The Theme Guilt

The theme of Guilt is extremely prevalent all through the novel. Emilio Sandoz feels guilty about a lot of things that happened to him and his friends on the planet Rakhat. One event Emilio seems to feel very guilty about is unintentionally giving consent to all the muscles being cut out of not only his hand but Marcs as well. Emilio said,

“Sta’aka was a kind of ivy […] it was very pretty. It would climb on larger, stronger plants,     like our ivies, but it had branches with weeping growth habit, like a willow. […] It was symbolic of something. I knew that, from context. Supaari tried to explain, I think, but it was too abstract. I trusted him, so I gave him my consent. […] I gave consent for Marc, as well. And he died. I blamed Supaari but It was my fault,” (Russell 211).

Emilio had to trust Supaari because that is the only person he had that he could rely on after he was taken from the Runa’s. He would never have thought that Supaari would do that to marc and him, so he consented to whatever Supaari was saying and unfortunately it resulted in Marc’s death. Neither Emilio nor Supaari knew that that would happen to Marc and so it is Banal Evil.

            Even though Emilio could never have known this would happen to Marc he still felt very guilty for what happened. He even said that he could have stopped this from happening because  he said, “I knew everything then that I have just told you [John] now. I just didn’t think,” (Russell 212). However, Sandoz may have known everything he told John except his hands had not been destructed by that point so he probably would not have put all the information together even if he could have gone back. Emilio is facing survivor’s guilt, in which he doesn’t understand why he is the only one who survived and blames himself for a lot of the events that occurred even though he couldn’t have known what was going to happen. 

By Katherine Pellin

Guilt Continued

It is evident that Emilio feels some guilt and remorse for being the only one who survived and made it home safe. Going off of that, Emilio believes in order to maintain a good relationship with God you must keep your end of the relationship and God will be present. This ties into the course material regarding Judaism and how some believe God did not fulfill His end of the covenant or that maybe the Jews themselves did something wrong against God for Him not to step in while the Holocaust was going on.  Emilio could be feeling guilty because he may feel God was not present during his suffering because he may have done something and didn't comply with God's orders.

By Jessica Frias

Guilt Continued

The Sparrow is a novel filled with ups and downs like that of a roller coaster. It seemed as though every time something good would happen for the Jesuits, a greater evil would occur. One of the main themes of this novel was that every action created a sense of remorse for each person. Emilio especially received the worst sense of guilt and pain, because he was the lone survivor. The first thing Emilio likely felt guilty about, was suggesting they make a trip to where the music was coming from in the first place. He initiated the entire voyage, and for that he felt miserable. The second was the death of Alan. Everyone suffered from his death. There would have been questions such as, "what could I have done?"; "why not me?", and "We knew there was a chance this could happen-- why did we do this?". After Alan's death, the mood changed and they met the Runa for the first time. In the beginning, curiosity seems to take precedence over guilt, but curiosity killed the cat. D.W. begins to take ill, and everyone starts to think the worst. After things seem to be looking up, Anne and D.W. are randomly taken down as prey of a wild Jana'ata hunter. Again, everyone asks the aforementioned questions. Soon after, Sofia has a baby with Jimmy, but they die no sooner, and George goes fighting beside them. Emilio and Marc are left alone. They are left with the knowledge that all of their friends have died terrible deaths, and that they are partially responsible. Soon after, Marc dies. In part, the guilt was too much for him to take the traditional Jana'ata procedure of destroying hands. Emilio is then left alone, and is sent to a brothel where he is sold as a prostitute against his will. He loses everything and only gains guilt in the end. He even feels guilty for trusting God to "take care" of them all. When he is finally located and sent back to Earth, he is a different man. Crushed, with mangled hands, he has nothing but his guilt for all of the things that went wrong.

By Seth White