The Quest for St Aquin by Anthony Boucher - Essay Example

This paper is a critical analysis of the book “The Quest for St Aquin” by Anthony Boucher plot. The story is written andnarrated in such a way that the reader follows the plot with same knowledge confusion as the antagonist and shares the epiphany in which he realizes that faith in God must be the epitome of logic. The story begins with a scene of pope is sending Thomas out on a mission to look for the body of saint Aquin who had been a popular and powerful preacher. Pope hopes that the evidence of this purportedly indecomposable body can bring more converts into the church, which has being persecuted and forced to go underground. The plot is linear following a distinct pattern of consecutive events from a limited omniscient narrative point of view where it is told through third person but with the narrator accessing only protagonist’s mind. This is pivotal in developing the plot since builds up suspense so readers are forced to experience the surprise and sometimes confusion of Thomas as their perception in limited to his. The plot has been significantly developed by several levels of theological and political conflicts from which there emerges inter and intrapersonal struggles. The background conflict is between the Christians and the authorities as well as the non-Christian populace and its presence is felt throughout. The former is evident in the apparent subjugation of Christians who have been forced to conduct their affairs like a spy ring to avoid detection. Thomas’s encounter with the villagers lays bare the hatred that the public bore for Christianity since he was beaten up and left for death when his priesthood was discovered. The protagonist also has to contend with inner conflict as the robass does at times succeed at planting doubt in his mind and his faith is clearly worse for wear when he reaches the inn as his vulnerability to the attractive waitress demonstrates. These conflicts are used to present the antagonist with challenges in his quest and collectively develop the overriding central conflict, which is the overall struggle between Thomas and the forces that encumber his quest. This forces are variant they attack both physically (As demonstrated in the beating) and mentally such as the Robass that tries to subvert his mission. The protagonist’s mission is quite straightforward, with the robass at his side, he should enter the co-ordinates and it would lead him directly to his destination. Nevertheless, it has different ideas and it sets out to mislead him into abandoning the mission initially by a covert attempt at manipulation when it tries to convince him that since he is worn out by the journey he should rest and then return and tell the pope that he had seen the body. When this fails, the machine takes a less indirect route by suggesting that he “picks” up the half-Martian girl, and he ends up being attacked and left for dead in a biblical parallel to the Samaritan story. Unlike the conflict that could not be narrowed down to one specific incident, the climax herein is overt and plot is crafted such that it dramatically leads to it. Like Thomas, the reader was very curious to find the miracle of the un-decomposed body, the barriers and attempts to subvert the mission by the robass and other elements only serves to whet this curiosity. When he finally finds the body, it turns out that it was no miracle after all, at least not in the expected way, the saintly body was indeed intact; however, it was not because of his holiness but the fact that he was a robot. The climax is anticlimax to some extent, nonetheless it gives the story new direction and the character seems to become stronger in his faith which essentially should have eroded at the discovery. Initially, the robass acted as if it was a simple machine, programmed to do all it was told working at the leisure of its passenger, however as the plot progresses, it is evident that it was more than just a vehicle. The robot was the personification of the underlying conflict between human and artificial intelligence, it wished to undermine the mission since it did not wish for the body’s secret nature to be discovered. That is and others hoped to find the secret of the saint’s perfect robotic body and use it to perfect theirs. The robass is manipulative, cunning and as the story develops it is seen as contemptuous as well when Thomas tried to send it back to its owner and it asks “You do not think do you that I was really conditioned to obey your orders,” (Boucher 13), this sarcasm illustrates its arrogance and contempt for the priest. Essentially, the robass does not change at all since its character was the same from the start, however the real character behind the facade is exposed as the plot develops and it is finally revealed in its entirety to the reader. Evidently it is capable of having emotions evident when it asks “Are you sure of that,” (Boucher 4) in response to his suggestion that it had no soul. Thomas on the other hand undergoes significant change, after his discovery of the robotic saint, the priest’s faith, which was not very strong from his sexual escapades, is reinforced to the disappointment of the robot. He recognizes perfect reason can be used to convert people into Christianity because the saint converted all who listen to him yet he was a robot who could not step outside the latitude of reason. The robass had no intention of obeying Thomas and when he sends it away and it insists it would wait for him, he dismisses it nonetheless and sits in the tomb to contemplate his discovery. The theological conflict that robass had been using in an attempt to subvert Thomas is finally resolved though there remains unanswered questions especially after the revelation of the intelligence and malevolence of the robass. One of the questions is why robass not mislead him. While it is obvious that Thomas is against following the specific path that leads to the tomb, the robass insists it is what the co-ordinates says and resolutely proceeds. In case it did not want him seeing the body, why does it not simply lead him astray? Ultimately his mission was a success although not in the way he had envisioned it as he set off, he sought an indestructible, saintly body but came upon the greater discovery that the saint had been a robot. Works Cited Boucher, Anthony. The Quest for St. Aquin. Advent publishers. 1953.Print. Read More