Godless Characters in Literature

Paper Summary:

This paper focuses on Huck and Jake's shared lack of religious beliefs, while also discussing what replaces religion in their respective value systems. This paper details Jake's personality and the fact that he is cynical about everything, except for his own perceptions and instincts. The writer contends and explains why Jake is practical, a realist and a nihilist, much like Huck. Religion has no place in both Jake and Huck's value system. This paper details how both Jake and Huck rely on superstition in place of religion. Huck claims that his lack of religion and moral values are to blame for his behavior, in which he disobeys conventions and rules in order to follow his conscience. The writer asserts that Huck's attitude is a substitute for the religious principles he feels he should follow, but cannot. This paper also discusses the traumatic experiences in WWI, that has made Jake Barnes impotent and destroyed his faith in anything higher than himself, including God.

From the Paper:

"Huck develops an early cynicism of beliefs his society accepts, particularly religion. Religion serves him not at all, and seems irrelevant. Also Huck has "other fish to fry", so to speak, than being an obedient boy in the religious south: first, quite literally, when he is returned to his abusive father, against any semblance of social good, and later, when he escapes from him and heads for the river. Another character who does not believe in God or religion is the nihilistic Jake Barnes, the ex-World War I G.I. of Ernest Hemingway's first novel The Sun Also Rises. Although the book takes its title from the Book of Ecclesiastes, its characters themselves are agnostic at best."

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