Divine Journeys: Conversion and Fragile Identities in Times of Crisis for Robinson Crusoe and The Grapes of Wrath

Abstract

The question whether religious conversion can be understood through literature, as well as the effect such a conversion would have on the identity of its protagonists, is researched through two canonical novels in this thesis. The theoretical frameworks of researchers and philosophers in the field such as Rambo, van Stralen, Paloutzian, McKnight, Burgess and Ivanic have been applied to this investigation, and are laid side by side to these works of fiction. The concepts of conversion and identity are hard to define in real-life narratives, and this thesis will explain whether these modern and post-modern novels are able to add to the debate in which they are used. This is done by analysing the authors’ historical, cultural and religious backgrounds, as well as by examining the process of conversion and changes to identity as they occur in these works. By comparing these novels to one another, and noting the similarities and differences, I identify how these authors have worked the themes into their works within their respective contexts. Furthermore, the research in this thesis can be used to work towards an understanding of how conversion and identity are used in literature, and how different ways of incorporation lead to different ways of understanding the concepts. In the conclusion of this paper, I state that though the terminologies are incredibly subjective to their way of interpretation, these novels help in imagining the abstract ideas in which they are often used in the scientific and humanistic fields.