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Rowland 1
Cristi Rowland
Dr. Dale Bailey
ENG 233G.02 Reading World Literature
8 October 2017
God Speaks Through Actions Not Words
The novel Silence by Shūsaku Endō includes many reoccurring themes. I feel that the
most powerful reoccurring theme is God’s silence towards Rodrigues throughout the book. In
times of stress and terror it is hard to believe that there is a God, someone that is supposed to be
up above watching over you, helping you do the right thing, keeping you out of harms way. It is
easy to be overwhelmed with emotions and animosity towards any negative situation, but also
towards the greater force that you believe in that is supposed to protect you and what you love.
Rodrigues was overwhelmed with the persecution of the people who loved his God so fiercely.
He prayed to God, begged God, pleaded to God to help these Christ followers, to end their
suffering and stop the persecution. The persecution continued and Rodrigues’s faith in God
shrank as the days went on. Although Rodrigues believed that God was ignoring him along with
the dire situation that stood in front of him. I believe that God was there, God saw what was
happening and he gave Rodrigues the power to change the situation. Rodrigues could have
stopped what he begged God to stop. He could have stopped the persecution with a couple steps,
but he was blind and selfish. He failed to see the reoccurring signs that God put in front of him.
Rodrigues believes that God has stepped away and is no longer seeing or listening to the evil that
is taking place. Therefore, he is silent. This is false. God is listening he is watching everything.
He is trying to lead Rodrigues towards making the right decision, to stop it, but Rodrigues is too
concerned with his own salvation, ruining his image amongst his church, and betraying the most
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beautiful and precious thing he worships in his life (Endō 181,183). Every culture, every person
worships their God in a different manner, with this comes the variations of how God is
communicated with and then how that God reciprocates that communication. In my experience
God is always listening he is always there even when my world seems to be falling apart, even
when it feels like he isn’t, he is there and I can talk to him. Although, he has never appeared and
had a conversation with me I believe that he purposely puts people in my life and makes things
happen in my life that help to answer the questions that I have asked him. Even though we never
hear God speak during Silence I feel that he does the same thing for Rodrigues. Even though
Rodrigues can never hear God speak to him he is there helping him and guiding him. Although
God doesn’t appear to be helping him, he does tell him what to do in the book, through other
people and events.
Although God never speaks to Rodrigues, God leads him towards what he wants him to
do by the words and actions of other people. However, it takes many people being tortured and
killed for Rodrigues to see that. He is too “… preoccupied with his own salvation.”(Endō 181) to
open his eyes and see what God is trying to show him. The first message that God tries to send is
through Garrpe, Rodrigues’s missionary partner, God makes Garrpe an example of the
repercussions that Rodrigues will endure if he doesn’t do what it takes save the innocent
Christians. Garrpe is given the chance to save three innocent lives by apostatizing. “He says that
if Father Garrpe apostatizes—well, in a word, all three lives will be spared.” (Endō 142) Garrpe,
refusing to apostatize, watches while the Japanese take the three innocent Christians wrapped in
rugs out to the violent ocean in a boat. Grappe sees the Japanese push the three of them in the
water. When he sees their bodies bobbing, struggling to stay afloat he is hit by a terrible feeling
of compunction. “But now Garrpe had rushed forward and, raising both arms had plunged from
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the shore to the sea.” (Endō 143) Garrpe has risked his own life to jump into the water after the
Christ followers to try and save them, but he ends up making the ultimate sacrifice while trying
to do so. Garrpe saw completely innocent people that were suffering and going to die before him,
he decided not to apostatize, but as soon as he saw those people drowning he admitted he made
the wrong choice by jumping in the water and trying to save them. I think Garrpe felt an extreme
sense of guilt by deciding to keep his faith, essentially killing those innocent people. He felt so
shamefaced that he could not continue to live knowing that he killed those people. I think God
was showing and warning Rodrigues that if he too chooses not to apostatize to save innocent
lives, that he would want nothing more than to kill himself trying to undo the decision he made.
Just like Garrpe.
God has people that are close to Rodrigues tell him what he must do. However,
