Friday, February 3, 2012

Eva and Religion

A little background about myself to start... I was not raised with a religion, and I never chose to follow one on my own. I create my own beliefs based on what I witness and experience in the world. I sometimes get confused and even frustrated by organized religions of today. I have lots of respect for all religions, but I do not completely understand any of them. Perhaps I am getting all of this wrong, but bear with me. I am not making any judgments about religion. I'm just letting thoughts out. I hope I don't offend anyone. Anywho...
I love Eva (and I'm sure she'd love me too), but her super religiosity (is that a word?) is perplexing to me. At first, she seemed like such a sweet child with so much love in her heart. I kind of pictured a little hippie child spreading peace, love, and happiness, haha. If I ever have children, I want them to be as loving, kind, and accepting as Eva is... However, she is very young and naive, and she seems to be somewhat blocked by religion. For example, when she tells Topsy she loves her, and then adds that Jesus loves her too, it makes me think that Eva feels like her love alone is not good enough. I don't think people should have to feel inferior like that. If I were Topsy, I'm sure I'd be happy as a clam to have Eva's love. I wouldn't care one way or the other if I had love from Jesus because I would have a friend. A loving and supportive friend is more important to me than love from a higher power. I just wish Eva felt like her love was good enough on it's own.

2 comments:

  1. I wouldnt say necessarily that Eva is blocked by religion, it is because of her religion that she is so loving and accepting. He interpreted her beliefs into seeing the good in everyone, even slaves. (not saying that negatively, just following the opinions of the character in the book).

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  2. I think this is a smart and sensitive post and it raises some legitimate questions about this character and Stowe's depiction of religion. As I mentioned in class, in one way, Stowe's argument is that slavery is wrong because of Christianity--not because it is wrong to enslave another human being.

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