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What is a good thesis statement about characters struggling with the aftermath of decisions in The Great Divorce?
Quick answer:
In The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis gives a number of pictures to demonstrate how vices prevent sinners from seeking repentance and gaining entrance into heaven. Frank the Tragedian felt that his wife had wronged him when they were alive. She--now repentant and in Heaven--apologized to him and sought to lead him to Heaven permanently. However, he had become so used to engaging in self-pity that he could not forgive his wife for her sins or ask forgiveness for his own. Likewise, the Big Ghost encountered Len, the man who murdered his friend.If I were writing a thesis statement for this question, I would probably structure it like this: "In The Great Divorce, the sad fate of characters such as Frank the Tragedian and the Big Ghost demonstrate both the immediate and residual effects of sin."
In The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis gives a number of pictures to demonstrate how vices prevent sinners from seeking repentance and gaining entrance into heaven. Frank the Tragedian felt that his wife had wronged him when they were alive. She--now repentant and in Heaven--apologized to him and sought to lead him to Heaven permanently. However, he had become so used to engaging in self-pity that he could not forgive his wife for her sins or ask forgiveness for his own. Likewise, the Big Ghost encountered Len, the man who murdered his friend. Len (and the friend) had repented and gone to Heaven, but the Big Ghost was too prideful to accept guidance from the man who had wronged him on Earth.
In both these cases, Lewis depicts the messy cycle that sin creates. When a person commits a sin, he also tempts others to fall into sin through their response. Both Frank and the Big Ghost responded sinfully when others sinned against them. And so, Lewis implies, it is with all sins.
Almost all of the ghosts from Chapters 2-10 in The Great Divorce suffer because of their poor choices. Choose two or three of those characters and focus on them. If you try to address too many characters, your paper will not have depth. Here's an example:
"In C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce, characters such as Pam, Robert's Wife, and Frank the Tragedian face bitterness, loneliness, and an eternity of disatisfaction because of their poor decisions."
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