Part 2 replies on "Christ like figures"

[Pat Leggate <pleggate@HCBE.NET>]

Here is the second batch of great responses I've gotten.  Thanks guys.

Pat Leggate-Media Specialist
Houston County High
Warner Robins, GA
pleggate@hcbe.net

A recent YA book The War of Jenkin's Ear by Michael Morpurgo is set at
an English boarding school. The
main character is a boy who claims to be Jesus.  It was an ALA Notable
book too.  Hope this helps.

Here's one more for you--Tom in Uncle Tom's Cabin.  Hope your student
has
luck with these!

      Unfortunately, I missed the first part of this
question, but has anybody suggested the works of Orson
Scott Card?  Most of his books have a messianic
character (he is a faithful Mormon; I can't believe
this was not intentional).  Particularly Ender in the
Ender trilogy, and Alvin in the Alvin Maker series.
There are obvious parallels in both with the life of Jesus.

I was just looking at your list again, and I realized that you asked for

AMERICAN authors--some of the answers sent to you are from Brits.  C.S.
Lewis (Narnia books) is British, as is Coleridge (Rime of the Ancient
Mariner).  If you don't care about international authors, check out
Gandalf
in J.R.R. Tolkein's books (I think particularly in The Two Towers and
The
High King) and, in a rather different twist, Silence by Shukasu Endo (a
Japanese author).  I know that there are more in American...I just can't

remember them from my English courses!  There is kind of a "sacrificial"

theme in The Lottery--but not exactly Christ-like.  Invisible Man, by
Ralph
Ellison, contains a character that is in someways Christlike.  Sorry
this is
so rambling...I'm kind of brainstorming as I go.  If I receive any
epiphanies from on high, I'll let you know.

Pat,
Actually the use of JC in _Green Mile_ was only obvious to me after one
of my students pointed out the parallels to to me in book group
discussion :-)  Have you read it?  JC (John Coffey) is a healer and can
"save" someone only if he gets to them "in time,"  he takes peoples pain

from them, he is ready to die when the pain is so great, and of course
there is even a dream scene in the book where the warden dreams of being

a Centurion at the base of the cross and on the two sides are two
convicts from the green mile. There were other things too but that is
what I remember off the top of my head.

I see someone recommended Owen from _Prayer from Owen Meany_  not as
close but one I would use.  Great book.
.
Can you get any closer than "A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving?
Outstanding!  And I would also suggest "100 Years of Solitude" by
Gabrial
Garcia-Marquez.  Would love to see a final list

These occur to me:
Brendan, the main character of the novel Brendan, by Frederick Beuchner
Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird
Aslan in CS Lewis' Narnia books



How about Santiago in the Hemingway's Old Man and The Sea?  Santiago
bears the mast like a cross as he struggles up the hill.  He has the
stigmata in his palms.  He "dies" at sea, and then is "resurrected" on
the 3rd day.

Well, you will find a major one in Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. The
preacher character in that book serves as a Christ figure.


The best one I remember reading was _A Creed for the Third Millenium_ by
the
author who wrote _The Thornbirds_, Catherine ??  The name escapes me.
The
main character, a psychologist, becomes a Christ figure due to his
latest
book, and even crucifies himself at the end.

Here's a controversial book with a Christ like figure in it.  Robert
Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land.  He also wrote a modern tale on
Job that can be considered anti religious.

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