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| Photo: Falkenauge |
is that it should have been titled “Eli’s Book.” If you haven’t seen the movie, it’s is set in a post apocalyptic world in which nearly everything has been destroyed. Food is hard to come by and water is even scarcer. Violence is a way of life as a man named Eli (played by Denzel Washington) travels on foot across the country toward the west coast.
He possesses the last copy of the Bible and he believes he has heard from God, who told him to travel west, so he obeys, believing that somehow God will preserve and protect his Word. That’s why this movie should have been called “Eli’s Book” – it has nothing to do with anything he has written, as the movie’s title suggests.
During one scene in the movie, Eli stops for supplies. He encounters a man named Carnegie who has been searching for a copy of the Bible, believing he can manipulate people with it. Carnegie sends his concubine’s daughter, Solara, to seduce him, hoping Eli will willingly give up the Bible. Eli turns her down which gains Solara’s respect.
Then she sees him reading from the Bible and praying. His actions awaken a spirit of hope within her, where previously there was no hope and that prompts her to asked Eli what life was like before all the devastation.“People had more than they needed,” Eli says. “We had no idea what was precious, what wasn’t. We threw away things people kill each other for now.”
As difficult as life can be, Eli’s analysis of life as we know it was dead on.
Sometimes, I open my deep freezer and find food I had forgotten about. Many of us have multiple copies of the Bible on our bookshelves, some of which are rarely, if ever, opened. How would our attitudes change if we lost our food, our shelter, our Bibles and our creature comforts?
