The Great Divorce Analysis

The conception of Heaven and Hell is meant to provide a means of justice in the afterlife, C.S. Lewis has a different view than the traditional idea on what that may look like. In “The Great Divorce”, Lewis defends that God is just by writing about a just version of Heaven and Hell. First, I summarize a general image of the traditional Christian idea of Heaven and Hell and explain the issues that come with it. Next, I offer C.S. Lewis’s counter position on Heaven and Hell. Lastly, I assess Lewis’s conception, arguing that it does not escape the justice issue of the traditional image of the afterlife.

Amato, Paul R, and Alan Booth. “A Prospective Study of Divorce and Parent-Child Relationships.” Journal of Marriage and Family 58.2 (1996): 356–365. Web. 5 Nov. 2016.

in divorce. There is a lot of stress on all the people involved. The man has

In The Great Divorce, the narrator suddenly, and inexplicably, finds himself in a grim and joyless city (the "grey town", representative of hell). He eventually finds a bus for those who desire an excursion to some other place (and which eventually turns out to be the foothills of heaven). He enters the bus and converses with his fellow passengers as they travel. When the bus reaches its destination, the "people" on the bus — including the narrator — gradually realize that they are ghosts. Although the country is the most beautiful they have ever seen, every feature of the landscape (including streams of water and blades of grass) is unbearably solid compared to themselves: it causes them immense pain to walk on the grass, and even a

Sociologically speaking divorce from structural functionalism point of view is seen as a failure of society as compared to individual faults. The view has a macroscopic lens that sees that society should provide adequate education and guidelines to couples making their marriages suc-cessful. This can be done by effectively communicating with each other, creating harmony and consistency among partners. Symbolic/social interactionism view divorce as an individual deci-sion by two people influenced by their social habits and environment. The view is of microscopic nature because all it comes down to is choices made by an individual deriving from their interac-tions in the society. In most societies divorce is an expensive procedure as it involves

Heaven is a conceptual place where the human race will end up after their life on earth. It is a place where no sin is found causing everyone to live in complete peace. But what if living a life without sin is unimaginably difficult? And what if being confronted about your sins made you want to turn away from a life of perfection? C.S. Lewis makes a claim about this concern in his book, The Great Divorce. He analyzes the behavior of humans in accordance with their sinful habits. The Great Divorce focuses on the point of view of the Narrator who lives in a gloomy and dismal Hell when an otherworldly bus stops by and takes the passengers to Heaven. Everyone is eager to get on the bus when promised an oasis from the gloomy setting of Hell. Once

The Great Divorce starts out by describing Hell as something similar to a city on earth except deserted. C.S. Lewis writes that the town, where the bus stop is, contains shops and warehouses, but it is gloomy and very few people are present. Those who are introduced in the exposition of the book are only in this deserted part of Hell to catch the next bus to the Valley of the Shadow of Life or Heaven. The shops and warehouses are gloomy and look worn with time. The narrator describes the warehouses as “windowless” and the houses as “dingy.” When the bus arrives, everyone scrambles and fights their way onto the bus even though there are few people present and clearly plenty of room for all of the people who want to get on. Heaven is given a

In The Great Divorce, Lewis uses the conversation with the murderer and the innocent bystander to illustrate that those who end up in hell are those who desire justice over mercy. In the story, the “decent chap” believes that his life on earth merited him heaven, and he is confused as to why the murderer got into heaven. He believed that he could earn his way into heaven through his works: through justice. This ghost saw the offer of salvation through repentance as charity. Since he believed salvation came through his works, he refused to accept salvation as a gift. This ghost prided himself on his own works, and this led him to damnation. He cried, “I came here to get my rights, see? Not to go sniveling along on charity tied onto you apron-strings”

Thus far, the information I have learned this week has truly altered the way I view the world around me, and has caused me to reanalyze different experiences from my past. For example, as stated in the textbook, “4 out of every 10 marriages… will eventually end in divorce,” (Newman, p.7). When my parents announced their divorce, I blamed myself, as most young kids do. At the time, all my close friends had parents who were still together. This made me feel like an outcast, and for years I refused to tell anyone that my parents were divorced. To this day I still struggle with it and I would always think about what my siblings and I could have done differently. Using a sociological imagination allows me to look at the bigger picture and realize that divorce is very common and nobody in my family is to blame.

The Great Divorce is an allegorical book that takes the narrator on a bus ride from hell to heaven. Lewis’ idea is to show that one reaches heaven rather then hell or purgatory. Heaven and hell are described as very real places as both distinguished by either eternal happiness or despair. Lewis develops themes that affects a Christian’s salvation such as pride, arrogance, and love. All the ghost within entering the heaven are given a chance to stay only if they repent by accepting God and letting go of their petty interests. There are many examples given of such people who simply do not give up their pride, ego, and vice and return to the gray town or the hell. This extended metaphor describes in detail what prevents people from choosing heaven

According to HuffPost Divorce readers, there are numerous things that divorced people wish others knew. Below is a summary of a few of the pieces of advice that were given:

Great Brittan has one of the highest divorce ratings in the world but the people who are heading to divorce court may not be who you would suspect. The demographic with one of the highest divorce rating is the “silver splitters” men’s age groups up to 50 and women up to 45. And the other notable group is the younger generation marriages often divorcing in the first ten years of marriage. The number 1 reason for divorcing is “unreasonable behavior”. The government is also doing little to help support families in the way of taxes, doing away with the family tax credit in April of 2000. The UK has some instances of forced marriages, families sending the intended away while on school break never to return. Legislative has been restricted on how they can help protect citizens this year a law was enacted called the Forced Marriage Protection Orders to

My Mom and Dad fought a lot, it made me sad. A long time ago they fought about my Dad taking me to my grandma’s house here in Sublette but, my Mom wanted me to stay in McPherson with her.

In the last 25 years, divorce has become a major issue in American society. Since the turn of the century, the divorce rate has held steady between 4.0-3.2 divorces per 1000 people per year (National Vital Statistics System, 2015). With this rising divorce rate, more children are living between parents, or in single family homes, and many of these children have been exposed to altercations between parents, as well as rough custody battles and divorce settlements. Traumatic experiences like these are highly likely to stick with children of divorce throughout their life, especially if the child is older at the time of the divorce.

Divorce was not widely practiced however wasn’t defined as a sin. Divorce was allowed only under certain circumstances; such circumstances include adultery, false contract, neglect, desertion, failure to provide and physical violence. Divorce was seen as means to keep family and social order safe and in order.