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

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merging them with new ones, thereby recreating a novel idea of an angel: a secular guardian angel armed with free will, the ability to fall and rise again, and a strong sense of faith in humanity, not a God. In essence, McNish humanizes the angelic. Guiley writes that Popular angelology has brought angels down to earth: They have personal names, beautiful humanlike appearances and characteristics, and they have personal conversations with their human charges. In many respects, the modern angel is like an idealized human being. (Guiley, 2004, 31) In McNish’s novel, creating a perfect, human-like, down-to-earth angel is not the ultimate goal. Although Hestron could fit within this framework that Guiley suggests, Mestraal is far removed from it. He is neither beautiful nor idealized, but dark, ugly and flawed, an appearance he selects himself. In this section, Mestraal will often be compared to or juxtaposed with Freya as a result of their numerous common elements. I argue that both angels are humanized by McNish, each to a different degree. While Hestron is portrayed as the epitome of the human and thus idealized, Mestraal ‘falls’ almost to the lowest degree of humanity—the lowest being actually committing a crime, and rises again, moved by Freya’s courage and resilience. Freya’s and Mestraal’s trajectory appear to merge as each character attempts to assume the role they were meant to embody but struggle to make the choices that will lead them to their respective end. Mestraal is not presented as a juxtaposition to Hestron, but as an alternative to the idealized human being that Hestron represents. Mestraal and Freya’s relationship is complicated and co-dependent. The angel helps the human know and learn how to survive with her angelic side, while Freya helps Mestraal cope with his more human side, the one that is prone to weakness, failure, and feelings of contempt and disappointment. The act of a human comforting an angel undoubtedly brings the two 170
species closer together to the point where they almost merge and this shows how guardianship is not confined to the supernatural but can be a human role as well. In humanizing angels, McNish seems to be elevating humans by suggesting that they can have an equal moral status and didactic impact to angels, and that a human’s capacity for care and protection can equal an angel’s. McNish succeeds in setting up notions of guardianship and faith through these angelic creatures as well as from the other human characters. The two angel brothers form a pair but also work in isolation to provide the narrative with different notions and two separate meanings of the guardian angel persona. Issues of morality, faith, good and evil, and sacrifice surface from their words, as well as from their actions, thereby creating a moral foundation on which the story will be built and around which the characters will revolve. At first glance it is easy for the reader to define Hestron and Mestraal as the good and bad angel, respectively; yet, as the story progresses, this definition becomes superficial and eventually demeans the book’s meaning and depth. As with Pullman, the lines between good and evil are not clear and distinct but realistically fine and sometimes even merging. Jones argues that “Angels have taken different forms in different times and places. They have carried different cultural meanings. Nevertheless there are recurrent patterns. Angels are liminal figures at the threshold between the visible and the invisible worlds” (Jones, 2011, 122). These qualities and characteristics that Jones describes have granted the angel figure, especially in the twentieth century, a certain flexibility and freedom to adorn, visit and even populate narratives, be it in a religious or secular environment. Furthermore, their ability to so easily move between the visible and the invisible, especially in the case of Almond and McNish, facilitates the element of doubt and mystery both for the reader and the character in question. This liminal quality may also account for, or even facilitate, the angel’s ability to tread between the moral planes 171
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THE SECULAR ANGEL IN CONTEMPORARY C
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ABSTRACT This thesis explores the r
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I believe this thes
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Faith vs. Science & Innocence vs. E
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INTRODUCTION This thesis explores t
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to one’s morality based on the et
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part-angel, part-human, and through
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subject of angels, is indicative of
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the Book of Enoch (or 1 Enoch) and
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God with the scientific notion of D
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(Keck, 1998, 69). McNish’s angels
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your small existences?’ ‘But yo
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1980, 7). In order to grasp Blake a
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and, in the final analysis, its som
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was the strongest and kindest of al
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This reference to Blake points to o
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deconstruction-, its function “is
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childhood. Almond has mainly used d
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argument, and the heroes of the sto
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act of killing God, to the slow sec
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mentioned, the intertextual element
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meaning of words” (Allen, 2000, 3
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Transformation Transformation is a
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narrative the process is set into m
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secondly, it bears testament to Fre
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the crude awakening of the fact tha
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CHAPTER ONE DAVID ALMOND’S SKELLI
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appalling at first. His first meeti
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him, and serves as a mirror through
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are some of the parallels that can
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Blake & Intertextuality William Bla
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With these verses she is signalling
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Blakean passages that Almond has in
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a process which ultimately leads hi
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Michael’s mother, who faces a cer
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are not only symbolic and allegoric
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the first time, whereas Skellig has
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Mina read the sentences out loud. S
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see and closely observe the two met
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Mina is the one who teaches Michael
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however, does not constitute the ep
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that such a change in our nature an
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trepidation, there is no surprise w
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doctors whose responsibility it is
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have ultimately learned and exercis
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This very process of change, of bot
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may be offered along the way, this
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of by doctors, Michael tries to hel
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this entire process for Michael and
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in Almond and McNish’s work, as b
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witnesses the wings on his own back
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character and an idea. The artist
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Pullman wished for this story to re
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concepts. As a result, the Fall’s
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case of these three authors it is i
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Malone, who often voices opinions s
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Roger, true fear and loneliness ove
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egins by gathering all the elements
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intertextual umbrella under which t
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driven by malevolence and revenge.
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have to be considered as they are d
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drawn between the two girls, Lyra a
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the end of the GC where Lord Asriel
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Page 137 and 138: Lyra finds Dr. Mary Malone, a scien
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Page 161 and 162: Pullman parallels childhood and inn
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Page 203 and 204: All this changes when Freya first m
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Page 223 and 224: This he exemplifies both in Mestraa
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interesting things” (Franks, 2011
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strength of the book, and I made ea
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225
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227
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Anonymous, “A Dark Agenda?” Sur
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Bleich, D. (1978) Subjective Critic
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Chambers, A. (1985) Booktalk: Occas
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Damon, S.F., Eaves, M. (1988) A Bla
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Fairer, D. (2002) “Experience Rea
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Gibbs, N. (1993) “Angels Among Us
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Hunt, P. (1994) An Introduction to
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Kochenderfer-Ladd, B., Troop-Gordon
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Manlove, C. (1999) The Fantasy Lite
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Mishna, F., Scarcello, I., Pepler,
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Pfeiffer, J. (1999) “‘Dream not
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Rosenblatt, L. M. (1982) “The Lit
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Squires, C. (2004) Philip Pullman
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Warner, N.O. (1982) “The Iconic M
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Yampbell, C. (2005) “Judging a Bo
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