Nine - Stockings and Church

These two chapters both talk of the life and legend that is Henry Dobbins, and thus they merit a single blog post together. The first thing O'Brien tells us about Dobbins is that he's like America, "big and strong, full of good intentions...slow of foot, but always plodding along, always there when you needed him" (p. 111). What O'Brien is saying here is that America is not exactly the brightest country in the world, but it is at least good and decent. It might not be waging this war for the best reasons, or even the clearest reasons, but it at least is partaking in this war simply because it's what America thinks is right.

So at first, all we know about Dobbins is that he's big, strong, reliable, decent, and not all that bright. At least that's all he is at first. However, through the rest of the "Stockings" chapter, we see a few new qualities: faithful (to the power of the stockings) and a tad superstitious. Now, alone in this chapter, these qualities don't mean a whole lot, but when seen alongside the next chapter, it sets the stage rather nicely.

Dobbins faithfulness essentially sparks the conversation concerning religion, which shows us an even deeper part of Dobbins' personality: his somewhat hidden wisdom. O'Brien uses Dobbins to speak directly about religion for a moment, and I'll say that I agree with Dobbins' view. It's easy to get caught up in the ritual, or "churchiness," of religion, which is what Dobbins just doesn't like about it. It's pretty easy to lose sight of the important parts of a religion when all we focus on is how many Our Fathers you prayed, or how many times you went to penance, or limiting being a good person to one hour every Sunday. Dobbins (and really O'Brien) says that just being nice to people and treating them right is what's important. It's giving that hitchhiker a ride to the gas station, even though there's a slight chance he's just going to axe you in the skull. It's tossing a five in the hat, even though you don't know if he's just gonna buy booze with it. It's giving your hard-earned watermelon to some tired soldiers, even though they're on the other side.

This is a hitchhiker. There's a slight chance he will axe you in the skull, but you should give him a ride to the gas station anyway