Gilead Post One

Note: I no longer have a computer that can connect to the internet, so I had to write this on my phone. That means that I have to battle auto correct and Swype at times to get the right words. I may have missed some incorrect words while proofreading this.

Note: I'm not sure if you're going to count the kittens as characters, but I'm going to because I ready like this passage and found it very interesting. 


     Early in the novel, the narrator tells a story about baptizing a litter of cats.  He "moistened their brows, repeating the full Trinitarian formula" (p 22). While children are known to enjoy baby animals, it is not often that one hears about them baptizing said baby animals. The fact that the children decided to baptize these kittens shows how pious they are, even at a young age. It also shows a tenderness in their hearts, as shown by the narrator saying that, as the mother carried her kittens off, "we were fairly sure that some of the creatures had been borne away still in the darkness of paganism, and that worried us a good deal" (p 22). The good in the hearts of the children caused for them to worry about the souls of these tiny animals -- something that the adults in their community would not have considered. Their treatment of the kittens also suggests something about their values. Although a few of the kittens were adopted, the rest were left to live on their own. In the children's minds, the best way to help the kittens was not to give them food or shelter but to give them a blessing. This suggests that the children, particularly the narrator, believe that the most important thing anyone or anything can have is religion. This further proves how pious they are, even at a young age.
     This demonstration of the piousness of the narrator as well as the following expansion of his beliefs where he says things such as "it doesn't enhance sacredness, but acknowledges it, and there is a power in that. I have felt it pass through me, so to speak" (p 23), add to the religious nature of the book and give the reader further insight into the charger of the narrator.