This week we read Echeverria's "The Slaughter House" and discovered that it is filled with a bunch of analogies and symbolism. One certain part of this reading really interested me and reminded me of something else, which I am kind of surprised no one mentioned...
The part that I related to and caught my attention was the story of the killing of the young Unitarian man. Many parts of this scene reminded me of the Crucifixion of Jesus that appears throughout the Gospels of the New Testament in the Word of God. In "The Slaughter House", Echeverria clearly states this analogy to the death of Christ in this line from the reading: "...they finally dragged the unfortunate young man to the bench of tortures just as if they had been the executioners of the Lord themselves." I believe "executioners of the Lord" is pretty clear. It is also interesting to consider the fact that Echeverria opposes the church, yet he relates this event in Catholicism, his enemy's religion, to a character he uses to get the readers on his side, against the Federalists.
These were a few of the connections that popped into my head while reading this part of the story:
First of all, just as Jesus is brought before and judged by Pontias Pilate and the Jews (Matthew 27:11-26), the young Unitarian is brought before and judged by Matasiete and the Federalist people. Just like the way they treated the Unitarian with their "Death to the savage Unitarians!" chant, reminded me of the death of Christ and the people yelling "Crucify him!" in Matthew 27:22-23. Again, the people of the Slaughter House were chanting "Long live Matasiete!" while the Jews similarly chanted "We have no king but Caesar!" in John 19:15. The mocking of the Unitarian also reminds me of the people and soldiers mocking Jesus (Matthew 27:27-31). In "The Slaughter House", the Federalists mock the Unitarian by cutting his hair and taking off his clothes. Similarly, the soldiers take off Jesus's robe and place a crown of thorns on his head while continually mocking Him. Along with this, the Unitarian was beaten and tied down to a table, which again is somewhat similar to how Jesus was beaten and nailed to the cross to die.
I normally struggle with making connections and comparing different readings, but this actually caught my attention and reminded me of something I was very familiar with, the Bible and my faith. Again, these might be somewhat loose connections but they completely made sense to me and worked in my head so I hope you too can see a little similarity between these two completely different readings and events.
Wow, these are some really good connections that you made! I wonder if Echeverría did this on purpose. If he did, I can see how contradictory it seems: why would he use Jesus as a metaphor, if he was anticlerical? I think there might be two possible answers to that question. First, although he was opposed to the influence the Catholic Church had in politics, he still might very well have been religious. One can be in favor of the separation of Church and state and still be devout. Second, I think that maybe Echeverría was trying to make a point to the Federalists; if the Federalists reading this story recognized the metaphor, then maybe it would help them see that they were wrong in persecuting the Unitarians, whom Echeverría portrays as as innocent, good, and pure as Jesus.
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ReplyDeleteWow! What an awesome connection! I completely agree with you that this story has a lot of connections to the crucifixion of Jesus. I think Echeverria probably did this on purpose. His story is full of symbolism. He connects the flood and rain to the story of Noah’s Ark, another biblical reference. Echeverria also uses the runaway bull to symbolize the Unitarian. I think the similarities between the Federalist’s attack on the Unitarian was definitely another one of his clever allegories.
This is a very interesting analogy, Ian. One that we should definitely take into consideration as we wrap up our discussion of Echeverría's text tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteWow! I never even thought of it that way! I wonder if since the Unitarian was compared to Jesus, could Echeverria be comparing the Restaurer, and himself, to God? Just some food for thought. I think you are correct in tieing the two together because Echeverria uses the flood at the beginning, which means Echeverria was probably very religious.
ReplyDeleteIan this is great! I agree that Echeverría probably included the biblical references to make sure he was getting the attention of everyone he could. Adding these references was another way for him to gain the support of people with religious affiliations, like Grace pointed out. As I mentioned in my blog this week he was able to get a lot of people to sympathize with him (and therefore the Unitarians) by including the death of the innocent child. By including biblical references he broadened the spectrum of people that his text would/could have an effect on.
ReplyDeleteReally really like this blog post, and there is yet another connection along with yours, that I had actually thought of, but didn't see the big picture like you did! The Unitarian mentions gall. The judge tells a slave to bring a glass of water, and the Unitarian refuses it (just like Christ) and says "I'll have you drink gall..." Christ's crucifixion is the only other place I have come across the word gall.
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