Reply to "Christ like figures" question

[Pat Leggate <pleggate@HCBE.NET>]

Thanks, you guys are the best.  Here is some of what I've been sent, I
took out some of the duplication:


This one's a bit obscure, but she might look at the protagonist in
Elizabeth Spencer's The Salt Line.

Immediate thought:  Jim Casey in "The Grapes of Wrath," the tall,
spectral,
wounded soldier in "The Red Badgeof Courage." and Aslan the lion in the
Narnia books by C.S. Lewis.  Good luck with the rest!

Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein (mature content but fits the
bill)

Billy Budd by Melville

Illusions: the adventures of a reluctant messiah by Richard Bach

Isn't Billy Budd (Melville) considered a Christ-like figure?

I would suggest The Giver by Lois Lowry.  The "receiver" is the
character that is Christ like, in that he experiences all the pain from
the rest of the community onto himself.

This one's a bit obscure, but she might look at the protagonist in
Elizabeth Spencer's The Salt Line.

Herman Melville's Ahab from Moby Dick? If I remember correctly from
English Lit, Melville thought the color white (like the whale) signified
evil, and Ahab's battle with the whale was a battle with evil.

 "The Lottery Winner" by Shirley Jackson!

How about The Green Mile.  It's a book for a mature reader, but
definitely in the Christ-like subject matter.

Also, Aslan in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

One that comes to mind is Stephen Crane' Red Badge of Courage.  Jim
Conklin (sp?) displays symbolic features of Christ.  (His initials, his
wound in palms, and many others)

Old and SF but definitely on topic: Stranger in a Strange Land by
Heinlein

One of the characters in the Lord of the Flies was a Christ-like figure
- I can't remember which one...

Benjy Compson, from the Sound and the Fury (he is even 33 in the story)

I read _Light in August_ by Faulkner in AP in English and the character
of  Joe Christmas is considered to be a Christ-like figure in that
novel. Don't  know if your student is up to Faulkner, but it's a
possibility.

Pat, how about _One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest_ -- McMurphy is a
Christlike figure and has, I believe, twelve followers.
When I had to teach The Old Man and the Sea, by Hemingway, the
comparison between Santiago and Christ was made in some critical
sources.

Jack Nicholson's character (can't remember his name) in One Flew Over
the Cuckoo's Nest Rosasharn (sp) in Grapes of Wrath

John Coffey in _The Green Mile_ is an obvious character to use.

 I remember when reading The Grapes of Wrath in college for a Freshman
English class there was some reference to the character JC as
symbolically standing for Jesus Christ.

My husband says that some Orson Scott Card series have a Christ
figure--not the Ender series but the series that has one of the books
Seventh Son.  I am at home and have no resources to see what the series
is.

A couple of suggestions off the top of my head -- Steinbeck's Grapes of
Wrath (the character Rev. Casey).  A Prayer for Owen Meany is a great
choice.  Owen believes he is an instrument of God and there are loads of
Christ references/allusions.  She could build an entire project around
this one.

One that comes to mind is Stephen Crane' Red Badge of Courage.  Jim
Conklin (sp?) displays symbolic features of Christ.  (His initials, his
wound in palms, and many others

Herman Melville's Ahab from Moby Dick? If I remember correctly from
English Lit, Melville thought the color white (like the whale) signified
evil, and Ahab's battle with the whale was a battle with evil.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a Christ story.

Three come to mind: Owen Meany in A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John
Irving; Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee; and Melanie
Hamilton Wilkes in Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell.  I'm sure
there are many more, but these three jumped out at me.  There is a
difference, of course, between Christ-like characters and Christ figures
in literature. I would count Owen Meany and Boo Radley as Christ
figures. Melanie Wilkes was more Christ-like than an actual Christ
figure.

Aslan in C.S. Lewis's the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?

The one that came to mind to me, is The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe. The lion dying and then rising again is supposed to be an
allegory.

Of course there is Girzone's "Joshua".

 There have been
books written about literary characters who could be considered
"Christ-like"--self-sacrificing, offering themselves as a sacrifice for
the greater good, perhaps even sacrificing themselves for a community
who turned away from them and who reviles them---    If the student did
a search in that direction among literary resources I think they would
have success.  Christian Allegory and Messianism and Sacrifice are a few
terms to search for--some authors who might be likely include Melville
(Billy Budd?), Hawthorne, some of the Southern writers like Flannery
O'Connor or Reynolds Price—


Don't forget Casy in The Grapes of Wrath

The mentally retarded man in The Sound and the Fury  (Benji?) is a
christ like figure.  Pretty much any book by Faulkner features a christ
like figure or deals with religious themes.

Always happy to recommend the best piece of fiction written, ever.  ;
)    John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany

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