Analysis Of Maria Doria Russell's The Sparrow

Maria Doria Russell wrote The Sparrow in such a stunningly clear but complex way that the reader will want to keep reading the book. She presents the timeline of the story through presenting two story-lines. The first of which begins in the future where we are presented with the last survivor of a space-mission gone wrong with a sickly man, in such a devastated state of sickness and unbearable wounds which hooks the reader into wanting to find out what exactly happened to him- as does the rest of the world in the book. Then the follow-up of the backstory of this Jesuit Priest who is a wizard with grasping language and how he got to end up on a space voyage. It is through these alternating shifts between the future and the past there is a build-up
Despite escaping the drug charges and getting into fights that were but the beginnings that were smeared across Emilio’s early life in La Perla through turning towards the priesthood and becoming a Jesuit, he had still faltered when it came down to belief in God. In many instances his faith is seen as something cloudy even though as a priest he is considered to have such strong faith in God especially because he is exposed to different elements of a believer’s life – especially since priests are regarded as the communicators of God. Now this exactly is the irony we will see later on regarding Rakhat in the life of Emilio because Rakhat and the entire voyage served as the heightened real-ness of God, as though to finally present an answer to his questions of doubt in a
He saw Rakhat as a space that had stopped the shakiness he felt in his core, had finally cleared up the cloudy feeling of belief in God. However this astonishment of the new found closeness with God had flooded his thoughts and emotions. He began to think in the sense of God’s plan slowly unravelling itself before him -which ultimately lead him to Rakhat, in order to make sense of everything that had happened in his life. At this point is where we encounter a problem in his logic. It becomes problematic once he talks about God’s plan- which I relate to one of the theodicies we had discussed in class, which is God’s plan. Now, initially Emilio doesn’t have this mind set of “everything will be alright because God has a plan”; rather he looks back at his life and feels each moment was a step in the Divine’s grand plan. One main counter to this idea is exactly what happens after he gains this idea of God’s plan wherein Emilio suffers. Taking comfort in the thought of “God has a plan” does not justify all the suffering Emilio endures. Thus we are made to ask- is this suffering part of God’s plan? Why does God allow this suffering to happen? And the never ending reiteration of the question: Couldn’t God (as He is all-knowing) have come up with a better plan? Ripping off the flesh and muscle from our hands is a pain