You might like to consider the following quote from
Chapter Nine of this great novel, when Samuel tells Antonio the story behind the golden
carp and reveals his own faith in this alternative deity to the Catholic God that
Antonio has been brought up knowing. Note how Samuel responds when Antonio asks him if
the golden carp is still here:
"Yes," Samuel answered. His voice was strong
with faith. It mademe shiver, not because it was cold but beause the roots of everything
I had ever believed in seemed shaken If the golden carp was a god, who was the man on
the cross?
In addition,
Chapter 17 includes reference to Antonio's faith in his God, but also the way in which
his faith is tempered by doubts in the form of questions regarding the existence of evil
in the world:
I sat on the hard, wooden pew and shivered. God
knows everything. Man tries to know and his knowledge will kill us all. I want to know.
I want to know the mysteries of God. I want to take God into my body and have Him answer
my questions. Why was Narciso killed? Why does evil go unpunished? Why does He allow
evil to exist?
Both of these
quotes relate to the theme of faith in this novel through exploring faith in alternative
deities. What shakes Antonio so much about Samuel's faith is that it is equal to his own
faith in Catholicism, and yet is a different religion and belief system. What does
Samuel's unshakeable faith mean about the identity of Jesus for Antonio? In the second
quote, Antonio expresses faith in God's ultimate knowledge, and yet his faith is
characterised by the limits of his own understanding of God. Faith in this incredible
novel seems to present us with alternative belief systems and different deities that we
are able to turn to as we choose in order to fill in the gaps of any one religion or
belief system. Faith is shown to not be something that must be placed in one religion
alone.
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