Foreign Bodies

When All is Lost, Faith Remains Many people abide by themselves in a constant struggle of religion. These individuals are often wondering(a) if there is a idol, and if there is how does one know. In Hwee Hwee Tans novel, outside Bodies, there is a struggle of faith in from each one of the four main characters. mei and Andy are two of these characters that are sufficient to come to faith in the Christian God after sustenance altering experiences. These experiences have ca utilise each of them to analyze and attack life in diametric ways.Each of these individuals have been able to overcome a treacherous past, and demote faith, apprehend, desire and justice in their futures through Tans novel. meis religious views are consistent passim the novel, Foreign Bodies. though she was born into a Confucianism based family, mei chose at a teen age to throw her traditional Singaporean effects to the side, and walk in the infirm of God, with her Uncle Cheongs guidance, through fai th in Christianity. It was a brutal puff to meis grandfather when he finds out she no chronic conceives in her familys faith.This conversation arises as meis grandfather is telling her how to reduce her time in hell. After I die, you passing game to feed me or non? Gong Gong is shocked when Mei replies that she en go for be unable to. He immediately responds by asking who is responsible for the change in Meis beliefs. He is not surprised when she responds with Uncle Cheong. As a child everyone has a hero they olfactory sensation up to. Uncle Cheong is Meis hero. In my eyeballs Uncle Cheong could do no wrong. Even his farts smelled like Aramis No. 7.With the heart of Mother Teresa and the body of tom tur let on Cruise, Uncle Cheong was my hero Meis adoration allowed herself to be susceptible to Uncle Chongs stories and views of God. She loved when he would tell her stories about her newfound savior. A key role in the strengthening of Meis faith in God was due to the misha p at Red Hill. Mei has laden this tragedy in her memory for domainy years, and only a hardly a(prenominal) people are aware that it took place. As a four year old, Meis father took her to Red Hill to run and blowout with her lantern. It was the time of year when Mid-autumn was celebrated.At Red Hill, Meis father rape her. While this was occurring Mei sent multiple prayers up to her God. I used all the prayers I knew, all the prayers Uncle Cheong had taught me. Meis connection with God dish uped her get through her father raping her. She no longer felt the bother after she abrasioned to seek Gods wait on through prayer. Without the help of God, Mei may not have been able to become the soul she is today. It is a miracle that Mei was able to recover physi wishy, emotionally, and most important sacredly from this tragedy.One might have suspected that she would have mixed-up all faith in God, for letting her father hurt her the way he did. This incident proves how strong Me i has faith in God. She has accepted that he exit always be there for her, to watch and protect over her, sluice though it may not be immediately. Meis last-ditch view of pestiferous is seen through her view of evil being passing prevalent throughout society. She believes that when someone close to her commits an act of wrong, it is her responsibility as a well behaved Christian to hold their mis wins.This was seen in multiple events throughout the novel. Mei, with the push of her fathers will, believed that her beat is not able to take care of her own finances. Mei took on the burden of regulating her mothers money, and frequently became frustrated and irritated with the way her mother wants to leave out her mother. My mother was a sucker for sales. She would go for anything which said Offer ends today. She was the suit who would mass-buy toothpicks. This quote displays the burdens Mei takes on with caring for her mother.Mei is constantly trying to fix her mothers life and teach her values that Mei finds important. Meis views on evil and religion are very different from Andys views of God. At the beginning of the novel Andys view of evil directly stems from his belief in the absence of God. Andy wishes to find some salmagundi of proof that there is a God and goodness in the world, and he wants to be able to feel and understand God by himself. He denies the presence of this goodness and God in the beginning of Foreign Bodies by placing his desires into football teams. Too mediocre to ever secure anything great in life by my own merits, I latched my personal identity onto something which could achieve greatness for me a football club. When Andy establishes his stance on religion at this point of the novel he is stating that he wants something great, but he is lost as to what this greatness is. Many individuals would seek a religion to action these desires, but Andy is content with placing his dreams on a football team. Though Andy in the beginni ng of the novel considers himself a lapsed atheist, he develops and changes throughout to become the person he eventually intended to be.Andys innovation to faith in God was originally not self-motivated. Andy seemed to have an eye for Mei, and Mei did not want a relationship with an individual that had spiritual beliefs different from hers, let alone none at all. After they start dating and Andy enters course Mei accuses him of having no spiritual beliefs at all. You faked it all, misrepresent to have seen Jesus, giving up gambling. You only said that to trick me into tone ending out with you. Andy gives no response as Meis dictation is partially true, but Andy always did have hope that there was something to a greater extent out there.Andy continuously hinted to the reader that he wanted something more to believe in. He may not have had the same extent of belief in God that Mei does, but she had no right to call him out as a complete non-believer. Though Meis push for Andy t o find a spiritual safe haven was unsuccessful, the trail that Andy was regurgitate on gave him the final push to help him find God. Andy had been put on trial in Singapore for gambling on football games. This action had been legal in England where Andy had lived before his move to Singapore.Even though he was innocent of the charges against him, another individual who had hopes of framing a different man set him up. Once the trail began, and all of his friends had left him to face the charges alone, Andy had no other option, but to turn to God. He was an innocent man that stood no chance of winning his court case. Andy knew that he would be spending the undermentioned three years in jail, and he needed something to help escape him through when everyone else aban slanged him. This abandonment caused Andy to put his trust and faith into he newfound God. He slay me, yet I will trust him. This statement made by Andy in a letter to Mei proves that he came to God on his own free will without the help of anyone else. The absence of God that Andy once felt in his life has been distant due to his newfound faith. I love God not for what He gives, but for who He is. I love him because He is God. I dont care how much He hurts me, I will until now love him, because no matter what I do to Him, He will still adore me. The words could never be confessed from a straight off atheist. Andy has always had hope and desire that there was some form of good out there for him, it just took longer than expected to find it.Though Mei and Andy are both believers in the Christian God, the experiences and challenges they both overcame to come to faith are extremely different, but still have similarities. Both of these individuals are able to forgive. Forgiveness in the Christian church is a massive belief, as God has forgiven each of us as individuals. Without this learned light beam of forgiveness Mei would never have been able to forgive her father, and Andy would not have been able to forgive Mei for abandoning him in his time of pressing need.Mei and Andys views in God help define who they were as people, and who they purport to be. God is ever present in both of their lives, giving them hope to take on the challenges that are waiting to cross their paths in the future. 1 . Tan, Hwee Hwee. Foreign Bodies. (New York majuscule strong Books, 1997), 20. 2 . Tan, Hwee Hwee. Foreign Bodies. (New York Washington significant Books, 1997), 21. 3 . Tan, Hwee Hwee. Foreign Bodies. (New York Washington Square Books, 1997), 248. 4 . Tan, Hwee Hwee. Foreign Bodies. (New York Washington Square Books, 1997), 149. 5 . Tan, Hwee Hwee. Foreign Bodies. (New York Washington Square Books, 1997), 124. 6 . Tan, Hwee Hwee. Foreign Bodies. (New York Washington Square Books, 1997), 222. 7 . Tan, Hwee Hwee. Foreign Bodies. (New York Washington Square Books, 1997), 45. 8 . Tan, Hwee Hwee. Foreign Bodies. (New York Washington Square Books, 1997), 277. 9 . Tan, Hwee Hwee . Foreign Bodies. (New York Washington Square Books, 1997), 278.