Varieties Of Religious Experience By John Updike - 1474 Words

Religious Variety In John Updike’s short story â€Å"Varieties of Religious Experience†, he illustrates four different perspectives on the day of the 9/11 attacks and allows for the readers to understand the minds of multiple people on a day that will forever be remembered in American history. Updike seizes the opportunity to see through various vantage points and it also allows for the readers to have wider sense of faith in the short story. The opportunity of multiple perspectives suggests that there could be something more from a religious experience especially in an ever-evolving technology driven society. Honestly, when I first began to read the short story I was confused as to why Updike would use multiple points of view, but once I had finished I knew that what Updike had done was something only very gifted writers can do. Through each character, Updike allows for the readers to see what happened and what emotions people of different religions felt on the day of 9/11. Updike’s use of multiple protagonists allows for the reader to see each religious, physical, and mental perspective from that fateful day. The first protagonist the reader is introduced to is Dan who is a sixty-four Episcopalian lawyer from Cincinnati. On 9/11, Dan sees the attacks as a simple on looker for a Brooklyn penthouse near the towers that Updike observed the falling towers. Dan, a believer in God until the collapse of the towers, goes through a counter conversion after 9/11. He loses his faith in