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

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Mestraal’s story is indicative of the author’s wish to not only portray unconventional guardian angels that do not know if God really exists, but also to portray flawed angels that are as entitled to the choice of free will as humans are. Also, by projecting such a being that is as capable of mistakes and acts of weakness, anger and despair, and, at the same time, presenting a human whose nature is part-angelic he inverts the conventional rules of human fragility and error, and angelic perfection. While Mestraal explains to Freya the futility of helping humans due to their indefinite need for it, and following her transformation into a part-human part-angel, she tries to comfort him by placing one of her wings on his shoulders. To that, Mestraal exclaims: ‘Ah, brother […] is that what you’re doing, using a child to remind me of who I once was? Too late for that, no matter how remarkable the child.’ […] A human comforting an angel. It brought a powerful reaction from him —shame, gratitude, all the emotions he did not want to face. (McNish, 2007, 214) This act completes this inversion and makes these two creatures equals: a humanized angel and a human with angelic qualities and abilities. With this, McNish succeeds in bridging the metaphysical gap between the two species and reaffirms the notion that with choice comes equality. Mestraal’s act of rebellion, in refusing to answer the call of his wards and thereby abandoning the pact that all angels agreed upon, is not so distant or alien from the original Christian story, for it was Lucifer, the most beautiful and luminous angel in heaven, God’s right hand, who rebelled first. Of course, it should be clarified that such a parallel is not made explicitly in Angel, although it may serve as an implicit parallel for the reader who is familiar with the Biblical story. The author himself has claimed that his choice to write a story about 174
guardian angels was as conscious as the choice to remove them from any religious framework. About Mestraal, and this very choice, he states the following: in traditional religious stories angels carry out the word of God, but in fictional terms that isn't interesting. By that I mean that interesting characters are ones that make choices, especially moral choices, and presumably if angels in the Christian sense exist they actually have no such choices. They simply carry out the world of God. But fictionally, what about if such beings exist (i.e. beings that exist on a much higher moral plane than us, are deeply empathic, caring, kind, who devote their whole lives to helping others, but at some point MUST MAKE A CHOICE about who to help? How much harder would it be for them to make that choice than for us? And what would it do to such a morally elevated individual to have to let people down? How much more guilty would they feel? Eventually, if not able to respond, wouldn't that crush them? Wouldn't that darken them? —i.e. the very strength of their goodness crushes them over time, because they can't fulfil what they want to do, and yet they feel it all so deeply. These were the sorts of concepts that interested me. Hence, we get the dark angel Mestraal. He's not evil in the traditional sense of a character with questionable moral standards. He has the highest standards, and yet he's become a kind of monster. (McNish, e-mail correspondence) In this, McNish has aimed for and achieved something similar to Pullman. Although Pullman’s story was purposefully filled with religious elements and McNish’s is utterly devoid of them, their objectives were alike in that they both wished to experiment with a world without a God figure, but most importantly, a world that is not in need of one. While Pullman blatantly destroys the corrupt Authority that organised religion has for centuries now harbored, McNish presents a legion of angels that do not serve God, do not know of any God, 175
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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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considered preferable or superior i
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act is what brought sin into the wo
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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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