Slaughterhouse Five Post

Religion is a big part of Slaughterhouse Five. The serentiy prayer's motif shows that religion (as a symbol) is indeed important. Although the superiority versus inferiority of religion versus concrete science is not addressed, the mention of religion can lead us to understand Vonnegut's stance on this issue. Maybe, the serenity prayer and the cross on Billy's wall is apparent in order to show some practicality to Billy after the trauma of war. It could also hold the hidden meaning to Vonnegut's opinion that religion brings about sanity in our insane world, it is the concrete rock (apart from concrete science) that no outside stimulus could alter. The serenity prayer repeated shows the full circle of the power of religion to base ourselves off of.

I think Beloved addresses my question silently. Although true religion is never directly touched upon, one could argue that Sethe's religion was slave to the past emotionally. Religion, in some ways, can be an inside belief one is attached to throughout life's experiences. Sethe is attached to her past, through the ghost of her dead baby, Beloved. As Beloved is nearly ressurected, she becomes the physical chains to her past. I wonder if this submission to such an eficacy shows enough dedication and energy that it could be considered a "religion" in it's own sense. Tough to tell, the church is mentioned quite a few times, but only evil doings occur in their so the church couldn't possibly symbolize the stereotypical holiness it usually is labeled as. I think Morrison did not mean to address my issue, but if I dug deep enough, I could find something that relates. Although, I think this stretch may in a sense be harmful to Morrison's overall intent. "This book is not about slavery," a quite debatable statement indeed by the author herself, but if she says so, it must be. In the same way, this book is definately not about religion, so finding any correlation would be detrimental towards Morrison's overall intent which seems to be more focused on the emotional effects slavery imprints on it's victims.

The Stranger

The Stranger is about a secular man living in a dominantly secular world.  Albert Camus does not present the religious side to dealing with any of the problems Mersault encounters. Evidently enough, Camus uses the neglect of Mersault through his life experiences to show that through this life, secular dealings are the only solution. However, when reviewing the book maybe Camus uses this horrible fate of Mersault to highlight that attending to problems through a secular lens does not work, and only something greater, possibly a religious lens, could affectively help cope with the problems presented through The Stranger. Although this idea may be applicable, no sign of any religious aspect is used throughout the story, which leads me to believe this secular insufficiency concept was not Camus' intention. Unlike the Stranger, Crime and Punishment uses little traces of religion to usher in that other side to dealing with life, and by the end it was evident Dostoyevsky intended to highlight secular insufficiency compared to religious superiority.  Camus does not show any intention of doing this, which highlights his idea of neglect of religion both through him and through Mersault. The Stranger, and Camus, if addressed my question, would probably respond something like, "What is religion?  Religion sounds illogical, don't put your faith in things you cannot see."