Literature

After having studied the 5 books that are compulsory for Lit, I don't think I've ever mentioned before, but Oranges is one of my favourites. Since I've left off from the previous post about Oranges, I would like to continue it here in this post. It's okay if you don't take Lit, or care much about reading the book up on your own, but here's some really thoughtful excerpts from the novel:

"That is the way with stories; we make them what we will. It's a way of explaining the universe while keeping the universe unexplained, it's a way of keeping it all alive, not boxing it into time.

Everyone tells a story tells it differently, just to remind us that everybody sees it differently."

The book has large focuses on religion, or more specifically, on Christianity.

The conflicting views of the fundamentalist mother enforcing upon Jeanette's views, to conform to the conventions of the church, with her binary definitions that there exists only good and evil, makes even the purest child lost and confused. There are friends, and there are enemies. A person is either holy or evil. There is no room in the world for non-religious people even if they are essentially good people - and they are much referred to as the Heathen. Yet, Jeanette, like many of us non-extremists, prefer to see others as individuals.

Just because someone doesn't belong in the church, doesn't mean that person is an evil. The recurrent events of Louie who goes around evangelizing, tells converts they have been saved, and to the non-converts, that it's their choice for damnation.

It's the same with life as it is with religion, we always have to make choices. Small ones, big ones, they dot our entire life journey. People come and go, and all the differing views are littered everywhere. It's impossible to get everyone to compromise on a same view, because we are just not wired up that way.

And I chanced upon this particular paragraph which reinforces on my previous post about faith:

Mrs Rothwell gone off by herself to commune with the Spirit. She was old and deaf and so engrossed that she never saw the tide come sloping in. We looked about us, and only by a miracle were we in time to catch sight of Mrs Rothwell's waving arm as she sank below the surface.

'Is she waving?' May wondered anxiously.

'Drowning more like,' exclaimed Fred, peeling off his jacket and tie. And he thundered off through the breakers.

Immediately the pastor led everyone in prayer, and Mrs White started up with We Have an Anchor. We hardly got to verse 3 when Fred reappeared carrying Mrs Rothwell over his shoulder.

It's quite obvious that the point I would like to drive home is the difference with simply having pure faith and doing something about it. Would the pastor and his congregation have saved the old lady merely by praying? Or would Fred, the one with most common sense, have saved a life with actions? Just having faith alone wouldn't bring a person anywhere, he needs to enforce it upon his actions and allow faith to aid him in propelling beyond boundaries.

All the talk about having faith would be meaningless if we sat by and did nothing to back our faith with actions.