Dan Lulseged

God’s Grace
The selected short story is "Nothing Can Separate" by Donna Kersey. It begins

by introducing a character named "Rebecca" and shortly after introduces her father,

who advises her not to go outside that day from a third-person point of view by the

narrator. She is constantly tempted to go outside and play in the snow with the kids and

she eventually does, but she is uncomfortable while doing so, making it less enjoyable.

While returning, she falls down a flight of stairs, breaking her father's favorite picture on

the way down; the author describes the amount of pain she is in, but she refuses to tell

her father because she believes he will no longer love her. Her nanny advises her to tell

her father while she is sleeping, which she does. He tells her that he knows and that he

told him not to go because he was called out of work today to play with her. This shocks

her and makes her feel guilty; her father responds by telling her that he unconditionally

loves her and always will. In the end, Romans 8:35-37 is cited. What strikes me the

most is the author's use of symbolism to refer to God, who is commonly referred to as

the father. The author initially focuses on Rebecca, her feelings, and the mistakes she

makes. This causes the reader to sympathize with and relate to Rebecca. The main

point of this story is demonstrated at the end, which is to exemplify God's love for

people and that he recognizes that everyone sins but is still accepting and forgiving.

Starting in 1820, Harvard was the first to establish departments dedicated solely

to the study of literature. Universities followed, and as a result of these changes, there
was a surge of interest. "Ars Poetica," a poem that was extremely influential in the rise

of literature, was one significant factor. This poem perplexed and astounded many

people. Later in the text, the text compares authors, singers, and artists in that they do

not immediately tell the audience the message of what they are saying or writing. This is

done to entice the audience or reader to provide their own interpretation. This allows

imagination and perspective to expand literature beyond simply telling the reader what

they're supposed to think of. However, New Criticism had its criticisms, and one of the

main ones was that it lacked comments or commitment to politics. Overall, New

Criticism plainly states that if a piece of writing is complex and not simple, it's well

written. New Criticism, like Formalism, tends to regard texts as autonomous and

"closed," which means that everything that is needed to understand a piece of work is

within it. The reader does not need outside sources, such as the author's biography, to

fully understand a text; while New Critics did not completely dismiss the relevance of the

author, background, or possible sources of the work, they do insist that those types of

knowledge had very little bearing on the work's merit as literature. Like formalist critics,

new critics focus on the variety and degree of certain literary devices, specifically

metaphor, irony, tension, and paradox. The New Critics emphasized "close reading" as

a method of engaging with a text and paid close attention to the interactions between

form and content.

The author establishes the father as a symbol of God and his forgiveness and

love by never allowing any negative emotions to show from him, as stated at the

beginning of the story when the author says,”"Just trust me, Rebecca. It's not what's
best for you right now," her father had responded."”.This demonstrates that whatever

her father says is in her best interests. This perfectly represents God because what God

describes as sin is the source of our morals; sin is also what causes death, as

described in the Bible. This is done amazingly and the reader has this good image of

god in their head through this one thing the father says. The author cleverly depicts the

father as this flawless person which is essentially God, God is perfect and pure. Another

example of this is when the author illustrates “Her nanny sighed patiently. “You were no

more worthy of it yesterday than today, child. Your father loves you because you’re his

daughter, not because of anything you do or don’t do. Hasn’t he told you every day

since you were a little girl, ‘I love you?’ Do you doubt his word? Do you really think his

love is dependent on you?”” (Line 19) The author this time uses the nanny to describe

to Rebecca that her father loves her no matter her actions but going further through the

text, what the author really does is use a side character in order to amplify the love and

purity of the father which ties back in the tactic of painting the father as a pure and

perfect person.

Another strategy the author used to heighten the father's symbolism is to depict

the father as someone who is constantly available and willing to lend a hand, but

Rebecca is unaware of this and eventually underestimates her father. This is

demonstrated by the passage, "Her father shook his head. “I took the day off to spend

some special time with you. That’s why I told you not to go outside to play. Ever since I

saw you fall, I’ve been longing for you to come to me so I could bandage your wounds

and help you. Won’t you come now?”” (Line 26) They underestimate God's light and
love, as is true of everyone before they are reborn as God's children. All that is required

is for the individual to set aside some time and seek out God since, like the father, he is

constantly waiting.

This piece of writing employs symbolism extremely effectively, and it is arguably

the most important part of the writing because the entire message is centered on using

symbolism to describe God's love. When depicting the father in characteristics that

belong to God and his word, the author makes full use of this.