Positive Sin
“Follow your bliss,” -Joseph Campbell. In this quote by Joseph Campbell, he states how we must do what our hearts and conscious tells us to do. In His Dark Materials, by Phillip Pullman, is a series that expresses this idea. Within the series the main character Lyra goes through many hardships and meets many people that influence her life in many ways. Also Lyra, Lyra’s friends and family travel through many worlds throughout the series. This series demonstrates Pullman’s ideas with God, innocence, and destiny. Pullman uses His Dark Materials to present a new interpretation of original sin; he proposes that original sin s to be celebrated for it gives each individual the free will to choose his or her own destiny, not simply follow ideas on innocent ignorance. This idea can be seen as a new analysis of original sin because we mainly see original sin as mankind’s downfall. However, Pullman demonstrates we should embrace our separation from the innocent ignorance that God originally gave mankind. Pullman utilizes his characters to demonstrate how original sin is used positively. The five main characters Pullman employs to validate a helpful original sin, is Mary Malone, Lyra and Will, Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter, John Parry and the witches.
The character of Mary Malone clearly demonstrates Pullman’s argument about free will for she exercises her free will in making two tremendous and independent choices that shape not only shape her destiny but influence other lives as well. Malone’s two decisive choices are her decision to leave the church and her decision to tell Will and Lyra of her love. Pullman’s characterization of Dr. Malone in these scenes enhances his argument for free will. With Dr. Malone’s decision to leave the church shows the start of her archetypical quest to separate her free will from the church as well.
And the answer came back-no. No one will. There’s no one to fret, no one to condemn, no one to bless me for being...