Essay on Hazel Mote's Spiritual Struggle

The Sacred Romance Drawing Closer to the Heart of God by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge is an interesting book that’s supposedly filled with useful information about how to live like a Christian and become more like Christ. However, this book has many issues. Brent Curtis and John Eldredge attempt to get us as readers to understand how to live and be more like Christ by comparing the pains and sufferings we all go through in our everyday lives to that of arrows piercing our hearts. As Curtis and Eldredge talked about arrows piercing our hearts I realized there have been times in my life that happened to me. Finally, after reading the book I realized that this book has the potential of being an interesting read but, it’s many errors leave us as readers confused.

People encounter many stereotypes daily, especially ones concerning women. In “Hazel Tells Laverne” by Katharyn Hows Machan, the narrator, Hazel, explains an incident that she encountered, in which a frog attempts to stereotype her by assuming all women fantasize about being a princess. The author creates a mocking tone towards the frog through the use of diction, language, and syntax, therefore showing that the narrator doesn’t want to be a princess.

In the allegorical short story entitled “Young Goodman Brown”, author Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the irony of words and their connotations to express his ideas. The most evident example of this word inference is the used of “Faith” as the name of Young Goodman Brown’s wife. Religiously, faith can be defined as “the belief and trust in God and in the doctrines expressed in the scriptures or other sacred works” (Merriam-Webster). Hawthorne uses the relationship between Brown and his wife to parallel that with his own personal faith.

"In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, - no disgrace, no calamity (leaving me my eyes), which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, - my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space, - all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball. I am nothing. I see all. The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God."

Later, the narrator has a problem falling asleep in his murky bedroom, because his memory of the priest’s “grey face” brings nightmares. The boy tries to think of something different, but “the grey face still followed him” (3). Being dark in the young boy’s room, the boy is scared. The room where the priest lies in his house is black, only lit by a few candles. The candles add gloominess to the room. At the very end of the story, the dark confessional booth is a sign of darkness where the boy can sit and think of past thoughts. The room shows no light. Faith portrays no light to be a dark image.

Throughout centuries, humans have expressed different perspectives toward a single idea. The subject of religion invites challenging discussions from skeptical minds because religion is diversely interpreted based on personal faith. The authoress sets her novel in a fictional town, Cold Sassy, where religion plays a predominant role in people’s lives. Through Will Tweedy’s narration she explores the religious opinions of the town’s most prominent citizen Rucker Blakeslee, Will’s grandpa. Although Blakeslee spent his whole life in a religiously conservative town, he has a radical approach toward religious concepts such as predestination, suicide, funerals, faith, and God’s will, thus forcing him to challenge the traditional views of

2. Wiseblood can be described as hopeful throughout the novel and movie because of Hazel's struggle to wrap his mind around Christianity. In the first scene of the movie version of Wiseblood, "Hazel asks the lady sitting across from him on the train whether or not she thinks she has been saved by Jesus. He then launches into his spiel about why she can not be saved and that Jesus never washed everyone's sins away with his blood" (Wiseblood). While this may not seem hopeful, it is made clear that Hazel is trying to convince himself that Jesus did not save him from his sins. The fact that Hazel is trying to convince himself that Jesus can not wash sins away is why the book is described as hopeful. His struggle with religion shows that Hazel still

From the time he gets back from WW2, he creates the Church Without Christ which is him preaching his anti-religious beliefs on the streets. Throughout his time in Taulkinham, Haze keeps seeing Jesus in his mind, sees signs of Christianity everywhere, and is mistaken as a preacher on multiple occasions. In the essay, “Jesus, Stab Me in the Heart!”: Wise Blood, Wounding, and Sacramental Aesthetics, the author Robert H. Brinkmeyer, talks about Hazel not being able to escape Jesus. “Identifies Haze as a ‘Christian malgre lui’ whose integrity lies in his not being able to escape from his haunting vision of Christ” (Brinkmeyer, 71). As Brinkmeyer suggests here, Hazel continues to see Jesus in his mind, but as a ragged figure. “The boy didn’t need to hear it. There was already a black wordless conviction in him that the way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin. He knew by the time he was twelve years old that he was going to be a preacher. Later he saw Jesus move from tree to tree in the back of his mind, a wild ragged figure motioning him to turn around and come off into the dark where he was not sure of his footing, where he might be walking on the water and not know it and then suddenly know it and drown” (O’Connor, 16). Along with these appearances, Hazel encounters many religious and Christian related signs. These appearing signs create

Wise Blood follows the journey of an army veteran named Hazel Motes who was raised by very strict Christian parents. While serving in the military, his friends tell him he has no soul and that God is not real. Hazel says of his faith, “All he wanted was to believe them and get rid of it once and for all, and he saw opportunity here to get rid of it without corruption, to be converted to nothing instead of to evil” (Wise Blood 15). When he returns home, he decides he will start his own church called The Church Without Christ.

Finally, the protagonist of the story has the most notable battle within his conscience. Hazel Motes preaches against redemption and the need for atonement, yet cleansing and torturing himself by the end of the novel. The doctrine of the Church of Christ Without Christ, for example, is “there’s only one truth and that is that there’s no truth!” (O’Connor 165). This bold statement from Haze outright denies Christianity and the belief system with which he was taught, yet he seemingly stands firm in it. This rebellion, in turn, results in Haze’s isolation from other humans. In “Penance and Love in Wise Blood: Seeing Redemption,” Susan Srigley describes the alienation of Haze, saying, “…Hazel Motes tries to construct a reality that is not only independent of God, but by consequence, other human beings as well” (96). Through starting his church, Haze is able to voice his inner rebellion to those who choose to hear his message. After years of isolation away from his spiritual side, Haze’s inner angst boils over, and he slanders anything or anyone associated with the faith he once knew.

Miriam Toews’ novel, A Complicated Kindness, explores the aspects of one’s interpretation of faith, their reintegration into society and self-improvement. These elements are explored through Natasha Nickel’s formulation of her newfound faith, a step in which she soaks knowledge, questions what has been learned, and then incorporates the changes into her lifestyle. Through this critical thinking process, Tash becomes the most logical follower of faith in the community.

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.

In James Baldwin’s 1952 novel “Go Tell It On The Mountain” the characters in the novel each embark on a spiritual journey. Baldwin has dedicated a chapter to each member of the Grimes family, detailing their trails and tribulations, hopes and aspirations, as each one’s quest to get closer to God becomes a battle. I have chosen the character John because I admire the fierce struggle he endured to find his spirituality. I will examine how he’s embarked on his quest and prove that he has done it with integrity and dignity.

Faith plays a major role in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown”. From the start of his journey to his arrival back home, Faith is always in the back of head, making him question his surroundings and own thoughts. It’s hard to determine when he’s speaking of his lovely wife Faith or his Faith in his God and religion. Through his many

In a postmodern world it is worth contemplating in what we can put our faith. Does culture, religion, or God merit our trust? Or is this a world of mechanical and biological evolutionary processes void of any meaning and purpose? The Sunset Limited, “a novel in dramatic form,” by Cormac McCarthy, is a dialogue between two persons who approach each other from opposite worlds to answer these questions. Black, a born-again believer and ex-con, and White, a nihilistic college professor, attempt to determine whether belief in God is viable in this world and if life is worth living. Despite Black’s efforts to convince him otherwise, White remains a Depressed Self who denies God’s existence, affirms his view of the world as deranged, and leaves to complete his suicide.