Moral and Spiritual Lessons
Fantasy is written by escapists for escapists and George RR Martin is no exception. Living in RR Martin's world is equal parts enlightening and frightening. When I find myself putting the book down, I'm weary from the war-ridden miles I've traveled.
While this writer focuses on the sensory part of fantasy, each character subtly teaches the reader about moral complexities they'll experience. Depending on which characters resonate with the reader, RR Martin will weather the reader through many moral and spiritual lessons.
When I read Arya Stark, I'm in her skin.
In A Game of Thrones, Arya and the Stark family introduced the reader to the complexities of family relationships (and as the series goes on, builds upon this lesson). In the first 100 pages, Arya's father is killed and within the next 100, her family gets ripped apart. Although the Stark family is separated, Martin emphasizes that distance can't thin blood connections. Before separating, the Stark children find a liter of abandoned wirewolves perfect for each character. Through these pups, Arya often feels that her family is still alive, even though she's thousands of miles away from them, and when one of them dies, she knows it.
Through Arya's water dance training, her coach (or rather, George RR Martin) set her up for a spiritual awakening later in the series. She gets involved in a religion that honestly reflects traditional Christian beliefs, but Martin adds his moral lesson through the humanly immoral way Arya's new religion views death, and how quickly Arya becomes desensitized to it. It's almost as if she gets brainwashed into killing. To me, Martin points out how religion and spirituality can easily turn to extreme measures, much like the Nazi regime. After reading a few more of George RR Martin's works, it's obvious he has opinions about religion and Christianity worth talking about. After all, he grew up as a churchboy, so he'd know better than anyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment