Religion in Big Machine

Please let me preface this by saying that I want this post to be broad, so that my fellow peers may have their own interpretations of what I have chosen to focus on.

Throughout our reading of the novel, religion has been at the forefront of our conversation, and it is an aspect of the novel that intrigues me. Being raised in the Baptist church and being a part of a youth program that required me to memorize Bible verses (for prizes of course), I found myself comparing passages or events in the reading from the past week to those that are in the Bible.
When I first began to notice the Biblical aspects of the novel was when Ricky is talking about the Washerwomen, “Christianity filtered through the wisdom of three women, three sisters from Jacksonville, Florida” (104). At first, when I was reading about the Washerwomen it sounded very odd to me (aside from the fact that they were a cult), but there was also as part of me that equates them as the ‘modern’ version of Jesus’ twelve disciples.
Another example was, “The Whisper created suns and planets, insects and beasts, right before the Heurequeque’s eyes. A single breath from the Whisper’s lips, and deer appeared in the world. Venus was created with a hum” (264). I saw this to be very clearly mimicking Genesis, the first book in the Bible, specifically chapter one, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the Earth…And the Earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters…And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day” (Genesis 1:1,2,31). It is shocking to me that this novel revolves so much around religion given the traumatic experiences Ricky has with the washerwomen.
I am hoping that with the ending of the novel there is finally answers as to how Ricky was able to cope with the events that happened in the staircase, and how he is able to trust religion after. Or, maybe because of the tragic events Ricky is needing to rely on God more than ever?

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