This isn't exactly the position our boy hung in, but it's pretty close. Imagine how ripped he must've gotten. It's a shame really. Our boy obviously has talent; he probably could've gotten Hitler a medal in gymnastics at some point. If only he wasn't racist ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm only going to ask once broad, multi-faceted question.
1: A quote that stood out to me this chapter: "God had no reason to inflict such terrible punishment on me. I had probably incurred the wrath of some other forces, which spread their tentacles over those God had abandoned for some reason or other."
Reading this quote, and the entire chapter for that matter, I feel so bad for our boy as he seeks savior in a God that either doesn't exist or really doesn't like him. It becomes obvious to us that there will be no divine intervention to save him. Yet, even as he's hanging in the air, 10 feet away from his death, he prays and prays and prays. It's not as if he is the only one that seeks assistance from a religious force even after he's been ignored. It's also not as if this is only a problem in these poor villages. Millions of struggling christians around the world do the same thing, and millions of other well-off Christians struggle to justify or simply turn a blind eye to the evil done on people of seemingly good faith. So my question: What makes our boy and the peasants so attracted to religion? What makes them keep going back to the church, even as their prayers are ignored? Connect this to the superstitions of all the villages our boy has traveled through as well. What makes village poeople continually use grinded horse bones and lice as a medicine when they can see it is literally making them sicker? Finally, is Kosinski trying to make a point about religion and superstitions by having our boy so easily believe in all of them? Is this a comment on humanity in general, like so much of this story is?
1. Yes, I definitely think that Kosinski is making a comment on humanity. The Painted Bird has repeatedly revealed our Western notions of ethics to be obsolete in the harsh world the boy inhabits; without the hollow edifice of civilization our protagonist and other characters of the novel use any means necessary to survive. While at first it is tempting to chalk this "survival of the fittest" mindset to the peasants (and the boy) being ignorant and "backwards," as John recently said in class the Germans are the pinnacle of the enlightenment and western philosophy. Thus, when Kosinski highlights how both realities produce such horrid results it forces the reader to consider that even if things like superstition aren't true, there really isn't any reason to prefer it over the falsehoods of civilization. Both result in about the same thing occurring: mass suffering. Religion here is just another way to construct a falsehood to try and gain some semblance of control in a "survival of the fittest" world. And just like superstition and civilization, it doesn't do anything to help. I think that here, Kosinski is trying to say that we are so desperate for control that we will do almost anything to try and feel that there is some point to life, that there will be justice and it is not all pointless. Ultimately it will not work; in the "holocaust mindset" human nature is so depraved that no falsehood will save it. It is just another desperate attempt at escape from a desperate boy.
ReplyDeleteJaliwa, you're asking a lot here, but I know the chapter is asking us to address a lot here. And here it is, Easter Sunday, of all the days to read this and think about it. I go back to Voltaire, who as we've talked about in class, or at least mentioned, is asking similar questions that Kosinski is here. Of course the world of "The Painted Bird" is a hundred times—thousand times?—more cruel than Voltaire's world. And Voltaire, like Conrad (another text that connects to our reading), understands what the boy and many of the villagers don't: the answer to why is there this cruelty. For the mutilated slave in "Candide," he knows that his suffering is the cost of having sugar in Europe—and that his suffering will put his parents in the good graces of God (the existence of which Voltaire never doubts). God has better things to do then care about humanity; we're down his to-do list. But like the Greeks in "The Odyssey" the boy and the villagers (don't know about the Germans) see a brutal world, and there has to be a reason for their suffering. There has to be a cause-and-effect reason: for the boy more than ever he is asking why does he suffer and is mistreated when he has done nothing to Garbos. There has to be a reason! And the superstitions of the villagers provide an answer to the great mystery of life and the world—why do we suffer? Larry Kramer asks the question; Margaret Edson asks it; even Cameron Crowe asks it (Lester Bangs knows why—the uncool kids always suffer). Probably every text we've considered asks that question. For the boy, I think Kosinski's point—and Moey's as well—is that there is no difference between organized religion and the superstitions that people like Olga engage in. "I never understood neither the meaning of the Mass nor the role of the priest at the alter. All of this to me was magic, more splendid and elaborate than Olga's, but just as difficult to fathom" (120). The boy counts teeth; he depends on the blood stain of the murdered wedding goer to bring him to justice; he prays a million prayers. No difference for him. Of course the great existential question of The Holocaust, implicit perhaps in this chapter, is: is there a God? Maybe we will talk about that.
ReplyDeleteI think that Kosinski is trying to expose the dual role that religion plays within these communities. On one hand, religion has a positive impact on those who practice it, since it provides it followers with hope of a better future. This hope can enable people in difficult situations to go on with their lives and overcome the day-to-day obstacles that they face. For example, prayer is what enables the boy to make it through being hung by his hands above the mouth of an angry hound, a truly horrifying situation. In his words, “I concentrated on my prayers to the exclusion of all else. When my strength ebbed I told myself that I should be able to last another ten or twenty prayers before I dropped down”(133). It’s entirely possible, then, that the simple act of praying saved the boy’s life many times. However, the flip side of religion is that it can breed complacence. The problem with blind faith is that it is often not rewarded, yet it can lead the faithful to forgo other methods of improving their lives. The boy in this story resigns himself to his present situation partially because he trusts that his persistent prayers will yield results: “I would soon be rewarded with the Lord’s grace, and Garbos would not torment me anymore”(127). In this manner, religion can be a weapon, something used to ensure that people in horrible situations remain docile. I’m speaking here primarily about the boy’s experiences with Catholicism, but this is also true of the superstitious belief system that the boy also explores. Both the superstitions and the Catholic prayers make empty promises, which fill the boy with both constant disappointment and renewed hope.
ReplyDeleteI think that this past chapter also forces us to think about the famous Problem of Evil: if God is omnipotent and omni-benevolent, why is there so much suffering in the world? Another variation of this question asks “why do bad things happen to good people?” Though he doesn’t quite articulate it, the boy in this novel is clearly struggling with these questions, referring to himself as one of “those God had abandoned for some reason or other”(141). It truly does seem like so much of the suffering the boy endures is entirely senseless and purposeless, and there is so much gratuitous gore and violence in the villages. Why does God allow this? And, of course, this question applies also to the holocaust. If God is good, how could he allow the slaughter of millions?
I think one reason people are so attracted to religion is because they want to understand the world around them and control it as much as possible. Religion allows people to explain why positive and negative events happen by attributing it to some greater power or order. It can justify things that seem unfair, and explain things that seem incomprehensible. Without it, people might have to think more deeply and still be left with few answers. From there, religion allows you to believe you are controlling and steering your life path. The church explains that if you perform certain practices, you will reap certain rewards or consequences. This gives people a feeling of control over their lives that they wouldn’t otherwise have. This control element connects to the superstitions because those are yet another way that people can try to manipulate their circumstances. Even if there is no evidence to back up the church or their superstitions, these systems of thought provide comfort and hope. The boy continuously believes whatever he sees and just absorbs the ideas of those around him and adopts them. The villagers we see may be more mature or intelligent than the boy, but they all also easily accept the ideas of the church and superstitions. They exhibit the same childlike willingness to accept any idea brought to them that the boy does. They choose to believe in a religion or in the superstition because they are all grasping to find a system of thought that will help them lives their lives in a somehow better way. Kosinski compares religion (which is still accepted in western society today) to superstitions (that many in our society would deem extreme and ridiculous). This could be a comment on the human tendency to try and find meaning and control in any way possible.
ReplyDeleteWe as human beings are rational creatures. We need reason and meaning in our lives if we are to survive this cruel world. Religion provides that reason. Suffering is lessened, somehow, when there is a purpose behind it or at least a rationale to it. We want to suffer for something or because of something. If there is a higher force at work it means that we are not suffering for nothing. If it is God’s will for us to suffer then the suffering feels a little less painful. We will believe anything if it provides an explanation for what we cannot explain. We fear the unknown. The night is scary while the day is not because when the sun shines we can see everything. When night falls the darkness obscures what we could before explain and understand and the familiar becomes unfamiliar. Then we become afraid. The people in the villages are afraid to go out much in the dead of winter because they do not know how to survive in the cold, but our boy learns the secrets of the winter forest and thrives because he is not afraid of what everyone around him is afraid of. Fear makes us weak, which makes us more likely to die. Fundamentally, our purpose is to survive long enough to reproduce our DNA, and if we are weak, afraid, if we do not understand the world around us, then we are less successful at that task. I believe that religion—and the superstitions that these villagers believe are a kind of religion—is an extension of this principle. We need to explain the world and a higher being who is omniscient and omnipotent is the easiest way to do that. The boy needs something to hold onto, something to guide him, something to give him hope, because his situation is so dismal. God, and the promise of thousands and thousands of indulgences, provides that hope. The Greeks had it right with Pandora’s Box—we humans cannot survive without hope.
ReplyDelete1. I think what everyone else has said thus far to answer the question makes sense: people resort to religious beliefs and superstitions in order to convince themselves that they have a power over their lives that, without religion, they might not believe they have. I think this religious reliance and strong adherence to superstitions stems from a place of deep fear, or maybe (possibly both) from a place that lacks power. It has to do with self-preservation too. I think that the people of the villages through which the boy has traveled see and understand the cruelty of the world. They want to avoid any cruelty that could be directed towards them, they want to dodge any potential hardship, and they want to maintain some control of their lives when ultimately the Nazis have the most control. The boy himself has been through so much, through some unimaginably painful experiences and I think he just wants the pain to stop, perhaps to just live a life he imagines the blond-haired, blue-eyed Germans are living. I wonder what would happen if he was in a more powerful position in this world; would he rely on his superstitions as much? But I think a similar point can be made for the villagers the boy interacts with. Although they commit more acts of cruelty than we see the boy commit, they are still afraid and they still are under the power of the Nazis. They stick to their superstitions to drive Jews away and protect their villages, themselves, and their lives.
ReplyDeleteToday, at Easter sermon, my pastor read the congregation a quote by Reinhold Niebuhr, a 20th century theologian, from his book The Irony of American History: “Nothing which is true or good makes sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith.” For the people of Eastern Europe depicted in The Painted Bird, this couldn't be more true. How could they know that life, which for them is full of hunger, strife, struggle, and death, be truly fulfilling for others? How could they know that the Red Army will reach them in just a year or two, putting an end to many of their immediate hardships? For them in life as it is for the boy hanging above Judas' teeth, it would be so much easier to give up or let go. But faith, as Niebuhr tells us, must save us from this, it allows us to hold on to something that, while possibly imaginary or fictitious, pushes us to live. If the boy had not been inspired to say prayers to reduce his suffering, would he have been able to keep above Judas? The book suggests he could not:
ReplyDeleteI thought I could not hold on any longer. I decided to jump down and planned my defense against Judas, though I knew I wouldn't even have time to lift a hand before he would be at my throat. There was no time to lose. Then suddenly I remembered my prayers. [117]
Faith and religion demand for you to live in the most horrible of circumstances, reinforcing your primal urge to survive with higher, more abstract concepts. With religion, you can triumph over death.
Also, I do not think it is a coincidence that the boy is hung with his arms outstretched; while the imagery isn't exact, I wouldn't be surprised if this was an allusion to Jesus on the cross, condemned to death by Judas' treachery. But the boy, like Jesus, finds a new will to live, metaphorically resurrecting himself.
In a world with this much cruelty and natural destruction, it's difficult to accept that much of it is completely without rhyme or reason. People like when things are predictable, even pain - and they love to explain things with no easy explanation. We've attributed forces of nature, good and evil, emotional passions, and the changing of seasons to gods and spirits since before recorded history. When things don't line up, it's written off as a fluke, while any coincidental happening is seen as proof that higher powers are in play. People need the world to make sense, and when it doesn't, they just keep INSISTING that it does. Even more, specific to religion more than superstition - afterlives. If you're good, you go to a "better place" when your life finally ends. Religion and superstition give people control, understanding, and security in lives otherwise void of them. To revisit the phrase, "How are we supposed to live in a world where.... nothing makes sense; people hurt each other; death and suffering are commonplace and unpredictable; etc." This? This is how. If you keep believing that something better is coming, that there IS rhyme and reason, then you can keep holding on.
ReplyDeleteI think that, if anything, Kosinski is using the boy to discuss religion as a survival tool. This boy needs reason and security just as much as everyone else, and he's willing to believe in anything in order to reap the benefits. In this way, ready acceptance of any belief system is comparable to ready use of any tool - praying and wielding a comet both keep you from harm. Like many behaviors in this book, some aspects of blind and enthusiastic belief in spirits and gods and God seems completely nonsensical, and in others, you see the infallible logic - why not believe, if it could keep you alive another day?
1. I think that the boy and the peasants are attracted to religion in the same way and for the same reasons that people are today. It gives them a sense of comfort in what seems like random and unfair luck. Even people who don't fully believe religion or the existence of God, look to it in times of desperation because it is such a foundation for human civilization and is imbedded in human culture and because people want to have a reason for the things they don't understand. At times, religion and God are all some people have and just like the comfort of family, the comfort of religion helps give some kind of control and feeling of always having something if all else fails. The superstitions also fit into this need to have control over things that are seemingly random and uncontrollable. Lightening for example was not really something that could be predicted in the villages and because of its destructive nature, the villagers felt the need to explain it through a superstition because otherwise they would just be leaving it up to the universe and to chance. It's sort of similar to religion in that once it was established, it was there to stay and evidence for it was not needed and evidence against it was unwelcomed because there was finally a way to explain the unexplainable and losing that was not an option. So even though many of the superstitions proved to be false and religion failed them, the villagers didn't change their views much like most people didn't change their ideas about Jews even though the accusations towards them were obviously false. There was finally an explanation for Germany’s problems and even though the solution was insane, it didn't mean anything because all that mattered was the fact that they finally understood what they couldn't before.
ReplyDeleteOur boy turned to religion because he could not understand why Garbos tortured him relentlessly. First, he tried to explain Garbos’s beatings using superstitions he had learned from his time in the villages, but this ended up failing him. Climbing the fence instead of going through the gate did not end up stopping Garbos and catching the right type of moth only resulted in the death of a turtle. Horrible and cruel acts like Garbos’s torture are hard for our boy to understand and humanity has a hard time explaining why these “evils” occur. So we create systems like religion or superstition that seem logical that either help us explain why the evils are occurring or give us hope that often allows us to endure the evils. Kosinski made it clear that there was little or no difference between Christian beliefs and the superstitions. The Church is just more physically appealing because it is not full of “evil-smelling frogs, rotting pus from human wounds, and cockroaches” (120). The Germans and western civilization would think that the superstitions were inferior to Christianity but our boy most definitely realizes that both systems are equally flawed in this chapter. This quote also stood out to me: “As a Christian of older standing than myself, [Garbos could] use his influence in heaven to nullify my prayers or perhaps divert some of them to his own undoubtedly empty bin.” (127) Our boy believes that in the eyes of God or the saints or angels, Garbos is a respected Christian or at least more respected than himself.
ReplyDelete1. Things that happen in life an in death are somewhat random. Why does one sister get cancer while the other lives a long life if they have the same genes? Why does one child get to be born into a rich family while another lives a life inhibited by poverty? Why should an entire race of people be killed? These are questions one cannot give a reasonable answer to, yet people must grapple with the realities of situations such as these: disease, poverty, and genocide. We have a need to explain the world with reason, but sometimes there is no reason, so we resort to the divine: God. God and His great plan has never made much sense to me, and I think that’s because of the childlike blind faith people seem to have when it comes to Him. They so believe, unquestionably, in this plan He has that when tragedy strikes, they cope by making it a divine act of God that must serve some greater purpose, and when that tragedy is the untimely death of a loved one, this can most definitely be a constructive use of faith, but when the tragedy is one such as the Holocaust, one where death was not caused by God but by man playing God—that is not something to have faith in; that is not God testing the will of the Christians nor the endurance of the Jews. That is horror. That is the darkness of mankind. That is not God’s work. Now to connect that with the novel, the suffering the boy endures at the hands of the townspeople is much the same in that it’s an example of man finding divine reason in the unreasonable—disease, storms, general misfortune, these are all attributed to the boy’s presence and the mystical curses he brings with him.
ReplyDeleteAs we have discussed, this is a dangerous and unpredictable part of the world. There is a stark limit on how much people can do to guarantee their safety. Despite evidence that prayer and superstitions do not work, the villagers know them. No matter what happens, they can not stop diseases and other calamities. They must do what they can and hope for the best. These prayers and superstitions offer some hope for change. They offer some hope of safety and assurance. Rather than recognizing that he has only blind fate, our narrator puts his faith in something bigger since he does not trust himself to change his fate alone. Our narrator is uneducated and trusts what is told to him. Kosinski is pointing out the one thing that binds humanity together other than violence and disease: hope, often to the point of stupidity. The hope for a better harvest next year or safety from the Germans and all manner of other things. For lack of a better thing to do to change these odds, people pray.
ReplyDelete