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    God's Little Characters: The Spirituality of Erskine Caldwell's Most Famous Characters
    God's Little Characters: The Spirituality of Erskine Caldwell's Most Famous Characters
    God's Little Characters: The Spirituality of Erskine Caldwell's Most Famous Characters
    Ebook52 pages49 minutes

    God's Little Characters: The Spirituality of Erskine Caldwell's Most Famous Characters

    By Lee Russell

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    About this ebook

    The following book represents an overview of Erskine Caldwell’s most successful fiction compared to his less critically and commercially successful work. It focuses on the spirituality of Caldwell’s characters, as evidenced by the nature of their relationships with God. In his most successful novels, Caldwell closely connected his protagonists and other characters to some aspect of the Divine; thereby, he created mythological stories worthy of inclusion in the discourse on the human condition. Most importantly, this study suggests a reconsideration of Erskine Caldwell’s novels for significant literary merit.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLee Russell
    Release dateMar 3, 2018
    ISBN9781370003211
    God's Little Characters: The Spirituality of Erskine Caldwell's Most Famous Characters

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      Book preview

      God's Little Characters - Lee Russell

      God’s Little Characters

      Published by Russell Carrick at Smashwords

      Copyright 2006 © Russell L. Carrick

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      This is a work of non-fiction. All specific quotes and factual information has been cited in 2006 MLA format.

      Cover Design: Russell L. Carrick

      Dedicated to my wife Rhonda

      Her love, support, and constant encouragement have made this project possible.

      Table of Contents

      Chapter I…………………………………………………………….Introduction and

      Chapter II……………………………………………………………Review of Literature

      Chapter II……………………………………………………………Tobacco Road

      Chapter IV…………………………………………………………...God’s Little Acre

      Chapter V…………………………………………………………….Journeyman and Other Works

      Chapter VI………………………………………………………….. Conclusions

      CHAPTER 1

      INTRODUCTION

      At his best Erskine Caldwell was a gifted storyteller; and, along with the stories, he created some of the most outrageous and memorable characters in American Literature. In the tradition of much of Southern writing, his characters play out intense dramas against a rural backdrop. But the outrageousness of their lives and the intensity of their situations are only part of the reason these characters are so indelible to readers. There is a depth to some of these characters that makes them meaningful to any discourse on the human condition – and that depth is often of a spiritual nature.

      A character with a deep spiritual nature does not necessarily need to be a religious character. There are plenty of Caldwell characters who practice religion in the extreme, but there is more to be considered. By analyzing the characters individually - their desires, their motivations, their actions, and their words - we can see that some of the more remarkable ones have meaningful relationships with the divine nature of life. They speak to God. They bargain with God. They curse God. They not only relate specifically to God in significant ways, but they may also have powerful ties to some symbol of divine nature. These agrarian characters may often have deep connections to the earth, deep commitment to the family, or possibly even to an idea of universal human significance.

      Caldwell not only created characters with close ties to God, he also created characters with various levels of spiritual depth and even some characters with special relationships with God. By analyzing the relationships, dialogue, motivations, desires, and fears of his characters this study identifies three categories of characters employed by Caldwell: those closely connected to God, those disconnected from God, and two subsets of characters who, as divine creations, have special versions of spirituality.

      There are two (and notably only two) Caldwell characters identified with close connections to God. They speak to God in very personal ways. They discuss not only their desires and fears, but also the desires and motivations of God. They see themselves as connected to God, not through a church or clergyman, but personally. They believe that God has intervened in their lives and will continue to do so. They pray to God, but privately and not in a self-serving way that other characters do. These characters are agrarian in the most classic sense of the word. They are physically and spiritually connected to the earth. They are farmers, or would-be farmers. They subscribe intense emotional meaning to the land, either because they own it, or their family once owned it. They refuse to give up on the land, even when it is the only sensible thing to do. These characters with deep spiritual natures have hope for the future even when the present is as desolate as any imagined. In albeit twisted ways these characters are committed to the unity of their families. It causes them emotional pain when their family is broken

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