Kidnapped" by Robert Lewis Stevenson, Term Paper

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"All Quiet on the Western Front" has always been seen as an anti-war novel, but it is also a treatise on the callousness of the modern world.

In the end, Paul dies, and no one even notices. The tanks and guns go on shooting, the wars still go on being fought, and humankind seems lost and pathetic, somehow. The modern world is a world that changes so fast it is hard to keep up and motivations are not always honest or even good. Society has become even more corrupt and corrupted, and death does not matter in the big picture. While "Kidnapped" paints a more positive view of the future, "All Quiet on the Western Front" paints a depressing view of the world that is turning into a modernized fighting machine that no longer cares about humans or humanity.

On the other hand, author Paul Tillich maintains faith cannot be distorted by time, science, or modernity, because faith stands separately from all these things. He believes the modern world has not lost faith, as many maintain, but today there is a secular faith, but he maintains it is faith, and not "unbelief," and so faith still exists in the modern world (Tillich 79-80). He also believes faith should not interfere with science, and this supports scientific achievement and advancement that can create modern worlds (Tillich 94). Thus, Tillich comes to grip with the modern world by blending faith, science, and discovery, and showing how they can combine in harmony.

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He has a much more optimistic view of the modern world and modernity, and it is because his faith sees him through, but does not replace his good sense or morality. Unlike Hoseason, he lives according to his faith, and knows the difference between right and wrong. He does not use his faith as a crutch to make immoral actions seem righteous and therefore acceptable.

Tillich's response to modernity and the modern world is far less demanding than the modern world the other two authors grapple with. Stevenson's world is a clash between David, the logical, unimaginative thinker, and Alan, the enthusiastic and inventive thinker of a new time. David does not question authority, while Alan becomes a rebel. David is not creative enough to always find the solution to his problems, while Alan is creative but sometimes careless as well. The two men compliment each other in the story, and Alan helps David mature into a man. However, they represent two sides of the modern world of the time - one side stuck in the past and content to stay that way, and other looking toward the future and seeking creative answers to difficult questions. Western civilization has progressed throughout the ages toward modernity, but at what cost? For many, it is at too high a cost, modernity has brought less faith, more hatred and war, and less understanding between countries, people, and humanity......

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