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American Religion in Long Days Journey into Night Essay

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American Religion in Long Days Journey into Night



The modernist sentiments throughout Long Days Journey into Night, by Eugene O'Neill, are apparent in many different ways. Among the methods he used was the portrayal of America's withdrawal from traditional religion and modes of behavior. He used his immigrant Irish family, the Tyrones, as a pedestal for this idea by highlighting their departure from traditional Irish beliefs and their struggle to form new, uniquely American, ones. O'Neill did this by repeatedly evoking a drastic difference between his character's conduct and their Irish Catholic counterparts. He replaced the
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The Tyrones also formed a new counterpart to the Catholic sacrament of confession, in which a higher authority forgives people of their sins. The Tyrones felt this absence very much, because they were constantly bickering and chasing blame around. It was as if they were waiting for the permission to be forgiven from God through a priest. They were in a rut of their own creation, and they
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