I am not sure how to react to the novel after reading it. It has been a very confusing novel; I am not quite sure what it is saying about religion. Initially I thought that it was supporting an anti-religious aspect of life. However, the end of the novel presented a twist though the eyes of Mrs. Flood, which made me change my initial thoughts about it, turning it into a novel that seemed to say, this is what happens if you do not believe in Christianity. The novel also presented the atmosphere of the American City as a trap; an inescapable place that drains all morals, leaving one surround by a society of loneliness.The novel consisted of two different stories, one about Hazel Motes and one about Enoch Emery. Both stories, in my eyes, were quite different. The story involving Hazel Motes involved something that he had been struggling with for most of his life - purity, religion, and guilt, which I believe, was brought about by his mother. This information is given when he is in bed with Mrs. Watts and recalls a memory of when his mother told him that Jesus died to redeem him. Motes's response to this was, "I never ast him." However, even after his beating, Motes feels that he must repent more by walking a mile with stones in his shoes, thinking that there will be a sign from "Him." Perhaps it was this incident that led to his disbelief, waiting for a sign that never came. His mother seems to be someone that he both cherishes and hates. The bible and the pair of glasses show this. He feels that he must carry both her Bible and her pair of glasses around with him, although he disbelieves everything that she believed in. Although he says that he is keeping the bible because it reminds him of home and the glasses incase he ever looses his vision, I feel that he is keeping them to hold on to a piece of his mother; a piece of Jesus.The last chapter helped me to form a sort of understanding. I felt that I could relate to Mrs. ...
