A Reflection on Langdon Gilkeys Shantung Compound - Book Report/Review Example

The paper "A Reflection on Langdon Gilkey’s Shantung Compound" analyzes the Langdon Gilkey’s Shantung Compound. It is a novel about the physical, emotional, spiritual and moral struggles in a community that was completely stripped of amenities and left only with less than enough basic needs. A quote from Bertolt Brecht which goes, “For even the saintly folk will act like sinners unless they have their customary dinners” rang true for most of the book, especially when the seemingly most virtuous began thinking only of themselves.

Gilkey also wrote what would happen if different people from all walks of life and faith were forced to stay together during the worst possible time, as well as explaining how adversities would test the character of a person to the limits. The book is his own reflections about the fragile nature of human willpower without any anchor or strong, authentic ties to faith, and that a person without character would be acting even worse during than the times of abundance. The part of the book that had the most impact on my own beliefs is when Gilkey was describing how the preachers, the religious scholars, and other so-called holy people were not acting as how they were expected to act.

During the times when they were expected to share, care, and be among others not of their own kind, they shunned other people away, or made conditions that must be attained before joining their group. Such actions make these holy people seem selfish and haughty, while doing good deeds. and virtues are forgotten (Gilkey 92). Seeing a preacher, a bible scholar, or even ministers acting much like the rest of normal people is a shocking experience, and at the same time enlightening, for it takes away their halo and exposes their human side.

It goes to show that no matter how much people show their piousness to the world, if their characters, values, beliefs and faith are not deeply rooted, their human sides would eventually take over them, reducing them into an unrepentant and unthankful bunch. For me, this is very ironic, considering that these people were showing to others how they follow through God’s words, and living as He told them to, even preaching words from the Bible, yet they become selfish once all of their comforts were stripped away.

Gilkey talks mostly of the selfish attitudes of the people who felt that they were above everyone else, that they are special and deserving to have better living quarters and food. However dismal most of these stories sounded, Gilkey also wrote about the other people that were willing to sacrifice and even mingle with the “outsiders”, such as the drunkards, the gamblers, the people that swore a lot, and others that had vices (Gilkey 172). Particularly, the priests and the nuns were mentioned in detail because aside from giving spiritual support to those who need them, they also did not choose who to be with.

Whoever needed help in any way was not shunned, regardless of who the person was before being inside the concentration camp. Such acts show that while there are people that might think too high of themselves to be reached by those they see as lower than them, some other people are willing to let their egos go and extend the hand of kinship to the needy. Such actions give me hope that despite all of the selfishness and hatred that happens even until now, there are some people that go against the flow, and promote brotherhood and compassion.

The author points out that if a person’s character, ethical beliefs, as well as faith in religion are not strong enough during the easy-going or abundant