Theme Spotlight: Spirituality and Faith in Classics

A while ago I did this Theme Spotlight: Gender in Young Adult post, and decided to do another one of these. Lately, I have read a couple of books that deal with the concepts of religion, faith, and spirituality, so I thought I would highlight a few of them here. Now, I'm not a very religious person myself, but I enjoyed all of these novels and the comments they made about religion, and the bigger component that all religions share: faith, and found them very though provoking and interesting, as well as just enjoyable reads.

Review

Tracks by Louise Erdrich is a novel I read for my American Literature class last semester, and before being assigned it, I had never heard of it or the author. This book was really great, and I'm really glad I found this author. The characters in this novel are Native American, and the novel examines Native American spirituality as well as the Catholic religion. The magical realism that accompanies the Native American spirituality in this novel are quite beautiful.

Review 

I also read Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut for my American Lit class. This was my first Vonnegut, and I loved it. Vonnegut created his own religion for this novel, and it's so realistic and poetic. This novel is a satire of religion and faith and how humans turn to these concepts to help them deal with sadness and fear. Vonnegut is quite brilliant, and this book sparks so much discussion on human nature, and although it does satire human nature, it never crosses the line to become offensive.

Review

The End of the Affair was my first Graham Greene novel, and I was really surprised by how much I loved it. The writing was beautiful and the characters so flawed and real. The religious aspects of this novel surprised me while I was reading it, as I didn't expect religious faith to be a huge theme in this novel, but I loved the way it was done. This novel pits religious faith and duty against personal wishes.