Salvation In Unexpected Ways

3 Pages 738 Words

Salvation in Unexpected Ways
Three novels that stand out because of their main character’s contributions to others are “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker, “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey, and “Sula” by Toni Morrison. The main characters Celie, R.P. McMurphy, and Sula, each contribute something different to important people in their lives in the novels which they appear. Although they play very different roles, Celie, McMurphy, and Sula are viewed as heroes. R.P. McMurphy inspires the men in the mental ward to become stronger emotionally; Sula inspires the people of her town to think differently, while Celie physically protects her sister from abuse.
In “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey, Randle Patrick McMurphy helps the men in the ward to overcome their fear of the world they live in. One morning, as the men in the ward are eating, McMurphy is laughing and talking throughout the entire breakfast. Chief Bromden says, “He’s being the clown, working at getting some of the guys to laugh” (Kesey 98). The other men on the ward are anguished and have not been in contact with someone who is trying to lift their spirits. McMurphy talks to the men as if they are not in an institution at all, but rather like they are normal people. Through McMurphy’s communication with the men, they begin to realize that there is hope for them in the outside world and they begin to recuperate

emotionally.
In the novel “Sula” by Toni Morrison, the main character Sula’s illicit behavior and attitudes toward men cause the women of the community to love their husbands more. Sula sleeps with the women’s husbands and has no regard for them, basically using them for sex and leaving them. Because of Sula’s promiscuity the women begin to think differently, “So the women, to justif...