Relationship Between Stories

The Relationship between Stories and Their Sources

Most authors use some type of source when writing a story.

The source could be religious, scientific, or something else that

is inspiring to them. Even great writers such as Shakespeare had

a source in which their stories came from. The source can be

used for many different purposes. A certain author may use a

source to show different parallels between two stories or to show

similarities between events or characters. They may use the

source to prove a point or to add meaning to the book. The

source could also just be an ambiguous connection that helps

complete the story. Whatever the authors reason for picking a

certain source it seems to give the story completion and

significance. In this class, we read many stories in which the

source deals with religion and especially the gospels. In this

paper, I will discuss these different stories and how they relate

to their religious

sources.

The first story we read in class was, ЃgA Visit of CharityЃh

by Eudora Welty. In this story, the source that is eluded to is

the Genesis story of Adam and Eve. The story begins with Marian,

a young campfire girl, who is on her way to an Old LadiesЃf Home.

Before entering the home she stops by some prickly shrubs. The

outside of the home was covered by beautiful shrubbery and the

whitewash brick building reflected the sunlight. Yet, the inside

of the home was in bad shape. It smelled musky and the linoleum

on the floor was bulging up. The details Welty adds are

significant because it shows two different worlds. The one world

Marian still sees which is beautiful like the Garden of Eden and

the world she is slowly stepping into where things are not

beautiful and good. The story continues with Marian visiting two

old ladies who fought between themselves the whole time she was

there. Marian did not want to be at the home and especially

dislike visiting these two ladies. Although, the one lady was

friendly to Marian she was still scared of both ladies. At the

end of the visit the one lady grabs MarianЃfs arm and asks her for

a penny or a nickel. Marian runs from the old lady without

looking back. When she gets outside she grabs the apple she hid

in the prickly bushes on her way into the Home. As she jumped

onto the bus Marian took a big bite of the apple. This is the

most significant part of the story because it shows how Marian

knew what she was doing was wrong but she carelessly did it

anyway. She hid the apple in the beginning so the old ladies

would ask her for it and the only reason Marian went to the Home

to begin with was to get points for Campfire girls. Her eating

the forbidden fruit signifies that she knew it was wrong just

like Eve in the Genesis story. Eve took the forbidden fruit and

her eyes were open just like MarianЃfs were open after her visit

with the two old ladies at the home.

In the book, ЃgThe Lion, The Witch, and The WardrobeЃh the

source is the Passion story. C.S. Lewis makes this source the

framework of his whole story. The story begins with two brothers

and two sisters who were sent to an old professors house to live

because of air-raids in London. While exploring the professors

grand house Lucy discovers a magic wardrobe that leads to the

land of Narnia. At first, no one believes Lucy really went to

Narnia. They thought Lucy was just make-believing or lying about

the magic wardrobe.

One day, when they were playing hide and go seek, Edmund

ended up in the wardrobe where he also found Narnia. Here he met

the cold-hearted witch that Lucy was warned about by Mr. Tumnus.

Yet, the witch was nice to Edmund and gave him magical Turkish

Delight to eat. The only reason she did this was to get him to

bring his sisters and brother to her, so that she could kill them

before they had a chance to take over the thrown. When Lucy and

Edmund return to the house Lucy tells everyone that Edmund was in

Narnia too but he denies it and makes her look like a fool.

When all the children finally end up in Narnia they all

decide to stay and try to find Mr. Tumnus who was turned to stone

by the queen for not turning Lucy over to her. While making

plans to meet king Aslan and save Mr. Tumnus Edmund slips away to

tell the queen of the plans. This is significant because it shows

he