The secular angel in contemporary children's literature: David ...

concepts. As a result, the Fall’s meaning and significance is inverted and transformed into a
beneficial and necessary act of freedom for humanity.
The notion and ‘struggle’ between the contraries, innocence and experience, is also
challenged and the merits of each placed under scrutiny when viewed through a secular lens,
mainly as a result of the sometimes fine line that separates good and evil, and the complicated
and unclear definition of innocence and of experience. A clear example of this is the fact that
the child protagonist Lyra is represented as innocent and somewhat ignorant in the beginning
of the trilogy, but upon closer inspection she can be described as significantly more intelligent
and perceptive than other children her age. It cannot be denied that Pullman’s atheistic beliefs
envelop his rendering of the story of Genesis. This is evident not only in the portrayal of the
fraudulent God-figure and his Regent Metatron, who was once a man, and a descendant of
Adam, but, most of all, in his detailed description of the corrupt Magisterium, created by men
seeking control over others. Thus, it seems that the author’s disdain is aimed mostly towards
the atrocities and wrong-doings of organised religion in the past few centuries; acts of
violence and hatred that were implemented and executed in the name of God and the
Church. 10 However, the assumption that Pullman is “of the Devil’s party” (de Bertodano,
2002) as Blake stated Milton was, could not be further from the truth; for, not being on God’s
side does not presuppose an alliance with the Devil. Ultimately, the virtues and morals the
novel endorses are love, compassion, bravery, and the strength of character to fight for what is
righteous and just, against all odds.
10 In an interview, Pullman declares that his antipathy to the Church comes “from history. It comes from the
record of the Inquisition, persecuting heretics and torturing Jews and all that sort of stuff; and it comes from the
other side, too, from the Protestants burning the Catholics. It comes from the insensate pursuit of innocent and
crazy old women, and from the Puritans in America burning and hanging the witches – and it comes not only
from the Christian church but also from the Taliban. Every single religion that has a monotheistic god ends up by
persecuting other people and killing them because they don’t accept him. Wherever you look in history, you find
that. It’s still going on” (Heat and Dust: Pullman Interview, 2006).
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