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Critique Of The Christmas Angel

Decent Essays

Fifty-seven-year-old Landon Carter narrates the novel, reflecting on events from 40 years in the past. In the prologue of this novel, in which the older Landon, living in the same North Carolina town as he did when he was 17 years old, stands near the Baptist church that figures prominently in the novel and gets himself in the mindset of his 17-year-old self. The story begins in 1958 and is, Landon tells us, both joyful and sad.
Seventeen-year-old Landon is a senior at Beaufort High School, which collaborates each year with Southern Baptist Church on a Christmas play called The Christmas Angel, written by Reverend Hegbert Sullivan, the minister of the church. This play tells the story of a man who is so grief-stricken over the death of his wife while giving birth to their only child that he is not much of a father to his child. An angel appears to the man, and she …show more content…

Landon reluctantly agrees. The two begin spending time together — although Landon does so only out of obligation — but in the course of their conversations, Landon discovers that Jamie's only goal in life is to get married with a church full of people in attendance, an unlikely occurrence given Jamie's social status.
The play is a great success, and in a pivotal scene, in which the father is supposed to notice the ravishing beauty of the angel, Landon is shocked by how beautiful Jamie looks in her white dress; she is wearing a touch of makeup and has taken her long hair out of a bun and let it fall past her shoulders. The other students in the school are as surprised by Jamie's appearance as Landon.
Jamie asks Landon to help her collect the bottles and cans she set out in a donation drive to buy presents for the orphans. Astonished by the paltry donations, Landon empties his own bank account and adds those funds to the collection without telling anyone what he has

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