References from the Bible in Boxing the Compass - Book Report/Review Example

of the of the of the References from the Bible in Boxing the Compass The book Boxing the Compass provides the reader with a third person narrator who follows a woman into her house. The woman is the main character in the novella that walks reluctantly, waking into the anniversary of her mother’s death. After rising from her bed, she dresses, leaves the apartment, goes to buy bread in a nearby bakery, and then returns into the apartment. She makes tea, takes a bath,and leaves the house again. She boards an urban commuter train and moves towards her mother’s graveyard.She has memories about her mother, father, and brother where she meditates about time and space. Her meditations relates with an ocean undergoing climate change that is rising in sea levels and temperatures.The chapters in the novella take their titles from the thirty-two points of the compass. The titles range from “0°” to “348°45′.” The thirty-two chapters in the novella engage the reader into the action of boxing the compass. In her novella, Sandy Florian uses many references from the bible. There are events found in this novel that relates to the bible. Some words and objects relate to those found in the bible. Therefore, this essay seeks to establish the bible references that Florian uses in her writing. The first reference to the bible occurs by the mentioning of the word paradise and mentioning about the birth of Jesus. The narrator says, “the l is replaced with a cross linking east with ambivalent direction of paradise, the place where Christ was born”. (Florian, 7). The bible also talks about the birth of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. The bible says that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. (Luke 2:1-20) The word paradise from the bible means heaven or a nice allusion in Boxing the Compass. The use of the word paradise is symbolic. It symbolizes a beautiful place in the novella. There is a reference borrowed from the bible when the author mentions about Plato and the arbitrary rules. “She reads her bible. She speaks to no one yet she argues that Plato himself articulates the arbitrary rules”. (Florian, 10).From the bible, Pilates were the law enforcers. They set the rules that governed the people. In the bible, Jesus faces a trial before the Pilates. They were hypocritical yet they enforced the law (John 18:28-38). The appearance of Plato in the novella symbolizes the theme of power and authority. This reference from the bible also brings out the theme of hypocrisy. In the novella, the writer says that the woman talks to no one yet she argues about Plato and the arbitrary rules. This shows the hypocritical nature of human beings. There is a reference to the bible where the author writes about faith. The incidence where one waits for something for a long time is an attribute of faith. For instance, the narrator says, “she waited under water for days. She waited under water for weeks. She waited under water for years.” (Florian, 10). The novella shows how the woman waits for a longer period to get her balloon dress. This shows that the woman had faith in finding her dress. The same incidence occurs in the bible where Hannah and her husband Zachariah wait for many years for God to bless them with a child. Later God blessed them with a son whose name was Samuel (1 Samuel 1:2). The reference brings out the nature of the woman as faithful and persistent. Florian also borrows a reference from the bible when she mentions the fathomless seas and the gleaming skies. This is evident when she says, “And set sail under the gleaming skies, over the fathomless seas and blue”. (Florian, 12).The mentioning of the skies and the seas appears in the bible where the story about God’s creation occurs. God created the skies and separated it from the earth. He also created the seas filled them with water, and separated them from the dry land. (Genesis 1:6). The skies and the seas symbolize great features created by God. The sailing in the sea is a form of adventure that brings pleasure to human beings. The author also mentioned bones in the novella. This is evident where the writer says, “now counting the bones in her mouth. Four, one thousand, six”. (Florian, 12).The mentioning of bones also occurs in the bible when God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the dry bones. The bible says, “He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley”. (Ezekiel 37:2). From the bible, the bones symbolized the Israelites. They had lost their hope after suffering as slaves in Egypt. God wants Ezekiel to prophesy his deliverance to them. Florian uses the bones to show that the woman can have hope in life even after losing her family. The novella at this point aims at giving encouragement to the hopeless. Therefore, the book serves the work of moral development; it brings out a moral lesson that people should never lose hope in life. The mention of the two fish and small loaves of bread is a clear reference from the bible. The reference occurs when the woman says “No, no, just the half, just the miracle of five small loaves and two small fish” (Florian, p18). The writer infers from the New Testament chapter of the bible where Jesus fed a multitude with five loaves of bread and two fish. The reference is from Matthew 14:13-21 and John 6:1-14. In Galilee, Jesus was preaching to his followers, and then He realized that people were hungry. A boy had five pieces of loaves and two fish. Jesus took the loves and the fish, blessed them, and gave his disciples to distribute to the multitude. With the two loaves of bread and two fish, Jesus fed five thousand people and twelve baskets remained, full with breads and fish. The reference draws an understanding of the critical situations where people pray for miracles to happen in their lives so that they can survive. In the novel, the writer shows how people have interfered with the environment. The woman meditates about the current changes and the memories when her mother was alive. She relates each encounter with the information about the earth and how much effect people have on it. The novella shows how the world has grown into something beyond repair. This is evident when the narrator says, “Carried the balloon higher and higher and higher and higher until at once it disappeared” (Florian, p25). These words show how the world is changing to the worst. Pumping air into a balloon is limited to a certain point. That is the point where the balloon cannot hold more air without breaking. When a balloon flows into the air, it moves higher and higher until it reaches a level that is beyond the reach. The context has a closer relation to the bible. In the book of Genesis chapter six to chapter nine, God shows his disappointments to the people he created. In the bible, God says, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created [...] for I regret that I have made them.” The bible shows that God is willing to destroy his people. He is unhappy because of the rising evil among his people. In Genesis 6-9, Jesus ordered his servant Noah to build an ark for he was to destroy the earth with floods.Noah was the only righteous man that God was willing to spare. He told Noah to take all kinds of animals into the ark to rescue them from the flood. After building the ark, God brought the rains. It rained for forty days and forty nights. The earth flooded wiping everything in it. Noah, his family and the animals survived the floods. The referencing shows the relationship between human’s actions and their consequences. The novella shows how human activities destroy the environment and suffer the consequences of their destructions. The effects seen in the changing of the climate are results of human activities. The balloon in this book symbolizes the adverse effects on the surroundings. The bible shows the extent of sins of humankind that God could not forgive. The two scenarios show that human beings suffer the consequences of their actions. The writer refers from the bible when she says that the woman was one of the God’s little creatures that He would take from the earth. “One of God’s little creatures which God wants to take them back for which they have stayed too long on earth” (Florian, p28). The reference relates with the New Testament when Jesus told His disciples that he has going to prepare a place and would come back for them when the place is ready. Christians hold on to this promise believing that God will come for His people some day. The two scenarios show that people have faith in the second coming of Jesus. They believe in life after death. The other incidence that shows a reference from the bible is the life span of human beings. In the novella, the narrator says, “she knows too that her days are numbered” (Florian, p34). The woman knows the limited time left for her survival. This is the same case in the bible where it shows that the life span of humankind is short. In the book of Genesis, the bible says, “My spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh, but his days shall be a hundred and twenty years”. The two incidences shows that death is inevitable and people have a limited time in the world. The reference is further explained when thenarrator seeks to know the maximum time that a person can live under water. “How many minutes can people live underwater?”(Florian, p35). The response that he gets relates with the bible during the time of Noah when God knew that no one could survive the floods. “Nobody can live underwater, not even for a moment.” (Florian, p36). The two incidences portray the floods as something that people cannot escape. The floods here establish the theme of death. Deathis one thing that nobody can escape just as nobody can survive under water. As the story ends, Florian refers from the bible. She says, “Come here. Come now, my precious little fish. For the kettle on the stove is warming. Come, come here, come now and forever, or until you disappear” These are the sounds heard by the woman at the pool. The incidence happens in the bible when the Samaritan woman went to fetch some water from the well. Jesus told the woman that He is the living water. He told her that if she drank the living water she would never thirst again. This context also relates to the New Testament when Jesus urges people to come to him. He says, “come to me you who have heavy burdens and I will give you rest. Come to you who are thirsty and I will quench your thirst” (Matthew 11:28). These two calls from the bible, and from the Novella, becomes a joyful affirmation. The novella Boxing the Compass makes the readers ready for the joy too. In conclusion, from the context discussed above, it is clear that Sandy Florian uses references from the bible in her writing. The references have helped in developing the plot of the story as well as developing various themes and styles. Some of the themes are the theme of change and the theme of death. The stylistic devices developed from referring from the bible are the styles of biblical allusion, contrast, and symbolism. Works Cited Florian, Sandy.Boxing the Compass. New York: Noemi Press, 2013. Print. Read More