religous commentary in lit.
Often in literature, both modern and classic, authors take the persona of one or more of their characters. Writers do this to portray to the audience their personal perspective on a controversial aspect of their own contemporary setting. A common issue tackled in a variety of different time periods and genres is religion, a controversial subject worldwide since its conception. From this perspective, Duong Thu Huong's Paradise of the Blind and Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary are very different novels, since Madame Bovary is from nineteenth century Western Europe, while Paradise of the Blind is from present day Vietnam. Authorial religious commentary is a common thread that links both of these novels together. However, Huong's and Flaubert's novels both contain lots of negative authorial commentary on their respective religious practices and the religions themselves perhaps because the authors themselves are skeptical about their particular beliefs and motives. Duong Thu Huong implies in Paradise of the Blind that in order for women to succeed and thrive in Vietnamese society, they must break free from the constraints of their confining religion and religious customs. Aunt Tam is the embodiment of this theory. "The festiv
What's to prevent you from saying an Ave Maria and the Lord's Prayer in the morning and at night, just as a precaution? Yes, you can do that! Do it as a favor to me. Flaubert uses the scene with the catechism class to show how wrong things are done in the church. This shows that the priest does not genuinely care about the welfare of Charles and is as ambitious as the next man. This shows the constraints religion cause on the people in Vietnam. Calm, peaceful days far from all the sound and fury (152). At the end of the novel, the future looks optimistic for Hang and it appears that she will be successful on her own. In addition to using Homais to mock the clergy, he uses the priest himself to mock the customs and the religious institution of the Catholic Church. "The priest suddenly burst upon them and dealt out slaps all around (98). The only way she accomplishes this is by neglecting her sacred duties to Aunt Tam:Comets extinguish themselves, but memory refuses to die, and "hell's money" has no value in the market of life. Though once Aunt Tam makes her fortune, she is renewed in religious devotion. Duong Thu Huong uses Hang as her final statement about the validity of all of the excessive religious formalities surrounding the Vietnamese culture. Like Huong, Flaubert also condemns religion through thematic context. Gustave Flaubert sets up Homais as a religious skeptic to provide Flaubert the medium to convey his opinions on the matter.
Common topics in this essay:
Aunt Tam,
Gustave Flaubert,
Tam Comets,
,
Madame Bovary,
Father Bournisien,
Lord's Prayer,
Huong's Flaubert's,
Huong Flaubert,
Paradise Blind,
duong thu,
aunt tam,
duong thu huong,
thu huong,
madame bovary,
gustave flaubert,
thu huong gustave,
huong gustave,
huong gustave flaubert,
paradise blind,
catholic church,
flaubert priest,
aunt tam makes,
flaubert takes,
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Acceptance Essays
