Who Has Seen The Wind - The Godlessness Of Formal Religions :: essays research papers

The essence of God isnt found in todays formal religions. It is explicit throughout the novel Who Has Seen the Wind that author W.O. Mitchell intrinsically believes and wishes to convey this message. He states that the prairie is nature in its simplest form, complete onto itself, and that the religious structure of todays "God" is simply make up by people to ease their pain and fears. Underlying everything is the sense that we as human beings dont really know where were going, or for that matter, where were coming from, in our calculate for God and the truth.W.O. Mitchell sees the prairies as the basic fundamental unit of nature. "Here was the least common denominator of nature, the skeleton requirements simply, of land and slash- Saskatchewan prairie" (WHSTW, p3) One might assume that this implies that God doesnt represent That somehow, since the prairie is already complete, God is effectively out of the picture. Not the case Rather, this implies, perhaps subtly , that God exists incorporated into nature itself, living with it, and non as the heavenly arbiter he is supposed, by modern religion, to be. This is perhaps the most important message we are shown in the book. God is real, lives in real things, and, as we will see, is not bound by the finicky limitations and expectations of human beings.It is apparent that there is a definite message we are willed to decipher when we come across Brian creating his own "gods" on paper. This act is symbolic of the childish way in which weve created our own religious conventions and beliefs. Brian feels sad and lonely, so he solves the problem by copying what he sees as religions solution Brian was wishing that Forbsie didnt have the mumps He didnt want to draw men, he wanted to ride a vacuum cleaner up into the sky where it was blue on the paper he made blue with his crayon. And God was there. (WHSTW, p31)Brian, being a child, is impervious to the horrible sin of blaspheme. This, in conjunc tion with his inborn curiosity, allows him to take religion at face value exposing it to the readers for the hollow shell it is Not as a means to God, but a means to declaration personal problems of loneliness and fulfilling dreams. This "confusion" on Brians part is used by W.O. Mitchell to show insight into the falseness of religion as a means to God.