Surfacing seems pretty preoccupied with religious figures, particularly Catholic ones, but it's not exactly the most reverent take on Christianity. Rather than subscribing fully to the Catholicism, the narrator seems to have infused her own brand spirituality, which seems more focused on nature and animals, with Christian ideas and figures (her fish-themed reworking of the Lord's Prayer is a good example). The narrator struggles with notions of life and death and the afterlife throughout the novel, but her own personal brand of spirituality seems to help her emerge with a new sense of identity and purpose at the end of the novel.
Questions About Religion
- Does the narrator ultimately reject Christianity and Catholicism in favor of her own brand of spiritualism, or do the two remain wedded somehow all the way to the end of the novel? How do we know?
- The narrator's father seemed to view organized religion (and particularly Catholicism) as somehow opposed to being rational. Does the narrator's own brand of spirituality escape that accusation? Why or why not, and does it matter?
- What things are "holy" or "evil" to the narrator? Do you find her choices in this regard surprising?
Chew on This
The narrator's moral code ends up being completely distinct from Christian morality; as we can tell from her reaction to the heron, abuse of the animal-natural world is the biggest sin in her mind (whereas she barely bats her eyes at more traditional Christian "evils" such as adultery, lying, or meanness).
The narrator's spirituality definitely retains aspects of Christianity—for example, she still believes firmly in the concept of resurrection (she just, you know, limits its powers to plants).