| | I finished reading Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult. After reading My Sister's Keeper i decided to attempt to read all the Jodi Picoult books i could get my hands on. Previous books such as Picture Perfect and Mercy i didn't really enjoy. must be sort of a similar plot line that you could already guess. But after reading Change of Heart, i felt compelled to write some thoughts.
Ok, i think i'll have a *spoiler alert* here.
The book starts off with an event in the past that becomes sort of the focus in the present. Here, its the murder of a cop and his step daughter. The murderer, Shay, is some sort dodgy product of the foster care system in america. Shay becomes somewhat of a "Messiah", the modern day Jesus after healing the sick (supposedly curing Lucius of AIDS and healing a sick baby daughter of a CO= correctional officer), feeding the masses (sharing one stick of bubblegum between 7 inmates) and bringing back the dead (reviving a dead baby bird and a stabbed CO). As Shay is today's Jesus, his ultimate sacrifice was to give his life for our sins. This is shown through his murder trial, where Maggis, his defence lawyer, tries to save him from the death penalty, but in natural fact, all Shay wants her to do is ensure he dies by hanging and not by a lethal injection. This would preserve his organs so he can donate his heart to Claire, the sister and daughter of the murdered victims. Her mother, June refuses Shay's heart even though, by some miraculous fate, the heart is the exact size for a 12 year old girl even though the heart is functioning in a grown man's body. weird right?
i think this is supposed to lead us to believe Shay is really Christ. It is later revealed, (when Shay confesses toFather Micheal), he did not murder Kurt the cop and Elizabeth the step daughter, Elizabeth was being sexually assaulted by Kurt when he walked in on them. He tells June during a restorative justice meeting Elizabeth "was better off dead", he actually meant she was better of dead then living under the same roof as Kurt. He tries to save elizabeth but the gun goes off shooting elizabeth and her father who was an upstanding citizen.
Shay does not want people konwing about the real truth because he believes it will ruin June's memories of her happy life before the shootings. Rather, he wants to give June another shot of a happy life by dying in order to save her daughter. here we go, Jesus sacrifices himself. Also, Shay quotes from the Gospel of Thomas which is not affiliated with te Bible, rather it is some unknown text that would require tedious research to find those paragraphs Shay quotes.
Now, i get a bit confused when i read the ending. what happens is Grace, Shay's sister comes to see June and tells her the real reason why she is burnt and scarred. Her foster father was abusing her, so she lit a fire in the house whilst her foster father sleeps. at the last minute she runs in and tries to warn him but Shay pulls her back and takes the blame after she is burnt. This story leds June to wonder about Kurt's real intentions when spending "alone" time with Elizabeth. Shay dies by hanging and his heart is transplanted into Claire who makes a full recovery. BEfore Shay dies, he tells Father Micheal he will come back in 3 days. Not literally, Grace gives Micheal Shay's things after 3 days.
Now, i think this is where i got confused. In the box, there were packets of gum, photocopied pages of the Gospel of Thomas and an old picture of Micheal with his grandfather, before he was a pastor, and during the time he served on he jury that condemned Shay to death.
Now, i think this means that Shay wanted people to believe he could make miracles. i mean, in some way using a few things he managed to make people BELIEVE he was some sort of saviour. Those things in the box reveal that he wasn't, he was just very clever? Prehaps he wanted people to believe in things that couldn't happen, curing Lucius was only temporary, Lucius died soon after. but how did Shay manage to make all those scabs on his face go away and change his blood vessel count? how did he know how to cure the dead bird or make the CO come back to life? or the baby? I mean the box may explain some of the miracles but it doesn't do anything else. Although at the very end, Claire (with her newly transplanted heart) brings back to life her dead dog. Does that imply that Shay was the Messiah? And that he had the power to bring back the dead? and chose to pass it on to Claire?
i think that's the most likely answer. That we believe Shay is the Messiah and that sometimes miracles happen when we just believe. i mean, i can't really draw anything else out of it. Nothing else is explained. the only logical answer is Shay was the modern day Jesus who died for those sins committed.
hmm. deep. too deep for a 45 degree day. :( |
| | Posted 1/31/2009 12:19 AM - 58 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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