Florian Boxing the Compass Embraces Idolatry - Essay Example

Florian boxing the Compass Embraces Idolatry Introduction Sandy Florian novella is based on the mourning of a lady about her mother’s death is quite uncanny as revealed by her masterpiece, Boxing the Compass. The intimations of the oceans based on horrific fragility are revealed as the basis upon which life is sustained. Via the daughter’s grief, the morning climate changes to solicits aiming at using a language to find articulation in life. The novella goes down in history as an action of ecstatic joy, which is only celebrated when the verbalization of unprecedented and profound grief is ultimately achieved. The novella reveals familial loss, the quest to realize self, the struggle for artistic success and the siftings of memory via verbalization through the daughter’s grief. The allusions are made to her precursors such as Montaigne, Plato and Joyce. The novella employs the use of memory to tell the story of a woman who is revealed as waking up in the morning and does her daily duty and comes back to the square one. The novel employs the use of 32 points to reveal that whatever we undertake we will come back to the original position. The narrator alienated as he mourns his mother, brother and the father. As revealed at the anniversary of her mother, we find her at the mother’s burial site mourning and her day fully disoriented. The novella is embedded on the memory of the narrator to tell the story. We see her meeting a dove and contrast this to her mother’s face. We can strongly say that the novella is trapped in idolatry as the narrator life is pegged at the ever new pictures of her familial loss. She laments “the only thing she sees as she wades east through the entrance and east through the hallways is the face of the dove dead on the sidewalk, like the face of a mother all out of true, like the shape of a brother buried in a box, and she wants to have marked the scene of the crime, that patch of catastrophe, with a marker, some tape, police tape, a brick. Because it’s the shape of things that stay her, yes, it’s the shape of things that make her stay.” This further reveals to us how their belief in images of the dead which is attached to all the reasons they live. There is no doubt that Florian embraces idolatry through his novella as this is clearly evidence throughout the narrations. Meaning of Idolatry Idolatry is understood as the image –worship or divine honor accorded to any created object. As per Paul’s description, origin of idolatry is based in Roman chapter 1:2-25; “men forsook God and sank into ignorance and moral corruption”. Idolatry comes in several forms as Fetishism; which involves the worship of rivers, trees, stones. Another form of idolatry is Nature worship; this involves worship of the sun, moon and stars which are regarded as the supposed powers of nature (Florian, 2013, p. 100). The third form of idolatry is the worshiping of Hero; this involves the worship of the dead ancestors or particular diseased heroes. The scriptures view of idolatry is pegged at the heathen origin and pass on to Hebrews through the interactions with heathen nations. The first allusion is attached to the account of Rachael stealing her father’s teraphim and as noted in Genesis 31: 19 viewed as the relics employed by Laban’s progenitors during old time on other side of the river. In the New Testament era, idolatry is refers to covetousness as noted by Mathew 6: 24 and Colossians 3:5. Hebrew was described to have fallen in to idolatry long before they were delivered from it which made God to reveal his total displeasure upon them. Idolatry worship was attached to the alienation of God and the Hebrew as people turned away from God’s will. They were involved in many devastating actions that did not augur well with God (Florian, 2013, p. 170). Many times various forms as indicated above have been applied by many worshippers who do not believe in the existence of a supernatural being. They thus resort to such images and attach their faiths strongly and serve such creation. This in effect has spread out from its origin to many parts of the world. Through the belief in various objects and images we have seen a lot of punishment subjected to people who do not obey God as they are viewed by the Almighty as rebellious. It is therefore through idolatry that God’s wrath is opened to the non-believers. Boxing the compass embrace idolatry Boxing the compass embraces idolatry as we are told of a woman who keeps mourning her mother and says how the mother taught her about the sea. We attach the sea to be having a lot of significance to the woman. This is seen as the driving force about the woman’s life. At the mother’s anniversary day, we see the daughter at the burial site. She sees the dove and the mother’s face runs into her mind and immediately attach the face to her mothers. We are also told of the familial loss that makes the daughter to be in total grief. The climate change is attached to the daughter persistent worship of her lost family members. We are told of her daily schedule that would always end back to square one. The daughter is ever lonely based on the loss of her family members as this is indicated by her continuous memory of her mother. She sees nothing in life other than the greater attachment to her diseased family members. This strongly points out the belief of the young woman on the dead people which further matches the discussed forms of idolatry as worshiping the dead. She is thus awakened at the anniversary of her mother which fully disorients her. We meets the narrator weaving poetic, scientific and biblical language in to sea meditations as narrator recalls how her diseased mother had taught her about the significance of the seas long in her childhood period. Her history is further revealed as bible study person and this reveals the metaphoric utilizations of bread and fish in the novella are attached to the biblical allusion. In the biblical context, with respect to Mark 6:35-44, at the shore of the Galilean Sea, the Christ fed five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish. The loaves and fish, in the word figuration become superabundant based on the Christ’s Logos. We see Jesus inviting his believers to appreciate his evident risen self. The Sea is attached to entire unhinging of words resulting from dying and death through and by revealed risen Word. The novella, disorients, mourns and appropriates the biblical motifs of fish and bread in a brilliant manner with respect to the figuration of real meaning of the risen Word. As opposed to resurrection, boxing is all about lying down in several boxes such as a coffin, bathtub or a bed. We notes the woman recalling lying down at the bottom of their family pool and then the calling sounds of the words “Come here come now.” We are told of how from the bottom of the pool the woman looked up, eyes blood red and wide as she looked up t o the blue sky with a blue sunlight retraction with the sunlight much skewed and scattered (Greene, 2009, p. 93). She is further through the wraps of waves to the wrapping faces and keenly listened to the wrapping sounds calling her singular name “Come here. Come now, my precious little fish. For the kettle on the stove is warming. For the waters of the world is rising. Come here, come now and forever, or until you disappear, northeast, forty-five.” This further affirms on the idolatry as there is a belief attached to the Sea as the source of joy and makes readers to become very ready for persistence joy. The calls is attached to affirmation of joyful here and now based on finitude. The world is portrayed as totally becoming rising and being transient. From this assertion we can further strongly affirm that, Boxing Compass is attached to a greater level of idolatry (Greene, 2009, p. 113). The sounds emanating from the sea calling the narrator for persistent and endless joy shows that there is strong belief on the sea as the source and the end as one dies. We can further attest that the sound could be of the gods that are worshiped by this community. The continuous grief and mourning of the narrator is thus facing an end when she is finally called for joy. The novella uses the third person narrator as a representation of what is happening in the real world as many people attach great belief to their own creations of gods. Conclusion The novella, Boxing the Compass has become one of Florian massively read masterpieces. The reality of the novella is seen by the impact of familial loss on the daughter. The daughter is ever on the mourning mood of her mother and ever thinks of the diseased brother and the family (Greene, 2009, p. 123). Her day is totally disoriented at the mother’s anniversary. We also see the theme of the quest to realize self being brought out through the use of memory in narration via the third person narrator. Florian’s Boxing the Compass, is thus attached to idolatry based on the grief the daughter has based on her familial loss. The daughter has a strong attachment to her diseased family and this is what she believes in as the reasons behind her existence. Florian has successfully revealed the impacts and the suffering one faces upon the familial loss. As revealed by the narrator, we have a strong belief that woman’s continuous grief is basically as a result of the death of her family members. The quest for self as revealed by the author is also in line with the idolatry as through this, at the bottom of the pool the narrator is welcomed into a continuous joy (Florian, 2013, p .156). We can further see the contrast being made between the biblical resurrection and the lying in the boxes as two opposing ends. The narrator believes that it is through lying in box that one derives happiness and self redefinition and not via resurrection which ultimately opens to continuous joy and happiness. Reference Florian, S. (2013). Boxing the compass. Greene, R. (2009). Boxing the compass: [poems]. Montréal: Signal Editions. Read More