Posted by Ritch on June 12, 2002, at 23:28:41
In reply to Re: What I found really interesting... » Ritch, posted by mair on June 12, 2002, at 21:56:39
> Mitch
>
> I agree with you about Owen, but it is a belief that he grows into over a period of time - hence all the meetings with Pastor Merrill.
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> I'm not sure what Pastor Merrill's role is other than as the object of scorn by Johnny. I think Johnny is so convinced that Owen is an agent of God, that he's rather contemptuous of anyone who doesn't share that. Not so much his stepfather Dan - but more so Pastor Merrill because Merrill was the subject of one of those miracles - when he spoke Owen's voice.
>
> When you think about it, Johnny really is a very intolerant person, and angry I think. He's angry towards the government and contemptuous of other American's in Canada. He doesn't tolerate change well as evidenced by his dislike of the newer Canon in his church. Why do you think he's all of that and yet totally unassimilated into Canadian life - he becomes a man without a country?
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> MairAha!, I had forgotten about the meetings with Pastor Merrill. So you think that Owen would have been reading the "doubting" Thomas Aquinas if it weren't for Merrill? My take on that notion is that Merrill was trying to "convert" Owen's simple faith to an intellectual study, and he got reading assignments. ..and Owen wound up *finding* intellectual support for his own "primitive" beliefs. I am not so sure that Johnny is convinced that Owen is an agent of God. Remember, after Owen dies, when Johnny is going through his stuff and hears what Mr. Meany says? He wanted to *kill* him and stuff Mrs. Meany into the fireplace (similar to his father wishing his mother were dead just before the foul ball-and Mrs. Meany dies from getting caught on fire)! I think that Johnny has always been a "doubter" like his father Pastor Merrill. When he found out the "reason" why Owen had his beliefs he was angry at Mr. Meany for filling Owen with all of that irrationality. If he really believed all along that Owen was truly an instrument of God, he shouldn't have been shocked or upset at that revelation.
The politics in the book are very important (but not my favorite part-because I find politics ugly aesthetically). Some quotes that I found a little interesting were: "THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN GET AMERICANS TO *NOTICE* ANYTHING IS TO TAX THEM OR DRAFT THEM OR KILL THEM."...."IF YOU ABOLISH THE DRAFT, MOST AMERICANS WILL SIMPLY STOP CARING ABOUT WHAT WE'RE DOING IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD." I think that is fairly accurate. If droves of the upper-middle class were being drafted right now-I think our current policies would be scrutinized a lot more!
Mitch
poster:Ritch
thread:448
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/books/20020206/msgs/487.html