The Reapers are the Angels: Temple

As I read further into The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell, I've come to enjoy the story even more than before.  There are so many post-apocalyptic books and movies (some cheesy, some gory, some just plain silly) out there like 2012 and World War Z, so for this book to stand out is an accomplishment.  Again, I'm not the most experienced with zombie or even apocalypse literature, but I have read a lot of other great books -- realistic ones without monsters and gore -- and The Reapers are the Angels can most certainly fit in with books like The Book Thief and To Kill a Mockingbird.

Anyways, half way through the book, the main character of Temple has really developed.  It's become very clear that Temple is battling something inside her, something that makes her despise herself for the evil she thinks resides in her.  She constantly says things like "I ain't good," (p. 79) and refuses to listen when people tell her otherwise.  Moses says, "I've seen evil girl, and you ain't it,"  (p. 158) and she replies by saying "Then what am I?"

The following is an excerpt of what Temple says to Maury on pages 161 and 162:

... It's a sin as big as the world we live in , bigger even -- to lay your hands on a creation of God's and snuff it out.  It don't matter how ugly a thing it is, it's a sin, and God will send a terrible vengeance down on you for it -- I know, I seen it.  but the truth is -- the truth is I don't know where I got off on the wrong track.  Moses, he says I ain't evil, but then if I ain't evil... If I ain't evil then what am I?  Cause me hands, see, they ain't seem to got no purpose except when they're bashin in a skull or slittin a throat.  That's the whole, all around truth of the matter.  Them meatskins, they kill -- but they ain't get any satisfaction out of it.  Maury, you sure are waderin a lonely earth -- full of breach and befoulment -- but the real abomination is sittin right next to you.

Temple, because she believes she is so awful and evil, cannot allow herself to become part of a whole.  She thinks she's unlovable, that she can't forgive herself for the many times she's killed.  This is shown by her constant wondering -- the most frustrating part of this book has been that Temple can't settle somewhere and stay.  The Griersons at Belle Isle seemed like a great place to settle down, and where I am now in the book, the train seems like a good place, too.  She's left so many places because of her self-hatred.  What I'd like to see happen at the end is Temple come to forgive herself (and believe God will, too), and then she and Maury settle down at some safe place.

Questioning Happiness

Authentic questions I have about being happy:

1) Is happiness a decision?  If so, how can a person make that decision?

2) What's optimism and what's just covering up sadness?

3) When people are really sad, for instance, they might commit suicide.  What does somebody overcome with happiness do?

4) How much of happiness is related to people around us and how much is material possessions?

5) For me, giving a gift is makes me happier than receiving one.  Of course, I love getting presents -- it's more fun and exciting -- but what is it that makes me happy to give away things?  

6) Sometimes it seems like happiness and negative emotions (not necessarily sadness) go hand in hand.  It's as if the sadder you are and you work through that sadness, the happier you are.  That might not make much sense, but I think that the happiest people also feel the most sadness, too.  Why are emotions that way?

7) What is the effect of nature on happiness?

8) How can animals help us feel happier?

9) Why is it that unusually happy people tend to bug typical people?  

10) Biologically, what is the difference between tears of happiness and tears of sadness?  They're still the same salty water, but they feel so different.  Are all emotions just interconnected?
11) What's the difference between childhood happiness and adulthood happiness?  Is ignorance really bliss?
12) Why can a person feel happy one day and then depressed another?  Why can somebody be labeled a "happy" person when emotions are different every day?

The Walking Dead: Theme of Episode 2

The theme thus far is sort of like the characters letting go of their normal, loving selves in the horrible, dangerous times in which they're living.  At the beginning, Rick's wife cheats on him with Rick's best friend, and it's deliberately shown that she takes off her wedding ring around her neck.  She obviously knew what she was doing, but let it slip perhaps because she felt like there was no longer a reason -- maybe her husband had been killed.  Rick, trapped with Glenn and the others at the store in Atlanta, takes leadership by being a bit violent with troublemakers like Dixon.  He was a cop, sure, but just a typical sheriff.  Now he's making harsh decisions to survive.  It looks like they're going to cover themselves with zombie guts to cover their living smell, perhaps showing something about losing touch with who they are.

The Reapers are the Angels: A Pleasant Surprise

I should be honest, right?  Well, when I first heard my class would be reading books about human-eating corpses, I couldn't help but to roll my eyes a little bit.  I like books with friendships and emotional journeys and not just bloody brawls, so I wasn't too thrilled to have to read one.  Besides the Harry Potter series, I don't read a lot of fantasy or science-fiction.  Zombies would be a stretch.

But to my pleasant surprise, I love The Reapers are the Angels.  I mean love.  The zombies are just like surrounding window-dressings or decorations -- they don't play as much of a part as I expected.  There's religion through characters named Moses and Abraham, mentions of God, and a Sunday service, and there's Temple's struggle to find herself and have friendships with real people like Malcolm.  Also to my pleasant surprise, the little bit of the story that is about flesh-eating zombies is really entertaining.  I love a little adventure and mystery with my emotions, even if it just functions as a backdrop.

Temple, though she's a rough girl not afraid of anything but intimacy, is a very likable character.  She's funny and cunning.  There have been times when I really want Temple to just stay in place and be happy by becoming part of a community or staying friends with somebody.  When Temple was with Ruby, who helped her heal and escape, I wanted (and sort of expected) Ruby to remain in the picture.

I can't wait to read more of this not-too-gory, emotive book -- so far, it gives a good name to zombie literature, something I previously wouldn't take too seriously.

The Reapers are the Angels: Airplanes

In the early chapters of The Reapers are the Angels, airplanes show up a few times, symbolizing hope and freedom.  Temple remembers a time in the car with Malcolm, a boy who she grew up with and treats like a brother, when they saw an airplane flying overheard.  Later, Temple picks up a toy airplane while on the road of survival.

This book isn't just about slaughtering zombies -- it has a real, deep plot with human emotions and relationships.  Planes carry a personal significance for Temple, the extent and details of which are yet to have been revealed, but they also exist in the story to resemble hope and freedom.  Moreover, they symbolize the hope for freedom.  Temple can't remember a time before the apocalypse, but she can remember a time when she was happy -- with Malcolm, it seems.  The freedom isn't necessarily a freedom from zombies, but a freedom from her self-hatred and lack of human friendships.  Temple hopes for this again, and she keeps this hope alive through remembering airplanes.

The Reapers are the Angels: The Lighthouse

In the first chapter of Alden Bell's The Reapers are the Angels, Temple, a young woman and the book's main character, leaves an island.  There, she slept in a lighthouse.  When a zombie washed up on the shore of the island, Temple left everything, including the lighthouse.  If one were following the story with the structure of the Hero's Journey, this would be the inciting incident -- the event that introduces the major conflict of the story.  Temple's conflict is, of course, to survive the "meatskins," but also to address the horrors in her past with a boy named Malcolm and better understand the evil she's convinced lies within her.

The lighthouse symbolizes safety and guidance.  The lighthouse is used to see danger coming out in the rough waters, and it provides a safe haven in which Temple could stay on the island.  When she leaves the lighthouse, Temple is entering a new world, a world of conflict.  She no longer has the safety, the "light," of the tall tower that helped her survive, and so she's sent into this new world to discover and fend for herself.

A Classic Summer

I never answered many questions about literature in my academic bowl exploits, probably because my book knowledge is lacking in one major way -- the classics.  The most definitive of books I've read are Watership Down, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Treasure Island, all three of which you can see on my list of favorite books to the right.  I've heard so many good things, of course, about these books, and yet I've stuck to reading new books like Harry Potter.  This summer and over the next year, I vow to change that.

On my list of must-read classics:

Wuthering Heights

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Crime and Punishment

Uncle Tom's Cabin

The Catcher in the Rye

Jane Eyre

The Great Gatsby

Of course, the following aren't exactly classics, or at least not yet, but I'm also determined to read...

The Poisenwood Bible
Something Borrowed
and The Help