89 pages • 2 hours read
The Sparrow
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God’s Will Versus Human Volition
The tension between God’s will and human volition is an important theme in the novel and is intimately tied to the idea of faith in God. This concept is most widely seen through Emilio’s experiences on Rakhat. While Emilio was saved from a violent childhood by a Jesuit priest, which ultimately inspired him to become a priest himself, Emilio admits that he has always been agnostic. Agnosticism, for him, means that although he believes in God, he has always taken agency over his own life: He chose to be a priest, he chose to go to school, and he chose to take a vow of celibacy.
However, after hearing the alien singers at Arecibo, his agnosticism slowly blooms into full-fledged faith in God’s will over his life. As all the pieces for the mission fall into place, Emilio believes wholeheartedly that it’s God’s will for him and his friends to go to Rakhat. By the time he steps foot on Rakhat and interacts with the Runa, he says that he was made by God for this purpose. In these ways, Emilio’s faith in God and his belief that God brought him to Rakhat are intimately tied to the positive and awe-inspiring things that happen. However, once those positive things turn to tragedy, he begins to question if it was really God’s will or his own volition that brought him to the planet.
Once his friends all die and he’s left alone to be tortured and abused, Emilio questions his faith in God. Mainly, he thinks that if it was God’s will that he and his friends should go to Rakhat, why would God let things fall apart so violently? If it was God’s will that they come to Rakhat, then it was also certainly God’s will that they all die and be tortured. Of course, Emilio can’t accept God if He would allow so many awful things to happen, and so he ends up taking the blame for the tragic events himself.
What complicates this idea is Father Vincenzo’s commentaries. Vincenzo constantly reminds Emilio that many Jesuit missionaries throughout the ages have been tortured or martyred yet have kept their faith in God until the end, which is not to say that they didn’t feel despair or loneliness. Vincenzo questions Emilio’s self-pity and why he thinks he’s unique in his experience. By the end, after witnessing the extent of Emilio’s suffering, Vincenzo believes that Emilio is closer to God than he has ever been. In this way, Vincenzo’s faith in God is tied to suffering, while Emilio’s faith is tied to his positive experiences.
The Price for Following God
Throughout the novel, the price it costs to follow God constantly comes into question. For Emilio, one of the first prices he pays to follow God is celibacy. While he admits that it has been difficult at times, it becomes the most difficult after meeting Sofia. As the two grow closer in friendship, it’s clear that they share a deep bond, have sexual chemistry, and would make a good couple. However, once the crew is stranded on Rakhat, Emilio realizes that the biggest cost of his celibacy isn’t the relinquishing of sexual freedom, it’s the sacrifice of human intimacy. Despite this realization, he stands firm in his celibacy and ultimately gives up any hope of intimacy; in its place, he draws himself nearer to God.
After making his choice, Anne tells Emilio that being in love means being naked and vulnerable, and Emilio agrees that that’s what it’s like to finally and fully love God. It seems that celibacy is the main gift Emilio has to give to God, which makes his torture and demise all the more devastating. The price he paid to follow God was ultimately a life of love and children with Sofia; in his eyes, he was repaid with nothing but loss and pain. In Emilio’s words, he feels that at his most vulnerable with God, he was ultimately raped by God. In this way, the novel calls into question if the price one pays to follow Him is worth it.
Ethnocentric Dilemmas
During the hearings, after telling the raw truth about what happened to him on Rakhat, Emilio seems to defend the Jana’ata, stating that the humans on Earth are no better. The Jana’ata, just like humans, think they have control over Earth and its creatures, but unlike Earth, Rakhat doesn’t have a problem with disease, poverty, or overpopulation. Emilio states that the price the Jana’ata pay for their lack of problems is high but asks how humans are any better.
He’s talking specifically about the fact that the Jana’ata, a more intelligent species, control, breed, sexualize, and eat the Runa. Yet, despite the Jana’ata’s actions, and possibly because of their actions, Rakhat doesn’t have the same devastating problems as Earth does. Emilio wonders who we are to judge the Jana’ata, considering the Earth is overpopulated and children die of starvation every day. Emilio poses the question of which way is better and who gets to decide.
This also brings up the idea of ethnocentrism that’s inherent to every religious mission. Ultimately, the journey to Rakhat was a mission meant to tell the creatures about God. As Vincenzo reminds Emilio, the purpose of the mission to Rakhat was the same as any Earthly Jesuit mission. Because of this, the humans on Rakhat viewed the planet and its inhabitants through an Earthly lens. In this way, they missed some of the warning signs that would have enabled them to potentially survive. The most obvious example is the human’s view of Supaari and, more generally, of the Jana’ata.
Although they knew Supaari was a predator, they viewed him as more human than the Runa. Yet, instead of seeing the devastation that predators can cause at the expense of the prey, the humans chose to see their own humanity reflected in Supaari. Rather than seeing that he, like humans, could use less intelligent species for his own advantage, they chose to see that he, like humans, was witty, charismatic, and capable of telling good jokes. In this way, they were blinded by their own standards of the ideals of human culture being placed on Supaari, which inevitably caused their own downfall, since it was the Jana’ata species that murdered them, and it was Supaari who was responsible for Marc’s death and Emilio’s torture.
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By Mary Doria Russell
