Skip to main content

Theme: Da Vinci Code

Theme:
The False Conflict between Faith and Knowledge
               Dan Brown refuses to accept the idea that faith in God is rooted in ignorance of the truth. The ignorance that the Church has sometimes advocated is embodied in the character of Bishop Aringarosa, who does not think the Church should be involved in scientific investigation. According to The Da Vinci Code, the Church has also enforced ignorance about the existence of the descendents of Jesus. 
          Although at one point in the novel Langdon says that perhaps the secrets of the Grail should be preserved in order to allow people to keep their faith, he also thinks that people who truly believe in God will be able to accept the idea that the Bible is full of metaphors, not literal transcripts of the truth. People’s faith, in other words, can withstand the truth. 

The Subjectivity of History:
           The Da Vinci Code raises the question of whether history books necessarily tell the only truth. The novel is full of reinterpretations of commonly told stories, such as those of Jesus’ life, the pentacle, and the Da Vinci fresco The Last Supper. Brown provides his own explanation of how the Bible was compiled and of the missing gospels.
             Langdon even interprets the Disney movie The Little Mermaid, recasting it as an attempt by Disney to show the divine femininity that has been lost. All of these retellings are presented as at least partly true. 


 
The Intelligence of Women
               Characters in The Da Vinci Code ignore the power of women at their peril. Throughout the novel, Sophie is underestimated. She is able to sneak into the Louvre and give Langdon a secret message, saving him from arrest, because Fache does not believe her to be capable of doing her job. Fache specifically calls Sophie a “female cryptologist” when he is expressing his doubts about Sophie and Langdon’s ability to evade Interpol. 
             When interpreting one of the clues hidden in the rose box, Langdon and Teabing leave Sophie out, completely patronizing her. When she is finally allowed to see the clue, she immediately understands how to interpret it. Sophie saves Langdon from arrest countless times.
               Other women are similarly underestimated. Sister Sandrine, in the Church of Saint-Sulpice, is a sentry for the Brotherhood, but Silas, indoctrinated in the hypermasculine ways of Opus Dei, does not consider her a threat. And Marie Chauvel, Sophie’s grandmother, manages to live without incident near Rosslyn Chapel for years, preserving her bloodline through Sophie’s brother.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Poem: Were I To Choose by Gabriel Okara

Were I to Choose   “When Adam broke the stone             and red streams reged down to           gather in the womb,           an angel calmed the storm”, “And I, the breath mewed             in Cain, unbliniking gaze                 at the world without                              from the brink of an age”.             Gabriel is immersed in folk tradition and ballad influences of tradition and culture are found in his poem. His poems are regional as well as universal. His poems are sometimes lyrical and full of music.                     The poem ‘Were I to choose’ is reminiscent of yeast poem called “Adam’s Curse.” The poet has tried to compare Adam’s toiling in the soil with the Negros working in the soil. They broke the stone themselves which was their very foundation. The red streams are symbolized for the multilingual diversity that reaches the womb Africa.           Cain in this poem metaphorically represents the next generation. ‘I’ in Ok

Poem: The Mystic Drum by Gabriel Okara

The Mystic Drum:                     The Mystic Drum is Okara’s love lyric. The Mystic Drum evinces a tripartite ritual pattern of imitation from innocence through intimacy to experience. By comparison to the way of zone as manifested in the experience of Zen master, Chin Yuan Wei-Asian this pattern resolves itself into an emotional and epistemic logical journey from conventional knowledge through more intimate knowledge to learn of experience empowers the lover to understand that beneath the surface attractiveness of what we know very well may lie an abyss of the unknown and unknowable belching darkness.                   But experience teaches us at this stage of substantial knowledge not to expose ourselves to the dangers of being beholden to this unknown and unknowable reality by keeping our passions under strict control including the prudent decision to ‘pack’ the ‘Mystic Drum’ of our innocence and evanescence making sure that it does not ‘beat so lo

"The Golden Fortress "by Satyajit Ray:

The Golden Fortress as a detective novel or thriller:                                                                    'The Golden Fortress' by satyajit Ray was originally written in Bengali entitled “ sonar kella' and it has also been filmised with certained modifications. It includes the elements of suspense because the novelist enfolds events of the novel one by one and the narration creates curiosity in the minds of readers.It tells the story Mukul,a jestismar,remembering the story of his previous life .He talks about camels,battles,horses,elephants,forts,red sand,peacockes etc.He also talk about Golden fortress .The news of Mukul being a jestimar is printed in the newspaper and very soon neighbour boy of mukul is kidnapped mistakenly .Then Dr.Hajra,a parapsychologist,takes Mukul to Rajasthan to find out more about his previous life.Meanwhile ,the kidnappers leave the neighbour boy neelu near the school.Mukul's father worries about t