Analysis Of Penance And Love In Wise Blood : Seeing Redemption

“Confession of sin shuts the mouth of Hell and Opens the gates of paradise.” These Wise words from Thomas watson embody the aims and beliefs of the puritans. The puritans expressed their beliefs and thoughts of the bible through their writing; be it poems, sermons, or stories. In the short story A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson by Mary Rowlandson, The sermon From Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards, and the poem by Anne Bradstreet [Deliverance] From Another Sore Fit, there is a common theme of religion and the hardships these writers go through to produce such powerful works of literature. The puritan’s possessed a very unique style of writing which introduce many literary elements into all different types of

People are taught to “forgive and forget” in order to be happy, afterall living with a grudge can being a serious damper in ones life.

In the sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Edwards displays controversial viewpoints and ideas concerning heaven and hell. As Edwards speaks to the congregation he warns them of the misery and suffering they will face if they do not repent of certain sins. He also describes God as angry which probably struck fear into the hearts on many. To illustrate his own point that hell is unenviable without repentance Jonathan Edwards creates the idea of an angry God using intense similes, a harsh tone, and strong emotional appeal in “Sinners in the hand of an Angry God”.

In Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Jonathan Edwards argues eternal fate is completely controlled by God. The famous recorded sermon Edwards preaches is written with one intention in mind. Due to the Great Awakening occurring while Edwards was alive, he wanted to help people double down on their faith. The sermon tries to convince religious believers to keep their faith despite the battle of religion versus science. Edwards scares the audience by stating how God can easily discard or send sinners to hell. As well, in the sermon God is the only one who can keep someone from going to hell. According to Edwards, humans might stand a chance of not going to hell if they refrain from sinning. Edward’s

Sir Lancelot is the dominant figure in Le Morte D'Arthur who presents us with the theme of sin and redemption. Sir Agravaine and Sir Mordred expose the courtly romance or otherwise adulterous affair between Sir Lancelot and Queen Guenever. This sets in motion the conflicts and other events leading up to the death of Sir Lancelot and many other noteworthy characters. Sir Lancelot betrays both King Arthur and Queen Guenever. If he is truly a noble character as Sir Gawaine, Sir Gareth, and Sir Gaheris describe, would he have involved himself in such a treacherous act? Sir Agravaine says, “I marvel that we all be not ashamed both to see and to know how Sir Launcelot lieth daily and nightly by the queen, and all we know it so; and it is shamefully suffered of us all, that we all should suffer so noble a king as King Arthur is so to be shamed” (Location 12810). Sir Lancelot’s betrayal raises opposition between the knights and breaks up that which should remain united. His betrayal reaches beyond the king and queen. Thus, it is not a surprise that the consequences of his sin affect the lives of so many.

Within the eighteenth century, Christians were going through the Great Awakening, a wave of religious enthusiasm that swept through the colonies in an effort to make an impact on the religion within the areas. In the sermon written by Jonathon Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” he is trying to persuade nonbelievers into joining his religion in a way unused by many. To show nonbelievers the two altering sides of God based on what people believe and “they may imagine him to be so” (3), Jonathon Edwards’ sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” utilizes threatening tone, conveying repetition, and augmenting similes to express the fury and hopefulness of God.

The characters’ actions throughout Wise Blood provide the novel’s most obvious examples of irony and fate over free will. Early in the novel, Hazel comes across a blind, begging preacher named Asa Hawkes. Hazel then considers him his rival for the rest of the novel, constantly spying on him and harassing him in his apartment. However, following in his enemy’s footsteps, Hazel later blinds himself to prove a point, just as the preacher had tried to do several years earlier (O’Connor 216). Hazel, throughout his entire childhood, feared God and His punishments because of his hyper-religious grandfather (O’Connor 14). This led him to pursue preaching as a career. However, during his time in the army, Hazel began to hate Christ, and allowed his army mates to convince him that there is no God or tangible soul. O’Connor even writes that Hazel “took a long time to believe them because he wanted to believe them” (O’Connor 18). This leads to Hazel becoming a passionate atheist by the end of his four years in the army, but when Hazel moves from the army to Taulkinham, he meets Asa Hawkes, who tries to bring him back to God. Hazel attempts to debate religious matters with Hawkes several times in the novel but loses verbal arguments every time. When searching for a different way to surpass Hawkes, Hazel discovers that he is not actually blind and finds his way to prove himself superior (O’Connor 162). Sringley writes in her article “Penance and Love in Wise Blood: Seeing

During the colonial era, there were many religions seeking to spread to America. Strong leaders and philosophers were able to spread their ideas through powerful sermons that captured the emotions of the audience. Jonathan Edwards, a preacher, creates a compelling and persuasive tone and diction to express God's fury very distinctly. He uses metaphors and imagery to contrast the relationship between sinners and God to those who are religious. John Winthrop, on the other hand, spoke optimistically and reassured his audience during his voyage to Arabella to demonstrate his desire for unity and a godly society within Massachusetts Bay. Both men were able to captivate their audiences through persuasive diction, tone, and style to succeed in gaining their support and trust.

Jonathan Edwards, a preacher during the American Enlightenment period, was mostly known for his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. The Enlightenment, an eighteenth-century movement distinguished by the belief in the power of human reason and by advancements in political, religious, and educational doctrine. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God was written as a response to the Puritans losing their faith because of the new scientific theories and emphasis on human reason that contradicted the word of God. Jonathan Edwards wrote the sermon to persuade the Puritans that lost faith, by threatening and warning them of the wrath of God. He used this tactic to convince the perplexed Puritans that continuing to sin would guarantee their condemnation to hell.

On October 5, 1703, in East Windsor Connecticut, Timothy and Esther Edwards welcomed their new son, Jonathan Edwards, into the world. From a young age, Jonathan was provided with an excellent education from a highly qualified individual - his father was a minister and a college prepatory tutor. Jonathan Edwards was accepted at Yale college just before he turned thirteen. He was interested in a wide variety of studies including natural science, the mind, the scriptures, and theology. He graduated from Yale in four years as valedictorian and obtained his masters three years later. Unable to accept the “horrible doctrine” (Edwards), of predestination, Edwards finally found peace and accepted this controversial teaching in 1721. He went on to assistant pastor a large church in Northampton with his grandfather. The same year, he married Sarah Pierpont whose piety he had long admired (..). Two years later, when his grandfather passed away, Edwards became sole minister of the Northampton congregation. However, after many years of converting the lost and participation in the Great Awakening as a key preacher, his congregation began to weary of his intense sermons and his habit of calling out sinner by name from the pulpit. However, his most famous sermon was first delivered in Enfield, Connecticut on July 8th, 1741 and was entitled, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. Edwards’ use of rhetoric in this message has been admired

Flannery O’Connor once noted that all good stories are ones of conversion (Wood, 217), and Wise Blood is no exception. The central spiritual struggle of the book is that of the character Hazel Motes. The protagonist goes through not simply one but several conversions throughout the book. His spiritual quest is his realization of the Church Without Jesus, and his search for a new jesus. As analysis in this paper will elucidate, Hazel spiritual arc is a critique of approaches to knowing God. The first such method, nihilism, is a belief in nothing. This exists not only as a rejection of belief in an areligious sense, but is an active love of the concept of nothing itself. The second method comes in the debate of how one can come to know God,

Complicating Hazel's confused conceptions of entrapment, sin, and Christianity is the episode involving the Melsy carnival, at which Hazel and his father pay to see a woman lying in a coffin. Hazel's father has a lustful reaction to the woman; he says "Had one of themther built into ever' casket . . . be a heap ready to go sooner" (32). Haze's "shut-mouthed" mother, who O'Connor describes as having a "cross-shaped face," senses Haze's guilt when he returns home (32-33). Telling him that "Jesus died to redeem you," she whips him with a stick, leaving him with a "nameless unplaced guilt" (33). The actions of his parents leave Motes unable to distinguish what is good and Christian from what is forbidden and evil. He associates his grandfather with Christianity but also

In her book Wise Blood, Flannery O’Connor sends Hazel Motes on a journey her readers gladly follow. Looking for salvation, redemption, and truth Hazel Motes finds his faith and, consequently, himself. Sabbath Lily says about the man: "I like his eyes. They don't look like they see what he's looking at, but they keep on looking" (O’Connor, 105). Motes, intent on his search for salvation, for something beyond himself and those around him, is blind to all that is in front or around him. Salvation is hard, and the path is not easy, but by the end of the novel, he finds salvation and his own identity in a process of denial, confusion, and acceptance.

    "You keep lying!" screamed Raskolnikov, no longer able to restrain himself. "You're lying, you damned clown!" And he flung himself on Porfiry, who retired to the doorway, but without a trace of panic. "I understand everything, everything!" He approached Porfiry. "You're lying and taunting me so Ill give myself away-" "You can't give yourself away any more than you have already, Rodion Romanovich, old man. Why, you've gone into a state. Don't shout, I'll call my men, sir!" (Dostoyevsky, 34)

In the King James Version of the Bible, there is a parable told called the Prodigal Son. As this story is told in Luke 15:11-32, we are told of a story where a wealthy man has two sons. One son stays behind and decides to work for his father and inherit a good life beside him. The younger son decides he will ask for money from his father, and leave him behind. As time goes on, this son goes out into the world and shortly after, loses all of his money he had received from his father. Because of this, he is ashamed and takes his time on his way back home. But when he eventually does make it home, he is welcomed with open arms to a loving father who could not be any happier to see his son. Although the father is happy to see