I really enjoyed reading Rudy Wiebe's Peace Shall Destroy Many.
This statement doesn't seem quite right when you look at how mad the book made me sometimes but it is true. The books characters send you through a whirlwind of feelings as you trudge through some deep questions with Thom, the main character. And because I believe in peace and support our troops the questions Thom seeks to answer seem to hit home for me as well. After struggling to find the answer with Thom I find that, once again, I am taking the Methodist stance of "I don't know what the right answer is."
I think one of the most important issues brought up is summed up in this quote: "But the worst is the way some of the men, our people often too, don't understand or care what is really going on outside in the world. They're happy that their own conscience is satisfied- they care for no more...Am I to be concerned only with the final redemption of my own soul? Have we progressed so far as to call that Christ's teaching? Or do I do something for my neighbour also? Sometimes I think that planting trees is not enough of an answer to that question."
But the question is left unresolved because, as Thom points out, "what else can Christians do...? Surely not join in the killing."
In Joseph's letter to Thom he talks about the peace of reconciliation and the peace of conscience and how Christ brought about inner peace and that is not necessarily the same as outer, physical peace. I think this matter definitely comes up again in the last scenes of the book when Thom punches Herb to defend his friend Pete. Pete's statement to his father at the end goes a long way in giving an answer to the final scene and the questions brought forth in the book: "Pa, you have to do what you think right."
I think that any reader might be left feeling angry or something because they want to know what happens after that night. I, myself, wanted to know if Thom joined the military or if he followed the traditions of the Mennonites by staying home and farming. You write, "...once again, I am taking the Methodist stance of 'I don't know what the right answer is." What would you say if you took a Mennonite stance?
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, I think the whole purpose of Wiebe leaving that big question unanswered is so that we still have a choice in the matter of how we want to think without the author's obvious opinion swaying us one way or the other. As Ms Kim mentioned, and I believe that the message of the book is, "You have to do what you think is right." Overall, it shouldn't be society, traditions, or anything like that that demands us to make a certain decision, but it should be the Holy Spirit guiding us with His infinite wisdom. Every person has a different mission to fulfill, whether it's going to war or helping lead the communities left behind. You have to do what you think is the right thing, and usually, if you let the Holy Spirit guide you, the thing that you believe is the right thing to do is just that.
DeleteAnd yet, I think the whole purpose of Wiebe leaving that big question unanswered is so that we still have a choice in the matter of how we want to think without the author's obvious opinion swaying us one way or the other. As Ms Kim mentioned, and I believe that the message of the book is, "You have to do what you think is right." Overall, it shouldn't be society, traditions, or anything like that that demands us to make a certain decision, but it should be the Holy Spirit guiding us with His infinite wisdom. Every person has a different mission to fulfill, whether it's going to war or helping lead the communities left behind. You have to do what you think is the right thing, and usually, if you let the Holy Spirit guide you, the thing that you believe is the right thing to do is just that.
DeleteI don't know if Thom's thoughts made me mad, as much as just exhausted! It was so tiring to attempt to follow his train of thoughts and always analyze why he was thinking what he was thinking. It'd be interesting to talk to Wiebe now that he's had many years since writing the novel and see what he has to say about it. Was Thom's inner-dialogue "too much," or does it still serve its purpose? Taking all of it would seem to remove a lot of the content, but could perhaps some of it be cut out or put into a different form of plot development than inner-dialogue?
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