In his memoir When God Looked the Other Way, Wesley recollects his experiences during and after World War II and how they shaped him. Throughout the book, Wesley grasps on to different aspects of his life to help establish his personal identity as a Pole. These different aspects constitute Wesley and his family’s Polishness, which can be said is an individual Polish identity created by one’s visions of nationalism and religion. Throughout the book, the readers can see that Wesley struggles to hold onto many of these characteristics, yet in the end they still continue to shape how Wesley views himself.
Wesley’s memoir starts of with recollections of his childhood. He remembers how much pride he felt towards his country as a boy. He tells about
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the paintings of Polish soldiers in his father’s study and how he loved to listen to his father’s stories about Polish victories. Thus, it can be seen from a very early age that Wesley related military victory with a sense of Polish pride. To him, nationalism was the result of pride that one got upon making gains for the homeland. Additionally, Wesley recounts how religion played a strong role into shaping who he was.
He talks about how “[r]eligion was not a separate area of [their] lives [but] was a part of [their] heritage” (9). Thus he explains the significance that holidays and traditions, such as Easter and Christmas in particular, had in shaping who he was. In fact, Wesley writes that it was these happy memories that convinced him of the existence of God and the power of prayer since, he believed, that was why “nothing bad ever happened to my family or me” (7). Therefore, his faith provided him with a spiritual link to the land that he lived on as it was God who allowed his to lead a happy existence in …show more content…
Poland. However, this was all to change. When the Soviet’s came to deport the family, they stole paintings that Wesley had admired and “smashed [into] the floor in front of [them][a framed photo of Wesley’s father], and stomped on” (30). This scene undermines all the Polish victories that Wesley had so closely associated with his Polish identity and pride. The Soviets came in and destroyed his symbols of Polish greatness. Through this process, the Soviets were beginning to strip the Adamczyk family of their Polish identity and make them question their Polishness, a process that would only continue. Their personal identity was furthered stripped when the Soviets placed them on “train to nowhere.” Wesley remembers how as the crying began to sing the Polish national anthem loudly as “rang out on Soviet soil…[giving them] [a] breath of hope, no matter how futile” (33). He remembers this nationalism from the passengers but it also marks the shift in how Wesley views his Polishness. He was now a boy without a country and, without a homeland, did belong nowhere. With no country to call home, Wesley’s Polishness continues to be called into question.
The family’s Polishness is no longer derived from a certain place, but rather transformed into an introspection of who they are. The Adamczyk’s now stand for the values of Poland, not the actual location of the country. This shift has caused Wesley no longer seems to believe in the things that were so essential to establishing his Polish identity when he was little. This is seen in his shifting view on religion. He writes about how he still prays everyday but “[i]n Kazakhstan, [he] prayed each night, but went to sleep dreading the next day” (69). In addition, the rest of the family also begins to question their faith, a reversal of their previous self-value on
religion. The emphasis on Polish values rather than land is again seen when Wesley tells his sister that he cannot return to Poland since “[their] father died in the name of freedom, and [their] mother died leading us to freedom from our Soviet captors. We needed to stay free at all costs” (191). Thus, Polish nationalism to him has transformed from pride derive from victory to pride obtained through one’s value of freedom. He could not go back to the homeland that he loved if it meant compromising what the war was fought for. His Polishness has now come to define Wesley’s want and need for freedom. After the war was over, Wesley’s Polishness had changed. For example, throughout the war, Wesley’s faith waivered, yet in America, he seeks to make peace with God. He enters the church furious at what God has put him through, a sentiment incoherent with his earlier view of Polishness. However, as he struggles to make peace with God, he realizes that “throughout [his] ten-year odyssey, God has been looking out for [him] all along” (222). Thus, he realizes that throughout this whole ordeal, it is God who has been his conscience and shaped him to be the man that he is today. He is able to reconnect with his younger self and strengthen the faith instilled into him since a young age. Religion once again has become an essential part of Wesley’s identity and keeps him connected with his past by creating a connection with the souls of his parents and his heritage. However, Wesley is still drawn towards the traditional sense of Polish nationalism. One striking example of this is when Wesley feels happy about the portraits of Polish soldiers in his uncle’s house. He tells the readers how these portraits transported him back to his youth and give him “a feeling of belonging” (215). Once again, the Polish victories had given him a sense of pride in who he is and what his people have done for the world. Wesley’s nationalism towards Poland grows after this incident and he begins to once again feel pride in his Polish heritage. Throughout the book, Wesley Adamczyk had a different sense of what constituted his Polishness, what defined his Polish identity. However, despite the obstacles, Wesley shows that it his nationalism and religion that constitute who he is. In the end, Wesley was confronted by two people when he looked into the mirror, a teenager who seems strange to him and a young boy he knows well. He has changed to the point that he does not even recognize himself. Wesley begins to come to terms with this new reality and as he does this, the other boy disappears and becomes part of his memory, something that will continue to shape how he views nationalism and religion for the rest of his life and give him a sense of belonging.
In the film God Grew Tired of Us, it is about these three boys named John, Daniel and Panther who live within in the Northern African continent in the country called Sudan. These four boys lived in the rough in the Sub-Saharan dessert of Africa. Unfortunately, their country today is known to have many wars, refugees and emigration. For themselves, they did not have a fully well life in Sudan where almost the entire populations of the people are in poverty. Since they are country is not controlled they decided to move to the United States of America in the state of New York.
The will of God and the will of humans are two themes in Zora Neale Hurston's amazing work of art, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Not only do both themes play an essential part in the tone of the novel, but they also play into every other major theme of the book. Among these themes are: self-discovery, love, independence, and nature's power in one's life. Both Janie's personal will, and the will of God in this story are used to show the strengths and weakness of Janie as well the rest of the characters. The will of God is seen frequently throughout the novel in order to test Janie and her will. God's will is also seen leading other major and minor characters in the book. The wills of both God and Janie are the guiding forces within the novel and conflict with each other throughout the story to create the backbone of this tale.
Jonathan Edwards's sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is moving and powerful. His effectiveness as an eighteenth century New England religious leader is rooted in his expansive knowledge of the Bible and human nature, as well as a genuine desire to "awaken" and save as many souls as possible. This sermon, delivered in 1741, exhibits Edwards's skillful use of these tools to persuade his congregation to join him in his Christian beliefs.
Wesley thought there was "nothing of greater consequence" than the doctrine of atonement. Without belief in the atonement, religion becomes merely deism, Wesley feared
Throughout time, readers have learned many different lessons from their favourite books. In The Chrysalids, John Wyndam used his story to teach his readers valuable, lifelong lessons. He makes it evident to his readers that prejudging certain people is not right. Also, he relates how change is possible, but hard to achieve. More specifically, religion often influences one’s point of view. John Wyndam’s, The Chrysalids was written with a purpose that teaches his readers about discrimination, about how change is possible, and how religion often influences one’s point of view.
My experience before reading this excerpt? I come from a religious background and I already have had this fear instilled into me. My uncle, who recently just became a pastor after his late father, told me that I should have more fear in God than having fear in the Devil. He told that God is in control of what happens to those who sin and this relates to an excerpt from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God that I pulled out of the Volume 1 Edition of The Bedford Anthology of American Literature.
Once the reader has been successfully drawn into the poem it becomes clear that the soldier telling the tale is both proud of his Queen and scornful of his role in her life. Pride for Queen and country shines t...
In the ‘Sinner of An Angry God’, the author, Jonathan Edwards is consistent into converting the uncovered by describing the wrath of God using emotional appeals toward them such as fear, guilt, and pity. Moreover, he specialize the viewer’s perspective in order to alter the minds of the uncovered and bend them into grasping and cherishing God in all of his glory. Even though Edwards wrote down that God’s love will save them in the end of the story, he first persuades the uncovered by using persuasive techniques, tone and loaded languages, and literary devices for the purpose of the expansion of the uncovered to convert into Christianity.
Jonathan Edwards powerful essay, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (DATE), claims that those who are not reborn into the Puritan way dwell on the brink of damnation and at any moment can be dropped by God into the horrors of Hell. Edwards supports his claim with violent, fiery imagery of the fate that awaits sinners at the hands of God if they are not reborn into the Puritan way. He wrote this piece with the intended purpose of convincing the people within his congregation to turn away from sin and repent to God to be reborn again in order to avoid the hell fire death he deemed they would suffer otherwise. Edwards was writing in the time of the Enlightenment, when people had begun to rely less upon religion and more on science, in accordance,
Johnathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is arguably the most famous sermon every preached. Being of a Puritan background, Edwards, focuses on the afterlife, but unlike other writers during his time he uses a “fire and brimstone” approach to convey his belief of sin equaling condemnation to hell. The most important point Edward’s tries to communicate to his audience is God’s ability to cast wicked men into hell at any given moment. This topic is important during his time and even today, because people stray from the path laid out within the bible to obtain eternal life in heaven.
This book left me with a deeper sense of the horrors experienced by the Polish people, especially the Jews and the gypsies, at the hands of the Germans, while illustrating the combination of hope and incredible resilience that kept them going.
Jonathan Edwards author of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and Nathaniel Hawthorne author of “The Minister's Black Veil” wrote about the Puritans’ religion. Both texts include information about sins. Both texts also share and express different feelings towards the Puritan religion. The two texts will be compared by details, tone, and figurative language. While I would characterize Jonathan Edwards’ text as powerful and harsh, the character of Parson Hooper changes the reader’s understanding of Puritan ideals of religion by showing readers everyone sins.
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