Analysis Of Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts On Faith

Many may believe that reading a book about religion would be challenging to accomplish for someone who is not religious. But those people have never read Anne Lamott’s, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith. If one were to ask non-religious college students to read a book by a random author about spirituality and “Finding God” through conversion, they would most likely roll their eyes and bear through it. In Lamott’s series of essays, one does not have to “suffer through the readings” because her writing style is one of a kind. She has strategically chosen every word because she is aware of how important her spiritual experiences are to so many people, religious or not. Her story is one of great strength, power, and faith and if it was not for her superb writing skills, that message would not get across as clearly as it does. “I took a long

Diary of Anne Frank: Faith “Faith is seeing light with your heart when all your eyes see is darkness.” This quote, by Barbara Johnson, illuminates faith’s capabilities to help people see the best in their situation. Examples of these and other positive effects of faith are pervasive throughout the text of Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett’s play, The Diary of Anne Frank. In this play, two Jewish families- the Franks and the Van Daans- along with a Jewish man, Dussel, are forced to hide in a small attic for two years to avoid being captured during the Holocaust. They are unable to breathe fresh air or take a step outside for this entire time.

The value of earthly treasures versus eternal treasures is a key theme in Anne Bradstreet’s “Upon the Burning of Our House.” Throughout the poem, Bradstreet uses the following three examples to discover her feelings about losing her earthly treasures in the house fire and moving toward eternal treasures: her earthly possessions, her position in society, and her ultimate choice to focus on eternity. Anne Bradstreet is a woman who was the first English colonial poet. while she resided in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. She wrote this poem around July of 1666 to describe the event of her home burning to the ground. Bradstreet creates a deeper meaning in her poem through her discussion of earthly value versus eternal value and how she discovers the importance of eternal value through the loss of her earthly possessions.

When he no longer accepted god, he had no other thing besides his father to live for. “Man is a creature of faith as much as reason” (Economist 77). It is faith that gives man reason and a will to live. Though the way one might accept his fate may appear involuntary, Victor Frankl claims that man has a choice to hold on to his faith. Elie Wiesel’s relative, Stein, for example, chose to give up on faith and his life when he realized his wife and children were dead.

I can relate to having faith because I often put trust or confidence into someone or something when I’m having a struggle in my life. When I was younger I didn’t really know God. Once I found out about God, I immediately learned having faith in him is one of the most important decisions anyone can ever make. Once I made that decision to maintain my trust in him I noticed that many things started to fall my way. In the novel, Eliezar also questioned his faith several times but always turned back to putting his trust in God because he knew what was right.

Anne Lamott 's essay, “Shitty First Drafts” explains to its readers that all writers, even the best, can have “shitty first drafts.” The essay presents the proper writing process from the first draft to the final piece of work. Her essay is intended to encourage writers who are in need of direction when it comes to writing and to teach inexperienced writers ways to become more successful in writing. Anne Lamott uses her personal experiences to build credibility, figurative language to engage the reader and provides the reader with logical steps for the writing process.

She gave us an example of her own experience, in which she gets the informations that she needed to have, and ended up writing a really bad first draft. She gave us the confidence that we should never be afraid of having a first draft because nobody is going to look at our work yet. But after the second and third draft, you will be having the best informations that you can ever write, put the most appropriate words and giving informations in a clearest way. 2. What do you think about what Lamott says?

In various works of literature, numerous characters have found solace in believing divine figures. Commonly because said characters have experienced hardships within their personal lives. All of which, could be harmful to one 's mental health. Especially, when one lacks emotional support from her/him peers. Nevertheless, one’s faith in God, tends to give individuals strength to carry on because in countless cultures, God is considered being a symbol of guidance, which serves to people in need.

At one time, Maya Angelou famously said, “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” Carrying on, one may overcome different obstacles and struggles. In Daniel James Brown’s novel The Boys in the Boat and Elie Wiesel’s Night, characters are resilient with holding faith and reaching their goals after facing hard setbacks. Standing by trust and kind nature, resiliency in faith

Juan, with numerous failed attempts in getting his family to safety, once lost his patience with God crying, “What’s wrong with You? I thought we had a deal!” (137). As the chapter progresses, Juan suddenly experiences religious inspiration, and “instead of feeling abandoned by God, he felt close to Him” (138) showing how frustration generates a stronger connection between man and God. In addition, Doña Margarita teaches Salvador to avoid frustration by using the power of God “for this is God’s great plan, that people rise up beyond their personal hatreds” (471).

A character whom I admire and can relate to is Tea Cake from Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston. After Janie experiences years of suffering, Tea Cake enters her broken life to begin the healing process. Although Tea Cake's madness caused by rabies tragically forces Janie to kill him to save her life, its significance is that Tea Cake's love transformed her enough to make her learn to love and value her own life. Like me, I believe that Tea Cake wanted to love and show kindness to someone who needed healing without reserve. It was an imperfect journey, but with sincerity and genuine care, Tea Cake closed the wounds in Janie's life. Likewise, while my journey might not be without mistakes, I aspire to maintain the love and compassion

Faith is having absolute loyalty and trust towards a tremendous power in their growth. In the biography Parallel Journeys by Eleanor Ayer, Alfons Heck is a strong supporter of Hitler, but his relationship decreased. The memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, a Jewish holocaust survivor, has a wavering relationship with God that also decreases as time continues. Both Heck and Wiesel are devoted to their God’s at first; however, Wiesel is confused with his faith, while Heck continues to follow Hitler. In the end, each boy feels betrayed by their leaders.

Then he realizes that he was not going to stay with his money when he die. At the end, he helped his employee with a monetary situation. Further, he went to his nephew’s Christmas dinner. Significantly, this novel helps people retrain the meaning of being humble and kind with others. Something that is very important about this novel is that it teaches a lesson of helping others, because you are not going to stay with your money when you die.

Have you ever been in a situation where you have to choose hope or fear? I believe hope is stronger than fear. Some great sources are are Diary of Anne Frank play which is about a girl who had to hide from the Nazis during WWII, and the poem Homesick which is about someone living the ghettos and does not have much to eat. What is stronger, hope or fear? The Diary of Anne Frank is a great source.

In Susan Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun, the themes identified are dreams and faith that each character signifies throughout their struggles in their daily lives. The theme dreams refer to how each of the main five characters: Ruth Younger, Walter Lee Younger, Travis Younger, Beneatha Younger, and Lena Younger dealt with different oppression situations that took part in their lives that put the dreams on hold. Furthermore, the theme also connects towards the faith that each main character had to pursue to keep their family together after the death of a love one. The characters’ in A Raisin in the Sun tries to chase after a separate dream, unfortunately their dreams are utterly pushed away to realize the importance of their family