The Reluctant Fundamentalist

In “The Semplica-Girl Diaries”, George Saunders makes an important statement about the role of materialism in the American Dream, and how this materialism may not be the key to happiness many believe it to be. Saunders tells of a middle class family that strives to meet the standards of their peers and find a happier life. The father, who acts as the narrator, believes that acquiring and spending money on material objects, specifically the Semplica Girls, will improve the family’s life by improving how the family’s financial situation appears to others. The father’s primary values are that wealth and social standing are crucial to attaining the good life, and he believes the purchase of the Semplica Girls will fulfill these values. However, it is clear from the family’s ultimate situation and the disapproval of the mother’s successful father, that the narrator’s beliefs are misguided and potentially damaging to the family.

What is atheism? Why would someone be an atheist? Why do people fear and dislike atheism? Simply stated, atheism is the lack of belief in a god or gods. Granted, atheists are each individuals and undoubtedly each of them prescribe [to] many different philosophies on life, politics and morality as do Christians. However, though atheists may choose to gather collectively for whatever purpose, unlike Christianity, atheism is not a belief system. An individual who identifies himself as an atheist is merely stating that he does not believe in [the existence of] god or gods. Atheism, as indicated by its name, is the opposite of theism which is belief in at least one god; to include polytheism (belief in many or more than one god) and monotheism

In using the motifs to convey a variety of messages, the relationship between Changez and Erica is especially saturated with clues of their secret identities. Erica had only one previous lover, Chris, her childhood sweetheart who died of cancer in late adolescence and whom she is never able to let go. Initially, she was severely depressed but eventually recovered from the ordeal. However, as Erica's intimacy with Changez grows, so does her feeling of nostalgia. The September 11 attacks triggers a relapse in Erica and she becomes more and more obsessed with Chris. She rejects Changez physically and is only able to have sex with him when they pretend

She is dressed very wealthy, has expensive jewelry, drinks alcohol, and has a bob cut. These were the qualities of the new woman compared to the previous traditional woman’s beliefs and ways of life. James Braddock’s luxury lifestyle, including his family, home, and wealth, represents the 1920’s atmosphere of growth and the booming time that was soon to vanish from the Great Depression.

The Fundamentalist-Modernist dispute was a religious dispute that occurred in the 1920s and 1930s within the confines of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America that ended up creating separation in most of the American Christian movements also. In fact, convinced that the literal truth of the Bible formed the basis of Christian belief, fundamentalists initiated a campaign to eradicate Protestant denominations of modernism and to fight the new individual freedoms that seemed to contradict traditional morality (Foner 788). What is more, the press portrayed fundamentalism as a movement of backwoods bigots. Yet, it was a national phenomenon. Fundamentalism continued to be an important strain of 1920s politics and culture (Foner

The Progressive Era gave reformers concerns about the poor of American cities. Many developed the view that poverty was a result of some people’s characters and not their environmental and social condition. This brought up the argument and idea of the deserving poor versus the non-deserving poor. This alluded to the thought that character made a person poor and not that being poor made the character. However, Stephen Crane’s short story Maggie: A Girl of the Streets critiques many of these ideas. His biggest critique was that of religion and the standards and hypocrisy of it. This essay will argue that Crane critiques the hypocrisy of Christianity and Christians through the characterization of a wide range of characters in his novel.

Khan starts off her piece by recounting a personal story—the day her family arrived to the United States and how her "Indian Muslim family became Latino." The change was made so that a nominee for governor would win because her family believed support from Muslims would hurt the candidate. Through the small story the reader begins to learn of the prejudice Muslims face, as the author's father wanted "to change the family's ethnic and religious identities

It is with his first few sentences that author, Nathan Hatch, lets the readers know about the scope and the reason for his book The Democratization of American Christianity. Nathan Hatch, who is currently the president of Wake Forest University in Wake Forest, NC and was previously the dean and provost at Notre Dame, states, “This book is about the cultural and religious history of the early American republic and the enduring structures of American Christianity. It argues both that the theme of democratization is central to understanding the development of American Christianity, and that the years of the early republic are the most crucial in revealing that process.” (3) The freedom and liberty that were experienced by people in America’s infancy bled into all aspects of life: government, family, and religion. It was this freedom that gave many in the church the boldness to either go and start churches, or serve as a leader in the church: things that were not an option during their time in England. A great deal of church growth in early America can be attributed to this freedom and the conversion of the masses to the various denominations that were available to the early Americans, choices that they did not have while in England. In telling the story of the growth of Protestantism in America, Hatch regales the readers with stories and information about a fascinating time in the history of the American Protestantism. It was a time filled with such varied and unique

It was a time where slavery and racism were at an all time high in America when Richard Allen bought his freedom from his master in 1786. He had been born into slavery in 1760 and was sold with his family to a new master at a very young age. This in itself was fortunate since many slave families were separated when they were sold. Allen would go on to become the founder of the first national black church in the United States and become one of the most influential black leaders and activists in America. He fought for religious rights, education for black children, rights for blacks, and against slavery. He was a founder for the Free African Society and was also a participating member of the Underground Railroad to help runaway slaves. Richard Allen dedicated his life trying to better the quality of life for those is his community as well as all blacks in the United States, both the free and the enslaved.

Her daydream of her “more exciting matters” in Modern Novel class gives readers a better understanding of her ‘American Dream’. In which she is wearing an ideal American private school clothing, with a typical American hair style, a handsome professor who falls in love with her and asks to marry her, unlike her Aunt, as she comments, “No arranged marriage like Aunt’s for me” (76).

Other factors lead to Eveline being fearful of change. Not only change in commitments but change in physical surroundings are things she does not embrace, though she has been surrounded by change most of her life; when she was a child, she would play in the field with the neighbor children every evening, until it was built upon. She has also experienced change in the form of death; childhood friends, her brother and her mother - all are dead. Death is not a positive representation of change to be sure. As Evelyn ponders change, she comes to the realization that the physical surroundings of her everyday life would no longer be there. The furnishings, the pictures, the curtains, even the dust would be distant memories! Things she has unknowingly drawn comfort from her entire life would not be there to comfort her; they would be gone. Change may not be something she wants.

One’s inner metamorphosis begins with the general disillusionment with one’s surrounding environment. Such a disillusionment can come in quick succession, as with that of Esther Greenwood in The Bell Jar, or more gradually, as that of Antoine Roquentin in Nausea. The Bell Jar begins with the reader experiencing this subconscious disappointment along with Esther as she struggles along her dream internship at a fashion magazine in New York City. “I was supposed to be having the time of my life,” (Plath 2) she quips at one point. Her ideal cosmopolitan life began to reveal its rotten insides to her as she spends her summer in the fashion sphere of New York. Her disdain for this lifestyle begins as she witnesses her fellow interns’ gratuitous exploits, “When I woke up… I think I still expected to see Doreen’s body lying there in the pool of vomit like an ugly, concrete testimony to my own dirty nature,” (24) continues with her sexual experiences that fall far short of her expectations, “…he just stood there in front of me and I kept on staring at

“ You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” (Tan, Amy) Like Tan in her narrative “Fish Cheeks”, everyone has had a time in their lives when they wanted to fit in at school or home. Sometimes it is hard to try to blend into the surroundings. Moving from Boston to Tallahassee has taught me a lot about such things like honor, pride, and self-reliance. Such is related to us in Wilfred Owens’s “Dulce et Decorum est” which is about his experience in World War I. Sometimes experiences such as moving can teach more about life than any long lecture from any adult. As the old saying goes: “Actions speak louder than words.”

“American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us,” by Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell, and “America and the Challenges of Religious Diversity,” by Robert Wuthnow, give different thoughts to religion and politics in the United States. Putnam and Campbell utilize the concepts of shocks and aftershocks to highlight religious changes in the United States. On the other hand, Wuthnow uses observations to focus on the encounters of religious diversity in the United States. Wuthnow compares American Christianity with other popular religions in America and how Christianity has affected the perception of religion. Putnam and Campbell’s “American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us” is a more persuasive assessment of American religion and politics.

The character and idea of Erika also adds to the tension of the novel, drawing the focus from Changez by exploring the ideas of Nostalgia in America; a largetheme that Hamid wishes to express in his writing. Hamid constructs Erika to be a parallel of America, and as Erika’s condition deteriorates, so does that of America. Erika as a character is deeply troubled, even before her relapse she can be seen to be ‘broken’. Changez’ perception of her though is that she is ‘regal’, which is how he originally viewed America, as a place of opportunity. From the beginning the signs of Erika’s nostalgia are clear, with her description of Chris as ‘old world’, showing her longing for the innocence of childhood and her desire to be back in her paradise with Chris. The inability of Changez to ‘enter her’, and when ‘her body rejects [him]’ are parallels to the way America does not fully accept Changez, who is seen