I used to tutor “Anand,” an Indian American boy. He’s in college now, but back when he was in second grade, he taught me a valuable lesson about cultural literacy when he showed me a book he was reading for school: Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, by Carole Boston Weatherford. He didn’t understand the book’s title because he had never heard of Moses before.
I responded with a short retelling of the Exodus story so that he could understand why Harriet Tubman was known as Moses: both led their people out of slavery. To which Anand said, “Oh, he’s another god!”
As I picked my jaw up off the floor, I remembered Anand's religion. Hinduism is polytheistic, and Hindus worship between 33 and 33 million gods, depending on who you ask. To Anand, Moses’ seemingly supernatural actions were proof of his divinity. Monotheists, of course, don’t understand Moses that way because they believe there is only one God. The Passover Hagaddah (the book Jews read at the Passover Seder) deliberately downplays Moses’ role in freeing the Jews from Egyptian slavery to prevent people from worshiping him.
I’ve encountered similar situations throughout my teaching career. In one class I taught at Vanderbilt, the only Jewish student in the class stayed late one day so that I, a fellow Jew, could explain the crucifixion to him because it had come up in what we were reading. When I teach S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders to middle school students who have been raised Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, or atheist, I have to retell the story of Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden because otherwise the line “So Eden sank to grief” in the Robert Frost poem that Ponyboy quotes to Johnny makes no sense. It’s been ages since I had a student who pointed out that Johnny Cade’s initials mark him as the story’s Christ figure.
These experiences underscore the extent to which the United States has diversified religiously and how important it is for English teachers to remember that the classics of English literature were written from a Christian perspective, even when it appears to be secular. When I took “The Bible as Literature” in college, I was startled to recognize the Christian parables. I knew them all from reading Heidi.
Many contemporary children’s favorites also make use of Biblical themes and stories.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows both rely on a sacrificial death to stave off destruction: Aslan and Harry die to save everyone else and are then resurrected. References to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol are ubiquitous every Christmas; woe betide those children who don’t get Scrooge references!
Understanding religious allusions in stories gives children a feeling of mastery over what they’re reading. It also allows them to become more culturally literate and prepares them to read the perennials of high school English classes, such as The Scarlet Letter, The Crucible, Lord of the Flies, and The Grapes of Wrath. In other words, if you want to understand literature, it pays to know the Bible.
Elizabeth Breau, Ph.D., is a private English tutor and the author of History According to SAT: A Content Guide to SAT Reading and Writing. Her website is historyaccordingtosat.com. She can be reached at elizabeth.breau@gmail.com. She is currently accepting new students.
Comments