Volu m e II - Purdue University Calumet

good life because of his/her choice” (16). The character can either accept or reject the virtue, but the
virtue is revealed through their choices, and is the solution to their existential issues. Readers can connect
with the characters and their existential issues because we are “interpreting ourselves in relation to these
lives” (15). The character‟s choices and treatment of the virtue make evaluative comments on the human
experience, and therefore, as Ledbetter writes, reveal narrative to be life-like, in that “literature is an act of
discovery because life is. Fiction becomes a way, by extension, of sorting-out life‟s queries, chaos, and
uncertainty and of finding a way to live” (73).
Ledbetter argues that characters, in their pursuits to live the
good life through these virtues, reflect on cultures and how human beings live within them. To deal with
their circumstances, they can live by virtues that “provide for forms or categories for exploring,
questioning, and defining existence” (8-9). We can relate to these characters, their circumstances, their
choices, as well as their drive to live the good-life by virtues, and even a worldview.
The virtue is revealed through the character‟s religious or ethical decision-making and establishes
the religious or ethical worldview of the text. Ledbetter uses both of the terms „religious‟ and „ethical‟
because his definition for religion is ambiguous, although he primarily uses „religious‟ in his book, and I will
do the same in this paper. Religion, according to Ledbetter, is the “solution to every existential crisis” and
therefore religious worldviews can serve as tools for “transcending personal situations” (5). The
worldviews that we can turn to in life are religious because they help people deal with their existential
issues. One theorist, Lloyd Steffen, would agree with Ledbetter‟s use of „religious‟ with „worldview‟ as he
states religion confronts “the most anxiety-generating questions of existence—questions about who we are,
why we are here, and where we are going … Religion thus has the power to affect how human beings
understand the world and the mystery of human existence” (13-14). A religious worldview within a text is
based entirely on the virtue, and can be either explicit in the narrative or used as a literary tool to further
explore the virtue and its solutions for the character. Ledbetter focuses on three potential virtues within a
narrative; human relationships, faith, and courage, which he correlates with three dominant religious
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