James Baldwins Go Tell It On the Mountain and Alice Sebolds The Lovel

mob Baldwins Go separate It On the Mountain and Alice Sebolds The Lovely Bones In most religions, specially the Judeo-Christian faith, heaven or the after flavour is a place dumb for those who are able to somehow earn or receive an ordained place there during their life on earth. In the Christian tradition, those who micturate eternal life are able to forgo the earthly pleasures that tempt them while they live, and form a separate entity that extinguishs carnality and remains pliable to God. While recognizing themselves as inherently sinful creatures, they keyk to come as close as they can to the holiness of the divine during their life on earth, in order to reap the benefits after death. A separation from the humanness and an blushtual union with the divine is seen as the ultimate terminal of the believer. aliveness is but a means to a final spiritual end. James Baldwins novel Go Tell It On the Mountain effectively draws these ideas through the lives of its man y characters. In contrast to the Christian idea of rejecting carnality while alive to attain salvation, Alice Sebold uses her novel The Lovely Bones to portray coming of age as developing an mogul to embrace life and succeed in it despite the pain and evil it can contain, and to see life as a fleeting privilege that, lived well, is an ultimate goal in itself. One important issue that distinguishes the differences between the perspectives of the two novels is that of lenity and rejection. In Go Tell It On the Mountain, judgment of sinners is highly emphasized, even if the sinners in questions are family members. Once someone becomes saved, they are expected to reject all ties associated with the world. In Baldwins novel, the protagonist reflects that, h... ...t life for both the gaiety and pain it inflicts on all people. To Sebold, the divine can and is present in carnality. While the word has a traditionally negative connotation, here it is vocalization of all that is associated with life itself. In this novel, carnality is not sin it is living. Alice Sebold presents a moving and telling novel of loss and gain, despair and great happiness. To her, the ability to live life, and the willingness to accept it, are the marks of maturity, and the definition of love. While Susie, simply in heaven, cannot live as her family does, she comes of age as she releases them to their lives and moves on in her own world without them. The reader knows, as the novel closes with Susies part words, that their protagonist is at peace, and that love has indeed won out everywhere despair. I wish you all a long and happy life.