life make it worthwhile so that your life doesn’t flip on you unsuspectingly and you ruin your character so that you become what you have despised your entire life.