Literary Comparison and Analysis

Paper Summary:

This paper focuses on the main characters of Nelson Denoon, in "Mating" and Lewis Moon, in "At Play in the Fields of the Lord." Both novels are set in regions that were, at one time, colonized by white civilizations. The character of Denoon, in Rush's novel, explores apartheid in South Africa, while Moon's tale takes place in the indigenous areas of Peru. The writer of this paper discusses the main plot of both novels, while detailing various similarities between Denoon and Moon. The writer of this paper contends and explains the manner in which both stories boast white characters who strive to undo or profit from the crimes perpetuated by the white civilizations thrust upon their countries. This paper explores how both Moon and Denoon see themselves as responsible for the situation their country is in. Denoon feels he must undo the male oppression of both colonialism and African gender tyranny, whereas Moon aspires to lift himself from the oppression his native people experience in South America.

From the Paper:

"At Play in the Fields of the Lord deals with the efforts of an equally zealous American missionary family. But, of a different ideological stripe than the leftist intellectuals of Mating, they have come instead to convert the Amazonian Indians of Peru. They soon come into contact with Lewis Moon, a Native American from the United States who has been living with the Niura for some time. Moon is an outsider and stranger from a strange American place who has found a home in a formerly colonized non-white area, like Denoon. The missionary family of the Quarriers and the anonymous narrator of Mating provide, by virtue of their recent entry into such societies, an outsider's view of such insider figures as Denoon and Moon."

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