Problematizing Post-The Road

I think it was so interesting how the boy kept asking his father if they were the good guys. "'Are we still the good guys' he said. 'Yes. We're still the good guys'"(McCarthy 77). If the son was so young that he cannot remember the old way of living, then how would he know right from wrong? What's the guiding moral compass? What is the ultimate good that the boy is deriving morals from? This seems to be the direction of the culture we live in. We want people to have morals but we're not willing to admit that there has to be an ultimate from which morals derive. This is what's causing all the sticky, opaque situations that our nation and people are getting lost in. No one is able to stay within the moral compass because we choose to believe there isn't one. It's quite ironic how our culture thinks. This reminds me of the bumper stickers that say, "Tolerance" and "Coexist" and each letter has a symbol of a different religion, including Christianity. Yet, the irony is that the one religion people won't tolerate is Christianity.

Our culture needs to understand that they cannot have morals without having something that defines and creates those morals. Saying that they come of ourselves means that we are gods. And if we are gods, why is their death and reproduction? This whole thought process opens up Pandora's box and if one is not careful their whole world is going to be turned upside down. Jesus is going to make sure they know who He is and how serious He is about their lives. It's funny that Cormac McCarthy mentions God and has his characters question if there is a God and yet he is not a believer himself. "You mean like the good guys? Yes. Or anybody that you wanted them to know where you were. Like who? I don't know. Like God? Yeah. Maybe somebody like that" (McCarthy 246). He just reflects our culture and the journey they are on; finding meaning and purpose without being held responsible for their actions

Peace Like a River-Annotated

Leif Enger, undoubtedly, had religious themes and references laced within the book Peace Like a River. One that many Christians would notice is that Jeremiah seemed to be a Christ-like figure. His name, first of all, is significant. I looked up what the name Jeremiah means in Hebrew and I do not think it is a coincidence that Jeremiah means “Yahweh Exalts”. I would not be surprised if Leif looked it up and subliminally wanted his character to exalt God throughout the book.

The first thing that gives the readers the idea that Jeremiah is a Christ-like figure is when he walks on air one night. Reuben woke in the middle of the night and thought he heard voices. Sneaking outside to take a peek at who might be out there, he noticed it was his father praying aloud and pacing. “And then, as I stood watching, Dad walked right off the edge of the truck” “He went on pacing—God my witness—walking on air, praying relentlessly, a good yard of absolutely nothing between the soles of his boots and the thistles below” (17). One of Jesus’ famous miracles is when he walked on water. This is one of the first indications that Jeremiah is no ordinary man.

When Jeremiah was humiliated in front of all the students, he says absolutely nothing. “If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matthew 5:39b). This reflects Christ so much. Christ, while taking his last breaths upon the cross, asked not that his persecutors be punished but that God would forgive them. Jeremiah healed the superintendant’s face. That was his response. After being ridiculed and put down, kindness and forgiveness was reciprocated.

Another characteristic that shows Jeremiah as a Christ figure is the forgiveness he shows. “In this picture I saw no forgiveness for myself—not from Davy, not from Swede, not from anyone but Dad, who was so forgiving that it almost didn’t count” (285). Christ said to Peter, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:21). Christ continually forgives us for our stupidity; Jeremiah forgives others in the same manner. He especially forgives his children because they are his pride and joy. Christ views us as his children (1 John 3:1) and he loves us with a love that a parent has for their child.

The last and final Christ-like act is when Jeremiah sacrificed his life so that Reuben could live. Jape hid out beside the house and patiently waited for Davy to leave. Everyone went outside to see Davy off when a loud shot rang through the air. Jeremiah fell onto the hood of the car. He had been shot in the side. Roxanna ran over to try and stop the flow but Jeremiah replied, “Let the blood wash it clean” (306). Christ’s blood washed us clean. It is by His stripes that we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). A few minutes later, Jape shot three more times and Reuben was hit in the lung. “One day he said, ‘Your father should not have died, Reuben. Did you know that?’ I nodded. ‘I mean, injured where he was. I examined him, you know. No organs were damaged. Blood vessels, yes. But he actually shouldn’t have died.’ And I conversely shouldn’t have lived” (307). When Christ died, no bones were broken. In Jeremiah’s case, no organs were damaged. When reflecting later on in life about what happened that day, Reuben states, “That it seemed a transaction had taken place on my behalf” (310). Christ paid the price so that all of us could live with him eternally and that we would no longer be separated from our Heavenly Father by a chasm. There was a transaction taken on our behalf.

Jeremiah, New Bible Dictionary, Second Edition, Tyndale Press, Wheaton, IL, USA 1987.

Writinghood. "Peace Like a River Explored." Writinghood. N.p., 3 Feb. 2011. Web.
20 Apr. 2011.
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Water-Reflection Post

"It's more than just rain or snow" was really interesting. I never realized how significant weather was in literature. Like the chapter says, I know the infamous line, "It was a dark and stormy night." It's become a cliché. After hearing it so often, one becomes numb to how weather can affect the story line, unless the author puts it in your face.

An idea the author says is, “So if you want a character to be cleansed, symbolically, let him walk through the rain to get somewhere. He can be quite transformed when he gets there” (77). How true of Christ! There’s a reason He relates himself to living water. Drink of Him and never thirst again. He sustains life and transforms people. There’s a song called, “All My Fountains” by Chris Tomlin that goes with this topic. Here are a few lyrics:

This dry and desert land
I tell myself, “Keep walking on”
Hear something up ahead
Water falling like a song
An everlasting stream
Your river carries me home
Let it flow, let it flow

Verse 2
A flood for my soul
A well that never will run dry
I've rambled on my own
Never believing I would find
An everlasting stream
Your river carries me home
Let it flow, let it flow

Chorus
Open the heavens
Come Living Water
All my fountains are in You
You're strong like a river
Your love is running through
All my fountains are in You

Bridge
Come on, and rain down on us
Rain down on us, Lord

Having Christ rain down on us will transform us even more and continues to change us into the people He wants us to become. We are the vessels that show Christ and His love (fountains) and our source is Him (well that never will run dry). All of who I am should be locked into who He is. Our prayers should be for him to continually rain down and smother us, transform us.