NCHS AP English Language

JOe christmas is a christ figure by kelly snyder

Joe Christmas and Jesus Christ
At first glance Joe Christmas seems to be the complete opposite of everything Jesus stands for and is. Joe is violent, has sex with prostitutes and his all around attitude to everyone and everything around him. Joe is one of those people who doesn’t care about anyone or anything other than himself. He doesn’t want to be cared for because to him he has to care for others in return. Joe is mimetic; his subconscious tells him he needs to imitate someone in order to have a personality. He can’t form his own personality because he doesn’t know how. In the text Mimesis and Violence, Girard explains why Joe is violent. Joe tries to imitate other people and other people imitate him therefore becoming one in the same and their individual personalities hidden in their subconscious clash and lead towards the violence between Joe and other people. In all actuality, though it may not seem so, Joe is in an obscurely abstract way a resemblance of Jesus Christ, Joe is a Christ figure whether it seems like it or not.
Joe Christmas is miming someone though it is not clear who. Joe’s miming comes from his subconscious; consciously he doesn’t realize he is trying to be someone else. It is purely in his mind that he is his own person. Joe imitates Christ but, in an utterly and completely abstract way. Joe Christmas has many things about him that are seemingly similar to Jesus Christ. The first similarity between the two that most people would pick up right away is their initials J.C. Christmas is both the birth of Jesus and the finding of Joe. Joe Christmas was named for being found on Christmas Eve. Joe is representative of Christ. He and Christ bother flee because someone wants to hurt them, it is not of there on freedom that they flee it is because of their guardians. The guardian of Christ is Mary and of Joe is the janitor, his grandfather. Joe is a scapegoat for many people, everyone blames their problems on Joe because they need someone other than themselves to blame. Jesus is blamed foe just about everything that happens to people because the people of the bible need someone to blame their problems on. Jesus is the scapegoat because no one particularly likes him as is with Joe Christmas. Joe is the scapegoat for Bobbie to be able to leave town. He is also a scapegoat for just about everyone around him such as the dietician. Just as the janitor, Joes’s grandfather watches Joe’s persecution by the other kids at the orphanage for being different, black; God watches the persecution of Jesus both stand by and do nothing because ether can’t intervene. Just as the Janitor knows what is to happen to Joe Gods knows what is going to happen toy Jesus.
Joe Christmas therefore is a Christ figure.

posted by Ellen @ 10:13 AM