TY - JOUR
T1 - Nazi children, Christian anti-semitism, and the new atheist in William Styron's Sophie's Choice
AU - Lackey, Michael
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Traditional atheists believe that the loss of faith leads to melancholic mourning. New atheists, by contrast, consider the Godconcept to be a hideous human invention, so they rejoice rather than mourn on the occasion of God's death. Sophie is a traditional atheist early in the novel Sophie's Choice, but she is a new atheist by the end. What leads to her transformation is her realization that Christianity made the Nazis believe that exterminating the Jews was a political necessity. She makes this discovery in a conversation with the eleven-year-old Emmi, the daughter of the Commandant of Auschwitz.
AB - Traditional atheists believe that the loss of faith leads to melancholic mourning. New atheists, by contrast, consider the Godconcept to be a hideous human invention, so they rejoice rather than mourn on the occasion of God's death. Sophie is a traditional atheist early in the novel Sophie's Choice, but she is a new atheist by the end. What leads to her transformation is her realization that Christianity made the Nazis believe that exterminating the Jews was a political necessity. She makes this discovery in a conversation with the eleven-year-old Emmi, the daughter of the Commandant of Auschwitz.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84897419068&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1353/mfs.2014.0007
DO - 10.1353/mfs.2014.0007
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84897419068
SN - 0026-7724
VL - 60
SP - 138
EP - 164
JO - MFS - Modern Fiction Studies
JF - MFS - Modern Fiction Studies
IS - 1
ER -