A Grown Angel Research Paper

Anne Dupont
Ms. Steinlage
American Literature and Composition
December 21st, 2012
A Risen Angel Throughout life, everyone has different roads they have to travel, some easy and some difficult: “For some of us, one mile can be more to walk than thirty” (164). The road of Angel, a young prostitute, is dark and hope is lost until she is rescued by Michael Hosea, a man called by God to marry her. Although Angel is extremely stubborn, she slowly opens her heart and learns to trust, but she still feels unworthy of his love and she continuously runs away. Each time she runs, Michael chases after her, bringing her back to her home and shows her the undying love he and God have for her. As more people are brought into her life, she continues to
When she is sold to him, she is an innocent child, safe from horrors of lust, but he quickly shows her the evils in the world and takes away her hope for a normal life. She tries to run from him—numerous times—without success. She finally escapes, but she is found by Duchess, a greedy owner of a prostitute house, and is brought back into the life she has known from childhood. Angel learns not to have any feelings anymore. She is forced to work and please the unending stream of men that pay for her company; furthermore, she is assigned a body guard not only to protect her from men, but to make sure she is putting in her day’s amount of work. When she confronts Duchess about wanting to get out, the greedy overseer angrily remarks, “I picked you up out of the mud and made you into something. You’re a princess up here” (92). There is no escaping the life she has been taught to live; she is shackled to the lifestyle Duke introduced and with which Duchess “blessed”
Paul cannot see past Angel’s old life and thinks he knows her every move. In his mind, Michael deserves much better and Angel will never be able to change her ways and become a new person. As Paul says, “Once a prostitute, always a prostitute” (177). Angel knows what Paul thinks of her and every time he is in the same company, she starts feeling unworthy of Michael and contemplates leaving. Paul’s presence in her relationship with Michael is the only thing keeping from being completely free from her past; until Paul starts seeing Angel as a real person with feelings, Angel cannot truly be a new person. Both Paul and Angel want the best for Michael—and both think Angel is not it. Both want Michael to be with the new neighbor Miriam Altman, someone who has a clean past and who can give him what he really wants—children—which Angel cannot