Godless

Godless

Big Mouth Ugly Girl. 0-06-447347-3. Joyce Carol Oates. 2002. National Book Award Winner. Ages 12-18. Contemporary Realistic Fiction. Caucasian. middle-class.

Jason Bock’s thoughts entice him to think of the town water tower as a god. Jason shares his thoughts with his friend Shin, who is a snail keeper and soon finds himself the head of a new religious sect of ‘Chutengodians.’ They worship the water tank that they call it the ‘Ten-Legged One’ Some of them become so deeply invoved, Henry schemes to make the new faith even more exciting and dangerous. During a mid-night ceremony their passion turns from merely theoretical to dangerous. They get into trouble with authority and Jason realizes that his creation is a big challenge. He is not only faced with the responsibility of developing the religion and recruiting the members but also controlling them and being their leader. Jason’s father and ‘Just Al’ are faced with Jason’s unstable beliefs of God. As the struggles to control his religion continue the members fall apart and continue to violate the city rules.
This novel is honest in the sense that it depicts the strife’s most young people go through in relation to religion. Many times we question the ‘passed down’ religion and never have the courage to confront our parents. Although we may want to look at Jason as being insightful one thing is clear that he is not sure about the religion he is initiating or what it entails.

Critique

Pete Hautman engages very strong characters, they are serious in their struggles and willing to risk their lives all for the sake of religion and I would add adventure. Despite his uncertainty about religion at the opening of the novel, Jason is quite clear in his description of himself, his shortcomings, and his aptitudes. He determined and never gives up even when it is obvious that he is losing his crew. Jason, as his father tells him has his friends listen to him. Henry sabotages Jason’s mission and gives his religion a new name. Shin so ardently believes in Jason’s religion because it gives him some power. He writes a lot on the religions and dedicates so much of his time to draw the pictures of the water representing the various members. As strong characters, with a lack of common purpose, this finally plays to their down fall.
The plot of the novel develops through the main character who is Jason. He is faced with the problem of establishing his new religion. He hopes that by recruiting members for this religion and giving them responsibilities it will have a smooth take-off. In the process he appoints two people for one position which bring a lot of conflict. He tells them his idea of the new religion and Henry pushes it further thus creating problems for the group. With time we realize that Jason is finally isolated and a new group is formed by Henry. Jason’s father and Magda’s parents have them go for church meetings which do not seem to offer them answers to their quest on religion. Jason starts the novel as an atheist and ends as one. In my opinion Godless illustrates a way in which the youth question their faith and their desire to better understand religion.
The main theme in this novel is religion and identity. These two themes further touch on growing up and learning to navigate the world without losing oneself. We are able to see this through Jason Bock's experiment with religion creation and the effect it has on his friends. One of the nice aspects of the novel is that although it raises doubts about the validity of organized religion - especially modern religions such as Scientology or Mormonism - it does not ultimately suggest that everyone should become atheist or agnostic. Rather, though the main character is an agnostic throughout, other characters are religious without condemnation. Even though the novel doesn't condemn religiosity, it does ask the reader to think critically about faith and religion through the creation of Chutengodianism by the main characters.
Style of writing and language used is very unique. Language is simple and makes reading the book very easy and so is the style, use of titled chapters which gives the reader a clue as to what the chapter will be about. I enjoyed reading the opening remarks for every chapter. They gave an insight to the religion as these were not explained into depth in the chapters.
This book provides dramatic moments and is character driven thus making it worth reading. I would read this book with my students because it would provide a strong material for discussion on aspects of religion, friend’s loyalty, understanding parents and creation of ideas.