Analysis Of Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts On Faith

In Anne Lamott's "Shitty First Drafts," the author writes that in order to write something of good quality one must write a first draft that will never be a work of perfection. Lamott further states that there is no instance of a mainstream or notable writer that sits down and writes a piece of perfected, written work on the first attempt. Lamott also explains the writing process of emotional doubt, draft sequencing, and the effort that is put into a quality piece of written work. Lamott emphasizes the fact that in order to find overlooked or obscured details a writer must muddle through countless body paragraphs, often irrelevant information or thoughts about a particular idea, to find the “real” direction of a written work.

Faith is having absolute loyalty and trust towards a tremendous power in their growth. In the biography Parallel Journeys by Eleanor Ayer, Alfons Heck is a strong supporter of Hitler, but his relationship decreased. The memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, a Jewish holocaust survivor, has a wavering relationship with God that also decreases as time continues. Both Heck and Wiesel are devoted to their God’s at first; however, Wiesel is confused with his faith, while Heck continues to follow Hitler. In the end, each boy feels betrayed by their leaders.

In many cases, reading religious stories would not be something that excites college students, but Traveling Mercies is not the average religious tale. The turning point in the novel is Lamott’s conversion; she sees Jesus in her bedroom and decides to stop resisting and let him into her life. The moment she does this is when her life changes completely and she is able to communicate with God through people and places in her life. Her friends, her home town, her church, even her neighbor are seemingly able to possess traits that God’s “perfect human” would have: kindness, generosity, patience, approachability, etc. The person who stood out the most, being Rick Fields of Lamott’s essay Fields.

Many humans struggle with the misconception that being tempted and having doubts about their faith are unacceptable. Moreover, when Kenneth is tempted to look at explicit images in a magazine, “he closed the magazine and raised his eyes to the ceiling, then closed them and said three Hail Mary’s” (Dubus 278). By putting the magazine down and deciding to pray, he conveys to the reader that it is not wrong to have doubts or face temptation . Kenneth’s devotion to his religion results in him having the instinctual reaction to pray in the face of temptation.

The Worthington family had a valid reason to believe that this could potentially cure their ill-stricken daughter. “Ralph Hood, a University of Chattanooga professor of religion and psychology, is 66 years old and has never been to the doctor,” further adds to the appeal of ethos in “Trust in God.” To add credibility to faith healing, the author reveals that a 66 year old man, who has never been to the doctor, is healthy. This demonstrates that people can trust other arrangements of healing rather than relying solely on medical expertise. Ross decided to integrate pathos by expressing, “She was slowly choking to death.”

Through biblical allusion, religious analogy, and symbolism O 'Connor expresses the need for god and a savior. She writes the perspective of a young child named Harry who lives in a household without religion. The young man is given the mentality and ideology of Christianity and the value of baptism. He grows for a need to belong to something from his small world and gives his life to Christ.

Faith is a powerful belief that not many people have and only in hard times is it at its strongest. With Corrie's faith in God she wanted to help all of the Jews that were hiding away from the Germans. That's because during World War 2, all of the Germans had a hatred towards the Jews and would try to kill them. So Corrie and her family did what they believed was right by helping them even though it was prohibited to help them and could lead to death if caught. In the Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom portrays through the characters that having faith in God in times of suffering will give a person the strength needed to survive.

Anne Lamott 's essay, “Shitty First Drafts” explains to its readers that all writers, even the best, can have “shitty first drafts.” The essay presents the proper writing process from the first draft to the final piece of work. Her essay is intended to encourage writers who are in need of direction when it comes to writing and to teach inexperienced writers ways to become more successful in writing. Anne Lamott uses her personal experiences to build credibility, figurative language to engage the reader and provides the reader with logical steps for the writing process. To build credibility on her processes success, Lamott uses her own personal experiences.

Have you ever had trouble finding faith in a difficult situation? In the book " Life as We Knew It" by Susan Pfeffer, the author portrays many different themes throughout the book. In the book, the theme is to always have faith and hope even in the hardest of times. One way the author portrays the theme in the reoccurrence of unfortunate events. Throughout the story, Miranda, the main character, is having trouble finding hope in the troubling times that not only her but everyone is going through.

At one time, Maya Angelou famously said, “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” Carrying on, one may overcome different obstacles and struggles. In Daniel James Brown’s novel The Boys in the Boat and Elie Wiesel’s Night, characters are resilient with holding faith and reaching their goals after facing hard setbacks. Standing by trust and kind nature, resiliency in faith

The Process of Writing People believe successful writers sit down and create papers within a blink of an eye. This is a perception. Anne Lamott had many conflicts as a writer. She revealed her problems with writing in her excerpt, “Shitty First Drafts”.

In Lara Buchak’s essay, Can It Be Rational to Have Faith? , she asserts that everyday faith statements and religious faith statements share the same attributes. She later states that in order to truly have faith, a person ceases to search for more evidence for their claim, and that having faith can be rational. Although she makes compelling arguments in favor of faith in God, this essay is more hearsay and assumption than actual fact. In this paper, you will see that looking for further evidence would constitute not having faith, but that having faith, at least in the religious sense, is irrational.

I can relate to having faith because I often put trust or confidence into someone or something when I’m having a struggle in my life. When I was younger I didn’t really know God. Once I found out about God, I immediately learned having faith in him is one of the most important decisions anyone can ever make. Once I made that decision to maintain my trust in him I noticed that many things started to fall my way. In the novel, Eliezar also questioned his faith several times but always turned back to putting his trust in God because he knew what was right.

In Anne Fadiman’s book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, two cultures clash with each other in the struggle to save Lia Lee, a Hmong child refugee with severe epilepsy. Although Lee and her family live in the United States, and thus receive medical care from Westerners, her family believes that Lee’s condition is sacred and special. The following miscommunications, both culturally and lingually, between the American doctors and the Lee family leave Lia Lee in comatose at the end of the book. However, Lia Lee could have been saved if the Lee’s had a better understanding of the American doctors’ intentions, and the American doctors understood the Hmong culture. Essentially, the tragedy of Lia Lee can be attributed to the clash of American and Hmong cultures at both the surface and sub-surface level.

Have you ever been in a situation where you have to choose hope or fear? I believe hope is stronger than fear. Some great sources are are Diary of Anne Frank play which is about a girl who had to hide from the Nazis during WWII, and the poem Homesick which is about someone living the ghettos and does not have much to eat. What is stronger, hope or fear? The Diary of Anne Frank is a great source.