Right from the very beginning we see the conflicting of the materialistic world view and a spiritual world view in the infamous sledding and snowball incident. Percy's mittens were purchased at a store in the city, while Dunstan's mittens were made lovingly by his mother. Percy's sled is new; Dunstan's is old. The anger and animousity Percy feels and displays toward Dunstan is the psychological struggle each has with these two world views. Dunstan's possessions might be older, made by a loving parent, but they possess a deeper spirituality than Percy's mass produced collection of possessions. Percy is upset not just at losing, but losing to something he cannot or does not possess-soulful objects and a growing sense of spirituality. When we read further we see that Dunstan is psychologically and spiritually affected by the snowball incident which he sees as his fault. Percy is curiously absent from the incident despite being the guilty culprit. All of this is set up in just the first five pages of the novel....
No comments:
Post a Comment