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

The Symbol Door

Door- Hope; opportunity; passage from one state or world to another; entrance to new life; initiation; sheltering aspect of the great mother.

The symbol of the door seems to mean a change in one’s life that brings new opportunities. Sandoz in the book really struggles with doors. Because his hands have been hurt, the simple task of opening a door can be one of the hardest things for him to deal with. In one instance the other priests forget to leave the door open for him. It says that Sandoz,

“felt the volcanic anger well up as he struggled with his hands but forced himself to beat the rage down, to concentrate on the simple tasks of opening the door and then leaving it open a hand’s breadth behind him, the horror of being caged now only barely stronger then the urge to kick it shut,” (Russell 50).

Sandoz is afraid of being stuck in his room because it is so hard for him to open the door. I think the door symbolizes Sandoz struggle to pass from one state to another. It represents the internal struggle for him to forgive himself and move on. On the new planet he faced many evils that are hard for a single person to cope with, these being the loss of all his close friends, unintentionally killing a new friend (and that friend being a child), being raped by multiple people, and losing his faith in God, some of these things in which he feels responsible for. Since Sandoz was rescued from the planet and brought back to earth he is given the opportunity to share his experiences and forgive himself for what happened.

Therefore, I think Sandoz’s struggles with the door represent how hard it is for him to keep that door of opportunity open. He constantly tries to keep all the information and struggles that he has had bottled up inside. He wants to shut down and be left alone by the priests. But in order for him to heal he must talk about what happened and then move on and so he struggles with this.

By Katherine Pellin

Emilio Sandoz and Evil

          Emilio Sandoz was surrounded by evil in many parts of the book. The first evil in the novel to occur to him was the destruction of his hands. At first, one might think that the action was more evil than it was because any human would have an idea of the pain that would be caused by cutting all the muscle out of someone’s hand. However, the Jana’ata does not go through the same pain and this is not used to hurt someone. Sandoz said he is unsure of why they do this but it is possibly a sign of beauty. Although one may be quick to judge an action such as this as moral evil it is important to remember that the intentions behind the action may be different then they seem.

     An evil that is really hard for Emilio to deal with in his life is the death of all of his friends. They all die from many different causes and most of the deaths were fairly harsh. Some died from natural evil, while others died from moral evil caused by different species on the planet.

     Natural evil is destruction cause by natural causes, such as earth quakes and tornadoes. An example of this in the book is when Alan died from an unknown cause but he died peaceful. I would consider this natural evil because this is an evil that happens in nature all the time. People die and it is normal to die from sickness and poor health.

     The VaHaptaa hunter who killed Anne and D.W. caused moral evil because he knew he would be causing harm to Anne and D.W. although he probably did not realize the effect it would have on all of their friends. Moral evil is when another human inflicts pain and suffering on to another human intentionally. And so we can see this in D.W. and Annes death as well as Sofia, Jimmy and Georges death. The Jana’ata in this even slaughtered all the Runa and humans, except Mark and Emilio out of fear that the Runa would rise up and fight them. However, this occurred after the Runa’s babies were also slaughtered by the Jana’ata.

     All of these evils Emilio had to witness and then deal with afterwards. There effects had a huge impact on his faith in God. But the moral evil that got to him the most was being caged nude and then being raped by many people. This act may or may not have been considered evil by the Jana’ata, however, in our society this is an evil act. The Jana’ata seem to have a different perspective on sex and rape in terms of evil. The Jana’ata probably could have been able to tell that Sandoz did not want to be there and did not want to be a part of these acts. And so in the way they were forcing Sandoz to do something he didn’t want to do. That is moral evil because they knew they were causing him to suffer.

     The priests seem to use Sandoz as a scapegoat, they are constantly assuming that Sandoz caused most of the evil that happened on the new planet. They blame him for killing the child without even knowing the circumstances and accused him of willingly becoming a prostitute. Throughout most of the book they give the impression that Emilio caused most of the evil that occurred on Rakhat. On the contrary, we find out the Emilio was caged and raped for money and that he killed the child because he thought that she was going to be the next one to rape him.

     Lastly, Emilio faces survivor’s guilt all throughout the novel. Survivor’s guilt is when a person feels guilty about surviving a horrific event when all of his family or in this case, his close friends did not survive. Because his friends faced such horrible deaths and deaths that he had to watch, Emilio had a hard time letting go and wished that he had died along with them. At one point in the novel Emilio finds out that he consented to having the muscles in his hands removed and that he also consented for Marc to have his done. At this point Emilio felt he had caused Marks death and made him feel very guilty. Therefore, Emilio went through a lot of suffering in his life. He lost his friends, some in horrific ways, and also lost his faith and love in God. Now Emilio is at a point in his life where he must learn to forgive himself for evils that he had no control over.




By Katherine Pellin

A Media Link

During our meeting at the library on Wednesday, we discussed the way that the Runa, while seen by the Jesuit team as beautiful and exotic creatures, are used as domesticated pets by the other races on Rakhat (Russell 330). This reminded me of a race called the Unas on Stargate: SG1.

The Unas are an ancient race of greenish reptile-like creatures who have their own language and society, even art. 

One of the main characters, archaeologist Daniel Jackson, is kidnapped by an Unas called Chaka. While imprisoned, he acts as anthropologist, trying to figure out the Unas' customs, language and lifestyle. He succeeds enough to befriend Chaka (episode 4x08, 'The First Ones').

In a later episode, (5x07, 'Beast of Burden') Chaka is taken by a group of Unas traders who use one of the oldest races in the galaxy as slaves and endentured servants.

The following is a transcript from 'Beast of Burden', since I couldn't find a suitable video link:

[The Stargate on the planet kawooshes, and SG-1 come through.]

CARTER
The UAV shows the nearest of the surrounding towns to be three clicks in that direction. Evidence of a substantial population, lots of cultivated fields.

DANIEL
Farmers?

O'NEILL
Farmers with staff weapons.

[SG-1 reach a vantage point from where they can see a village. Daniel looks through his binoculars, and sees an Unas pulling a log. A man follows the Unas, with a whip.]

DANIEL
Domestication.

O'NEILL
Yeah.
(To Carter)
We'll check things out down there. Carter, you and Teal'c hang back, cover us in case these folks don't like visitors.
(To Daniel)
Any ideas?

DANIEL
Well, let's see how far honesty gets us.

O'NEILL
Okay.

...

[An auction is in progress.]

BURROCK
This animal comes from an excellent bloodline. He can press grain at the stone mill from first light to day's end. He can haul any cart with any load, any distance.

[A man strikes the Unas, who growls.]

BURROCK
And he has spirit.

[The Unas is hit again. He growls more loudly.]

MALE VILLAGER #1
He’s probably inbred.

http://www.stargate-sg1-solutions.com/wiki/5.07_%22Beast_Of_Burden%22_Transcript

We know that the Runa were bred quite a lot by the Jana'ata and at one point Emilio is even forced to eat some Runa flesh, which suggests it is either used as a punishment due to its taste, or that it is a normal staple of the Rakhat diet, much as Earthlings view cows. The only difference between cows and the Runa or the Unas is that cows don't (as far as we know) have any language, nor do they have a self-sufficient lifestyle.

On the other hand, cows are seen as stupid creatures, which is the way the Runa are viewed by just about everyone. The Unas, similarly, are viewed as beasts of burden because of their ability to work hard, and because of their growling language. Here is a clip of the Unas' who are held prisoner in 'Beast of Burden' communicating with Chaka, planning their escape.

By Meaghan Duncan

The Sparrow: Movie Cast Photos

Sophia Mendes: Eva Mendes

Anne Edwards: Helen Mirren

Jimmy Quinn- Daniel Cudmore



Emilio Sandoz- Benicio del Toro

                                                   

D.W. Yarbrough - Richard Kiel



Casting Characters for "The Sparrow"

While we were discussing the book in our last class we were told about a possible movie in the works and thought it would be interesting if we gave our recommendations on what actors should play some of our favourite characters in the novel.

Emilio Sandoz- Benicio del Toro
I think that Benicio del Toro would be a great choice for Emilio Sandoz because he is in his forties and is Spanish and Pureto Rican. He has acted in the movies: Sin City, The Unusual Suspects, Licence to Kill and many more. He has also acted in the television series Miami Vice, Private Eye, Drug wars, Tales from the Crypt, Fallen Angels and Todos Contra Juan. He is a great actor who won an Oscar in 2001.

Sofia Mendes- Eva Mendes
I thought Eva Mendes would be an excellent choice for this character because she has the look of Sofia, being only 5'6" she is short like Sofia and has slight draker skin and looks exotic like I pictured Sofia. She is also a good actor and will be able to do justice for the amazing character Sofia is.

D.W. Yarbrough-Richard Kiel
I chose Richard Kiel as the best fit actor to portray D.W.'s character. Just as described, Kiel is a big man (tall and stocky) and is very, very unfortunate looking. I tried to find someone with unsymbetrical eyes, and even though his aren't, they are still not at all nice to look at...

Anne Edwards- Helen Mirren

I definitely think that Helen Mirren would be a good choice to play Anne Edwards in a movie verion of The Sparrow. Dame Helen is incredibly talented and adventurous in the projects she undertakes (i.e. The Queen, The Debt, The Temptress), and so she wouldn't be daunted by a very involved script and a complicated cast of characters. She's also got chemistry with just about everything and everyone, which would make it easy to cast George.

Jimmy Quinn- Daniel Cudmore
I think Daniel Cudmore has very good potential to play Jimmy Quinn well. He has the size, being 6'6" and he also has been in big movies before such as 2 of the X-men movies and 2 twilight movies which proves that he is a good (and marketable) actor as well. 

Raped by God

When thinking about the ending to "The Sparrow" the one theme that will always be in the forefront of my thoughts is being raped by God. Throughout the novel I had the notion that figuratively Emilio had been raped by God because he had given his entire teenage and adult life to following God and spreading his word and what he got in return from him was having all of his friends dead and having completely mangled hands. Now that seems like he got pretty screwed by someone he literally gave everything to. What makes this theme pop so much when I think about "The Sparrow" is the fact that Emilio said “I am in God’s hands. Whatever happens now to me is God’s will.” Only a few moments after he says that he is literally raped. Emilio put his entire trust into God to guide him and God led him to extreme emotional and physical pain. In the present time in the novel, Emilio has a war raging inside his own mind about if God exists or does not exist. This battle is so tough for Emilio because if he comes to the conclusion that God doesn't exist then he has nothing to blame but himself for all that has happened to him and also wasting his life devoted to something that does not exist. On the other hand if he comes to the conclusion that God does exits then he thinks God hates him or that God is an evil being or a monster for allowing one of his devoted followers to be destroyed in every sense of his life. This battle will rage for a long time in Emilios head because after being devoted to something your entire life and loving what it has done for you, to have it end in the rape of his body and mind he will have to wrestle with how he feels about the existence of God for the rest of his life.

By: Adam Zack