The Eighth Day as a Christian Work

By Paul Simon, Student

The Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder is a fundamentally Christian novel

An essay hosted at LiteratureClassics.com

Thornton Wilder’s The Eighth Day is fundamentally a Christian novel and consequently is rife with Christian symbols and ideals. Clearly, Wilder’s religion played a vital role in the crafting of his novel. While, the novel does not clearly promote one sect of Christianity or directly reference it often, a General Christian spirit pervades the novel. It focuses on the faith of the individual rather than the dogma of any specific Church. In fact, the form of Christianity we are presented with at the conclusion of the novel, the Church of the Covenant, is an entirely foreign form to most readers. Thus, Wilder reveals his novel to be an essentially Christian work through his focus on “faith”, the ubiquity of Christian values throughout the novel, and both direct references and allusions to Christianity.

A general sense of “faith” pervades and shapes The Eighth Day. Wilder chooses not to introduce the idea of Christianity in the early chapters of his novel, simply referring to the vaguer notion of “faith”. In Wilder’s typical blunt style when introducing a new idea, he repeatedly states throughout the novel that, “John Ashley was a man of faith” (106). He acknowledges that men of faith “are slow to give words to the object of their faith. To them it is self-evident and the self-evident is not easily described” (107). Yet, he describes several characteristics wholly missing from Ashley that remind the reader of Christ and the ideal Christian man: aggression, the dominating will, envy, destructiveness, and self-destructiveness. The absence of aggression is reminiscent of Christ’s passivity when he was betrayed by Judas and taken captive to be crucified. Also, Wilder’s descriptions of people of faith as inconspicuous and “not interesting”, reminds us of Christianity’s emphasis on poverty and the simple man. While Wilder has not yet associated Ashley with Christianity directly he has already hinted at the importance of Christianity throughout the novel through his description of Ashley. He also introduces the idea of faith as it relates to Sophia, whose “deep grounded hope” (57), is a manifestation of her faith in the world. It is this faith, which is so central to Christianity, that is essential to the family’s survival. If not for her hope her family would have fallen into ruin. Thus, through both John and Sophia Ashley, Wilder develops the idea of faith and its power to do good in the world.

Wilder continues to narrow the general idea of “faith” toward Christianity by epitomizing Christian values in Roger, John, and Sophia Ashley, as well as, Eustacia Lansing. Roger and John both follow the Parable of the Good Samaritan through their compassion; the Bible tells that,
“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side… But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he had compassion for him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.”(Luke 10:25-37)

John Ashley took pity on the Church of the Covenant which lacked a proper church to pray in and for no other reason than compassion he helped them build a church: “This building is the gift of John Barrington Ashley” (426). He did this silently and without reward in true Christian fashion. However, Ashley capacity for compassion only expanded as he was roused out of his slumber and forced to run into the mountains of Chile. There he encounters a woman who, Ana, whose baby has died before the priest came to baptize him: “Señor, he is not a Christian.” (159). Therefore, according to traditional Catholicism, the baby will be damned to hell because of its Original Sin. However, while others sit in the room, “with shawls over their heads”, doing nothing as in the parable, John immediately pities the woman and convinces her that her baby, “has not sinned”, and has ascended to, “the greatest happiness” (159). Through his words he brings peace and healing to her in her time of need. This situation also allows us to pry into Ashley private views on God. As the novel progresses Ashley begins to place more importance on religion telling Mr. Smith, the mines director, that, “It’s a bad thing…to stand in the way of a man who wants [a God] badly. He also works thanklessly to improve the conditions of the miners who “hated him” for the improvements he made: “No word of appreciation was expressed for improvements he had brought about in their living conditions.”(157) The idea of working out of compassion without reward is a Christian ideal epitomized by Ashley’s actions throughout Chile. Everywhere he goes he brings hope and help to the neediest. Roger also exhibits these same Christian virtues. He toils constantly to improve everything around him; he even improves things as mundane as washing dishes during his stint in the restaurant business: “He reorganized service tables and sideboards”. The work ethic that Wilder seems to praise in Roger and John is unmistakably Christian. In fact, Beata Ashley comments that, “All Ashley’s are happy because we work. I’d be ashamed if we weren’t” (411). Not only does Roger display his father industriousness, he also displays qualities of the Good Samaritan in his own way. He depicts social wrongs by writing exposés “Kennels for Babies” (230) He is living by Christian values in his dedication to the truth and the helpless. Sophia also lives by Christian ideals. Like Jesus himself, she makes a great sacrifice so that others might survive. While her family freezes like a deer before the lights of Goshen, Sophia takes action, selling lemonade and eventually setting up the boardinghouse. In the boardinghouse she does most of the work and it takes its toll: “Sophia, at fourteen, had lived a long and busy life, burdened with responsibilities, fraught with joy and suffering” (57). When Roger returns to Coaltown he notices that, “[Sophia] is trembling”, a precursor to her complete mental breakdown which leaves her in a mental institution where, “she [is] under the impression that she [is] in Goshen” (407). Thus, while Wilder makes relatively infrequent references to Christianity, its basic tenants are omnipresent.

Finally, as the novel progresses, Wilder begins to narrow his “faith”, which is so central to the novel, to Christianity through allusions and direct references. Of course, the first sign that the novel is fundamentally Christian is its title, which is derived from St. Augustine’s “City of God”. While Wilder’s exact meaning when using the word is obscure, its religious significance is present in all interpretations. For example, St. Augustine used the term to signify heaven: “that Kingdom without end”. At the beginning of the novel Dr. Gillies offers a different interpretation; he suggests since God finished his work and rest on the seventh day, that we are living in the eternal eighth day. Either interpretation, but especially Doctor Gillies, expands the novel’s sense of vastness: “vista upon vista, range upon range”. Thus Wilder is utilizing Christianity to imply that while John Ashley’s story, “is only one history”, that it is part of an infinitely large tapestry (395). Ashley However, it is the Deacon at the conclusion of the novel that most clearly connects it to Christianity. When he is talking to Roger he tells him that, “[he] comes from [a messiah-bearing] house… [He] is marked” (429). He explains this by saying that, “Every man and woman is Messiah-bearing, but some are closer on the tree to a Messiah than others.” (429) Thus, Wilder implies that either Ashley is a messiah or very close on the tree to one. Indeed, this is confirmed through the characterization of his entire family as “slow to anger”, and each individual’s characterization. Just as John and Sophia exemplify strong Christian values, so too does Roger: “He exhibited no sign of ambition; he effaced himself” (207). The statement made by the Deacon is further confirmed by another allusion to the Bible as John is traveling through Chile: “He had come to resemble one of the Apostles – a John or a James”. Thus, the novel concludes, finally revealing itself as a truly Christian work. The Eighth Day is the story of a messiah-bearing family; it is their Bible.

In conclusion, through the focus on the power of “faith”, the omnipresence of Christian values throughout the novel, and both direct references and allusions to Christianity, Wilder reveals The Eighth Day to be an unmistakably Christian work. Wilder begins with the generally concept of “faith” Yet, faith must have an object and over the course of his novel, Wilder reveals this object to be God. He further narrows this faith in God to Christianity by implying it through the Christian values of the Ashley family, and then right-out stating it through the Deacon. Indeed, Christianity is not only part of the novel, it is essential to the novel. It adds a sense of vastness to novel that could not be done by solely secular means. To think that Jesus was only one messiah, only “a hand’s-breadth” of the tapestry of history, adds an immensity to the work that mere geographical allusions such as “range upon range”, could not. We are all messiah-bearing and therefore all have essential role to play in the larger scheme of history.