In our collective exploration of religious themes in literature, I think it is incredibly useful to set up a comparison of Flannery O"Conner's The Violent Bear it Away and The Lame Shall Enter First. These two works seem to be, in many ways, the same characters creating the same story. However, she wrote Violent Bear it Away in 1960 and The Lame Shall Enter First in 1962. Going as far to, then, call The Lame Shall Enter a sort of retelling of The Violent Bear It Away it is interesting to consider in what ways the works are similar, what common statement O"Conner was making with both, and what literary changes she explored in writing the latter. .
In a letter to Cecil Dawkins in 1958, O"Connor writes: "The notion of the perfectibility of man came about at the time of the Enlightenment in the 18th century.The Liberal approach is that man has never fallen, never incurred guilt, and is ultimately perfectible by his own unaided efforts. Therefore, evil in this light is a problem of better housing, sanitation, health, etc. and all mysteries will eventually be cleared up. Judgment is out of place because man is not responsible." This interpretation of Liberal Atheism seems to be the skeleton to both Sheppard and Rayber. When first writing this reaction, I was going through great lengths to show the many similarities of the characters as a means for proof of my thesis, but I think the correlation is pretty obvious. Less similar, but still obviously correlated are the characters, Rufus Johnson and Frank Tarwater. The least similarly correlated characters are Norton and Bishop. The stories are similar on a number of levels. Both are built around a theme of the conflict between the liberal atheist views, the beliefs of a certain southern brand of Christianity, and the failure of both. Even in miniscule details, the author sets up similar stories, with the way the Liberal self-riotously eats cereal every morning, and the back-woods Christian fanatic sleeping in the bed of the missing mother.
Bishop's heart is like that of the Jesus, even after he being continually resisted and pushed away, his love for others does not wither. ... Even despite all that the pain that he bears there is nothing that Rayber can do to hinder Bishop from reaching out. ...
Polar Bear SPECIES- Ursus Maritimus, Polar Bear, lord of the Arctic. ... The bear would usually stay in a den or bury it self in the snow to avoid the suns ultra violent rays. ... No predator on earth approaches the bear in size. ... It was done by using two planes, one plane would land near the bear and the other would scare and chase the bear to the men on the ground. ... The polar bear is not that far away from extinction, there is still a good number of them left. ...
In this country people have always had the right to bear arms; it has not only become a hobby, but also a sport. ... So what if the right to bear arms were to be stripped of the american people? ... Therefore, gun ownership is cutting down on the amount of violent crime officers have to deal with first hand. ... On the other hand taking the right away altogether isn't going to help anyone in that situation either. ... But if we, as a nation, are to keep this controversial right to bear arms, steps to precaution must be taken. ...
Rights that we cannot have taken away from us, the right to protect our freedom. ... Citizens have the right to bear arms. ... The law today goes as followed: "Any firearm used in a violent crime is punishable by law. ... For violent crimes; assault, robbery and rape, guns were used 0.87% of the time in self-defense. ... "In the U.S. more than 300,000 violent crimes are committed using guns" (Cole). ...
." - James Earl Jones The Second Amendment of the American Constitution states that every U.S. citizen has the right to own a gun: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed" (Constitution, 160). No matter what situations take place in the world that right should never be taken away. ... From 1973 to 2009 gun related crimes decreased sixty-five percent, although the United States is a far more violent country than any other nation, gun related crimes are decreasing. ... Guns were cr...
However, our right to bear arms as stated in the Second Amendment should not be limited and should not be taken away, because though it may seem promising, it is an intrusion on self defense and will not make any real changes to our violent society. ... The Second Amendment states that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed ", meaning that the people of the United States are entitled to own guns, and the government cannot take away that right. A large debate, is if citizens should have the right to bear assault weapons. ... In fact, the most violent mass shooti...
Issue of Gun Control and Violence The issue of gun control and violence, both in Canada and the United States, is one that simply will not go away. ... Is it our right to bear arms as North Americans? ... Informed law enforcement officers in Canada, as in the United States, view the "impact of restricting the availability of firearms is more likely to impact on those violent incidents that would not have happened had a weapon been at hand"(152). ... From the study conducted by Sproule and Kennett the rate of violent crimes was five times greater in the U.S than Canada...
Guns have been a part of our lives for a long time, and there should be no reason to take them away now. ... Gun control advocates claim that the restriction of the availability of guns would greatly reduce violent crime; however, with gun control the law-abiding public would not be able to offer any protection for themselves and would have to depend upon the government for safety (NRA-ILA 7). The anti-gun control group has always looked to the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution as a basis of its belief in the public's right to keep and bear arms. ... The Second Amendme...
If the right to bear arms was removed from the constitution who's to say someone will not try to take more rights away. ... Militia refers to all citizens having the right to bear arms." ... Nevertheless, the percent of assault weapons used in violent crimes has decreased very little. ... This is why I feel it is important to bear arms. ... We should not have our rights taken away because criminals commit crimes with firearms; this should never infringe on the right of the people to bear arms. ...
