Hope Never Faileth

O'Brien sets the stage in Stockings by comparing Henry Dobbins to America, how he is full of good intentions, dependable, a "believer in the virtues of simplicity and directness and hard labor. . . and drawn toward sentimentality." This creates an image of a man full of hope and faith in man's basic inherent goodness; someone you can trust, and have faith that he will always be there when you need him doing good.

I feel that Henry starts out using the stockings as a means to hang onto memories. These memories give him hope and faith that he is loved and missed by his girlfriend, and that after the war he can return to create new memories with her. It also provides a means of escape to that world of hope by having them as a close reminder. As the war progresses and he escapes the ravages of war, he begins to believe they have mystical powers. We all have something that we hang onto - a belief in something that brings us happiness and a better future.

His faith in the stockings, though transform into something bigger than his girlfriend, though and become representative of his deep sense of faith that everything will be all right. Even after she dumps him, he beleves in their magical powers of protection. So strong is his faith that his fellor soldiers believe in their power as well. This makes sense to the reader because Henry is an optimist and came to the war with a strong foundation of goodness. They symbolize his faith in a safe return to his past and the ability to have a bright future.

In the church O'Brien relays a second story of belief in man's basic inherent goodness. Here are soldiers and monks thrown in each other's paths under the shelter of an abandoned church. There is a respect for the sacredness of what the church stands for and of the monks and their mission in life. Even though they are in the midst of a terrible war in enemy territory, because they find the monks in a church, they automatically trust them and have faith that they are really monks. They could have been the enemy in disguise - I actually kept waiting while reading about the monks cleaning the guns for the moment they shoot everyone. I was quite surprised that they were actually monks and the scene ended without death. I think the purpose of these chapters was to share their inner faith and hope.

Being in the church triggers conversations about faith, belief and life goals, and Dobbins discusses his initial thoughts of being a minister because he wanted to be nice to people. Even though he doesn't really talk about believing in religious philosophies, he has faith in human beings and life.

I think that this story demonstrates a great deal of faith on the part of the monks because they never seem to be threatened by their presence. They, in fact, endear themselves to the soldiers. If they did not have faith in a higher power, or believe they were destined for a better place, they would have hidden.

I also feel that in the chapter about The Man I Killed there is some hidden symbolism of faith. Intertwined in the detailed description about the actual body, we are given very detailed images of a butterfly and flowers. Faith and hope have to do with understanding that mortality is not in our control, and that even when one thing dies there are other living things that continue. I wondered if the butterfly being present up until the point of the blood stopping and the body functions all ceasing was symbolic of a belief in a Christ who died on the cross, or of the holy ghost being represented in the form of a dove. It seems that the butterfly represented life and disappeared when the blood and body functions stopped. In a non-religious aspect, it could be faith that life goes on even in the midst of darkness.

All of these men have faith in something, and that faith is what gave the survivors the strength to carry on. It allowed them to escape the reality of their situation and go back to their past and use that to hope for the future. I believe that Tim is demonstrating that all of us have something we need to cling to, whether it is a belief in a God, a super power, each other, something that makes us feel that we are important, that what we are doing in this life is worth something, and we are making a difference in bringing about good of some sort.