Salvation Through Suffering by O’Connor and Defot

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Salvation through religion
Solitary existence as a path to salvation
The nature of suffering
Different hopes but the common end
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

The prize of life depends upon a range of priorities a person settles. Sometimes people are unable to point out the values and, therefore, they do not realize that life itself is the actual value. However, when people are on the edge of death they are ready to overcome all the difficulties. The inborn instincts induce people to suffer to live further. Still, there are cases when people’s salvation is reached only through confession and death. Both stories under consideration depict the theme of salvation through suffering. However, this concept is revealed in different ways. Thus, A Good Man is Hard to Find by O’Connor discloses salvation in the light of false confession for the sins whereas Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe touches upon veritable issues of religious confession.

Salvation through religion

At first sight, the ideas of the work are different due to the different genres and styles. However, what is common about them is that both revealed the topic of salvation from sin and the religious faith in God. Thus, O’Connor’s Grandmother calls herself a rather religious person so that when she encounters the Misfit she tries to flatter him and to remind him about the sins. In its turn, the novel Robinson Crusoe is a story about a sailor who became the symbol of salvation himself. On the island, Robinson did not forget the Word of God believing that it is the only way for the salvation of soul and mind (Defoe, 241). He was convinced that through suffering God helps him to reduce to redemption. His Christian devotion was also revealed through his constant telling Friday about God and Devil as if being obliged to God’s missioner.

Solitary existence as a path to salvation

Both books depict that the protagonists are isolated from the real world and society. The grandmother is confident that there is no good man in the world. She is disappointed with the society she lives in thus creating some moral barriers. Being stuck in the past, she suffers from solitary existence since no one in the family does not deserves her respect. In that regard, the only salvation from solitary existence is the trip to her past that would bring her relief. She despises the world and the family who do not understand her feelings. The only person that deserves her attention is the Misfit, the murderer who helps her to deprive her of all the sins by killing her.

Unlike Grandmother, Robinson was isolated from the world against his will. He was forced to be separated from civilized society to create his own world on the island. The shipwreck was perceived by him as the sign of redemption for the sins he had done in the other world. Thus, the island symbolizes the beginning of new life where moral but not material values mattered. The reappraisal of the values through suffering and confession triggers him to live further. Like Grandmother in A Good Man is Hard to Find, he gets disappointed with the world he lived in but the difference is that Robinson finds his salvation not through death but through his burning desire to live. In the course of living on the desert island, he improves his outlook on the sense of his existence.

The nature of suffering

It should be stressed that books accentuate the similar nature of their suffering. Like Robinson, Grandmother is torturing since she cannot find someone who would conform to her ideas and therefore she intentionally separates herself from society. She is grateful to the Misfit who set her free from loneliness by granting the eternal life. In Robison Crusoe, Friday saves the sailor from being alone on the desert island. Hence, in both cases, the main problem is the lack of human understanding. Still, what differentiates Robinson from Grandmother is his willingness to be a part of the society whereas the old “lady” expresses her reluctance to live in it. Therefore, the Misfit and Friday are the only way to fulfill their needs of human communication and to open the path of redemption.

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What Are the Examples of Verbal Irony in A Good Man is Hard to Find?

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What is The Misfit’s Name in A Good Man Is Hard to Find?

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It is obvious that there are considerable differences in the validity of their faith and the way people experience suffering in order to achieve salvation. Thus, in the story, A Good Man is Hard to Find the main heroine, Grandmother, finds her salvation in death since had never been a better woman but only now. The writer tries to show her redemption in the way she died with her legs “crossed under like a child’s” (O’Connor, 51) However, her redemption was not real but the result of fear to pass away. Throughout the novel, there is an interruption between her behavior at the beginning of the story and her false confession at the end of it.

Different hopes but the common end

Though both stories end in a different way, the final outcome is common. Thus in A Good Man is Hard to find the Grandmother finds her relief only at the end of her life. She rigorously believes that her soul would reincarnate and she would finally obtain freedom. Death helps her put off barriers and achieve equilibrium; she believes that in Heaven she would find good men. In the second work, Crusoe stays alive outsight but her dead insight. Being on the island, he undergoes suffering both physical and moral. Still, he realizes that human communication is of paramount importance for a person. Hence, his salvation through suffering is reached by depriving him of society. As a result, both protagonists undergo moral and physical suffering.

The major difference between the works also lies in their perception of time and space. Thus, the Grandmother strives to the past believing that the trip to the past would help her to acquire forgiveness. Still, she exists beyond real-time because she has no prospects in the future. In contrast, Robinson was gone with the past finding himself in the primitive world where he also loses the perception of time. However, unlike Grandmother, the sailor is in a desperate search of the future. The hope for the future did not leave whereas the old lady is already predetermined to die since she is convinced that this world does not have chances for salvation. By this, she shows her superiority over the people. In Defoe’s story, the hero discovers his reincarnation through social degradation placing himself on the lowest stage of civilized development.

Conclusion

Despite the fact that both books were written in different times and manners, they reveal similar values and vices of humanity. Both stories show how different people in different ways find confession and the sense of existence. Though salvation from sins was uncovered in both stories, still the prize they paid for this is different.

Works Cited

Defoe, Daniel, The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. London: Routledge, Warne, and Routledge, 1984.

O’Connor, Flannery,& Asals, Frederick A Good Man is Hard to Find. US: Rutgers University Press, 1993.

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