God's Grace | Literary Precedents

It is common for allegorical narratives to delve into other literary works for references and symbols, and God's Grace is no different. What sets it apart, however, is its richness and the encyclopedic range of allusions. The most obvious ones are Defoe's story of Robinson Crusoe (1719) and through it the proto-Robinson, Alexander Selkirk, who actually spent several years on a barren little island off the coast of Chile, and the Hebrew Bible, especially the book of Genesis. God's Grace is divided into six parts: "The Flood," "Cohn's Island," "The Schooltree," "The Virgin in...

[The entire page is 555 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

Lookup any word on eNotes with our dictionary. Highlight the word and press SHIFT + D for a definition, or SHIFT + T for a synonym.