The Heart Of The Matter

LOOK AT THIS LITTLE GUY

Sorry, I just had to get this out right away. "Where did you find a picture of such an adorable dog?" you ask. Find? Pssh. That's Ollie; he hangs out at my job sometimes. He's my (Australian!) boss's dog and he's small and adorable and look at him jesus christ how do you not love him and just pet him forever. If you put your arms in a hoop shape he'll jump through them! I am not even fucking kidding.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

Okay.

I finished The Heart of the Matter^[1] last night. My last post sort of had a bit of a (shitty) plot summary through the first Book (of three). Now that I've finished the rest of it, though:

All Of This Shit Happens In The Book And I'm Now Paraphrasing It

I was actually shocked at how quickly the plot picked up. The first bit was pretty repetitive -- Scobie works and is racist, Louise nags, Wilson pines, Yusef smells bad^[2] -- but then shit hits the fan in a big way.

So Scobie^[3] takes a loan from Yusef so he can send Louise to South Africa. A whole slew of people arrive in West Africa after a shipwreck and living in lifeboats for 40 days. One of them is a woman named Helen; she lost her husband in the wreck -- as in, he's dead, not misplaced -- and she's holding a book of stamps when she gets on shore. For whatever reason^[4] she reminds Scobie of youth and exuberance (she's 19, I think, so that sort of works out) so he falls for her right off the bat.

Helen and Scobie start banging each other^[5] in the African heat. It's sweaty. Around this point I should mention that Scobie and Louise (and a ton of other people) are Catholic.^[6] Scobie's committing the sin of adultery every time he cheats on his wife with Helen. Helen is an atheist who actually mocks Scobie for his beliefs. Helen (rightfully) explains that if Scobie stopped believing in Hell he wouldn't have to worry about going there. Scobie retorts that though he knows he's damning himself, he's gonna keep on loving her.^[7]

Right so Scobie's doing his thang^[8] and Wilson totally finds out. Wilson spends most of the book's second half stalking Scobie and writing down his every move. Soon after this, Helen comes home from her trip, ostensibly because she "was being silly" and "missed Scobie."^[9]

Scobie's screwed. Whenever he sees Helen, he's thinking about the eternity of torment he's getting himself into, but he can't stop doin' tha nasty.^[10] Louise pressures him to take Communion with her.

Interpolation

How Is This Not Cannibalism? -- On Communion^[11]

Holy Communion, aka the Eucharist, is a Christian ritual based on Jesus's instructions to his disciples at the Last Supper. He gave them bread and wine:

‘This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me.’

In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.’

Christians, at a point in the Mass, will receive a bit of wafer (Jesus's body) and wine (his blood) in commemoration of this event. Roman Catholics believe that the bread and wine supplied are literally the body and blood of Christ.^[12]

End Interpolation

Why is it a Thing^[13] for Scobie to take Communion? Well, before one can receive Jesus's body and blood, he must be free of sin. To be free of sin, ya gotta go to Confession, where you tell a priest every seedy thing you've done since your last Confession. He tells you to say a varying amount of prayers and -- just like that -- the Big Guy Upstairs decides to not throw you into a lake of fire. Simple. Scobie goes to Confession but he can't bring himself to truly repent for his adultery; the Father behind the curtain denies him absolution in accordance with Church doctrine. (This, admittedly, makes sense: if you're not actually sorry, you're not being forgiven.)

To please Louise, Scobie goes to Mass and receives the Sacrament. This is a huge fucking deal because God doesn't like being ingested by sinners. It's a mortal sin -- Scobie's going to Hell now. No turning back. He's damned forever. This bothers Scobie,^[14] but it doesn't bother him as much as all the suffering he's causing Louise and Helen. He only sees one way out.

Scobie decides to throw himself on the mercy of God and kill himself. In Catholicism, this, too, is a mortal sin -- as bad as murder. Life is sacred.^[15] He pretends to have sleep problems (to get a prescription for sleeping pills) and angina (a deadly disease, making a death plausible). He'll overdose on the sleep meds and die and those he's hurt will have peace.

Scobie had to choose between two options: (A) divorce Louise -- bad Catholic! -- and live with his (alleged, fleeting) love, Helen or (B) Leave Helen -- hurting her -- and stay with Louise (whom he does not love). He Wild Cards it instead, taking himself out of the equation entirely. He dies thinking he'll go to Hell.

Louise is revealed to have known about the affair; Wilson starts making moves on her the day Scobie's buried, which she doesn't reject especially strongly. He says that he'll wind up marrying her, to which she replies, "Maybe you will."^[16] Helen moves on to a new man immediately.^[17]

The End.






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[1] I've linked that stupid Wikipedia article like four times now, just in case you keep forgetting general information about the novel. The things I do for you.
[2] Greene was pretty intent on really driving this point home.
[3] You're gonna want to read my last post (linked above, you lazy person) because I'm not explaining who these people are again. MY BLOG MY RULES.
[4] Oh, Ian! Your attention to detail is simply too much.
[5] My parents and family read this -- hi, guys.
[6] I should have mentioned it a while ago, actually. The Heart of the Matter is often identified as a "Catholic Novel," which means it's designed to guilt you into suppressing women's rights.^[*]
[7] Dude this song takes so long to get to the chorus.
[8] Gross. My b.
[9] Nope: someone wrote to her about her husband's hanging around Helen.
[10] Listen I have no regrets about my crass language so we should just move on.
[11] Alternative titles include: We're All Okay With This? and LITERALLY?
[12] Bread and wine, then the priest performs a magic trick,^[*][+] then Body and Blood.
[13] Capital T denotes the severity of the struggle.
[14] Lake of fire for the rest of forever, bro.
[15] Early on in the book, a man commits suicide. A priest on the scene openly hopes he had been murdered instead -- he longs for the man's earthly suffering (and possible betrayal) in exchange for his not being damned by the Lord (who, again, is all-loving).
[16] This is a weird moment.
[17] This doesn't fit with the rest of Helen's character; she constantly pledges her love for Scobie. I wouldn't have expected her to mourn forever -- he's dead, after all -- but she picks up a new guy within a day of Scobie's death.



[*] Zing!
[+] Sorry; is "casts a spell" better?