Dream of Scipio essays

Dream of Scipio essays The Dream of Scipio' is an excellent historical novel which portrays a gripping account of three protagonists each placed in a different time frame. The whole plot is woven around the theme of the horrendous crimes that are committed by mankind as civilization succumbs to the dark periods of each era. The pitiable plight of the Jews is neatly bought to the fore by the author. Particularly the author has projected a clear picture of the loss of discriminating capacity that results from religious prejudice. Manlius (fifth century), Oliver de Noyen (fifteenth century) and Julien Barneuve (20th century) are the three main characters who are affected by the disintegration of society and the upsurge of religious intolerance. Pears recounts how Judaism has been the target in all these three periods of civilian unrest and how the rise of Christianity has led to the gradual alienation of the Jews and as to how the politics within the papacy brewed religious opportunism. The whole religious setup was plagued by corruption to such an extent that even the Popes, the cardinals, and the so called leaders of Christian faith contemplated on exterminating a whole group of people (Jews) with a view to political gains. The whole novel is actually a learning process with the distilled wisdom of Sophia, the philosopher influencing and shaping the lives of the three protagonists We find that the Jews were discriminated throughout the history ever since the Roman era when Christianity became the main religion. The insistence on conversion has been so strong right from the Roman period. The loss of intellectual thinking and the discriminatory capacity is obvious as the Jews were incessantly targeted by the Christendom. In the novel we find that Oliver De Noyen discovers for himself that the higher officials of the Christian faith are more interested in religious ...