To understand Luke Ripley’s moral quandary, you must know who he is as a person, his character, and the virtues he possesses. Ripley general life was not so extravagant. He owned a stable of thirty horses in Northeastern Massachusetts, and had young people who taught riding. He had four children – three sons and a daughter. He was divorced, and felt very alone for his only friend was the Father Paul LeBoef who ran the church St. Johns that Ripley attended. According to Christian understanding, Luke was a free person. Being free means he had the power of desire and choice. He could choose how he lived, who he was, his faith, and everything without any great restraints. Another requirement of being free is the

Then you love in weakness, He says.

After everything had passed, Ripley went back to his normal life. He describes his “talks” with God by saying, “He has never spoken to me, but that is not something I require. Nor does he need to. I know Him, as I know the part of myself that knows Him, that felt Him watching from the wind that night as I kneeled over the dying boy.” (Dubus 166). This statement tells much about Ripley’s idea of his relationship with God. He believes God is there watching and judging and he does not think God cares about him personally. His idea of a strict God also explains why he things being a real Catholic would be so hard, because it would be hard to please God. Ripley acknowledges the presence and power of God, and he feels guilt about what he did. He chose ”protecting” his daughter over doing the thing he knows God would have required. Through Ripley’s sin, he moves further away from God. He says, “I do not feel the peace I once did; not with God, nor the earth, or anyone on it. I have begun to prefer this state, to remember worth fondness the other one as a period of peace I neither earned nor deserved.” (Dubus166). Ripley feels this way because he never truly felt loved by God. Ripley’s relationship with God was one of God rituals he performed. There was no real relationship. He easily trades that ‘relationship’ with God for his love and relationship with his daughter, because it made Ripley feel needed. He knows what he did was not correct or moral, but he doesn’t feel regret.

Rituals are Ripley’s life, until the day that his daughter who was intoxicated hit and killed a man. Ripley is faced with a hard decision, whether to help the man and turn in his daughter or to protect his daughter by covering up her accident. He decides not to inform anyone at first, and went to go look for the body himself. Ripley found the young man dying in a ditch. Ripley watched as the young man died. As he prays for the dead man, he starts to realize the extent of what he’s done. “Then I kneeled again and prayed for the his soul to join in peace and joy all the dead and the living; and, going so, confronted my first sin against him, not stopping for Father Paul, who could have given him the last rites, and immediately then my second one, or, I saw then, my first, not calling an ambulance to meet me there…”(Dubus 162). He chose to cover up for his daughter’s wrong doing instead of trying to help this man in any way because he felt that it was more important to protect his daughter. He realizes what he just did was not moral, but he does not try to fix it in any way. Instead, he continues to cover

Some topics in this essay:
Father Paul, Dubus Ripley’s, Eucharist Mass, Luke Ripley, Crucifixion Ripley, Hope QUOTE, God God, Rituals Ripley’s, God Ripley, Justice Fortitude, moral quandary, love daughter, ripley feels, dubus 166, father paul, relationship god, story ripley, luke ripley, love love, love love love, virtues faith,