The New Town, written as a Christian fable, in terms of its content, the story perfectly portrays the message of Christianity. I felt like hearing a gospel upon reading this novel. The metaphors that were used are all interesting and were enough for me to warrant a deeper search.
When Bernard Dayman falls into a coma, he finds himself on a street in a quasi-British principality called Old Hertham. Curtly after Dayman’s arrival in the decaying city of Old Hertham, ,also called Old Town, he learns that Old Hertham is fated to be destroyed and so he will need to apply for a home in the “New Town,” the bright new city connected to Old Hertham by a poised bridge.
This then puzzled me at the first part of my reading. It seems many things are covered by symbolisms and are waiting to be uncovered.
My curiosity arose when he met his former love interest in his dream world. I found it silly then as I continued reading it that Bernard slowly falls in love with Marie, the daughter of his former love interest. Though some prefer to fight for their decaying homes in the Old Town including Eve, his former girlfriend, many in Old Town want a home in the New Town. Unfortunately, the waiting list is so long—volumes and volumes. That’s why Bernard will have to spend the rest of his time learning about waiting and sustaining his anticipation for entry into the New Town.
With all sorts of trials and temptations hindering the way of Bernard, he slowly realizes throughout course of the book, that he will never meet the requirements necessary to purchase a home and become a resident of New Town, which is why, though strange, he's a perfect applicant. It’s because those who recognize their lack of qualification are only those who will be qualified. It is this realization which fuels the process of purchasing a house in New Town.
Connecting this allegorical tale into the real world, we know the fact that Christians are adapted to use the abbreviations OT and NT to refer to the Old Testament and the New Testament. So when these abbreviations are used in the first chapter for the Old Town and the New Town, the first hint is already given of the underlying religious meaning.
The estate agencies exist in the Old Town which enrolls people to New Town, for me, it connotes to churches which has an evangelical mission here in earth. As the agent's name, Dr. Fisher, which implies fishers of men. Even Eve’s cottage, the Netherhome Lodge, if we’re just to think deeply, it implies our temporary home here on earth that is open for mortal changes and destruction.
Personally speaking, the word “waiting” in the story seems to have a double meaning as it relates to those believers here on earth, including me, believes that there’s a better life elsewhere (heaven), of course together with the presence of our Almighty Father.
In relation with the Almighty Father, Sir Alph Godfrey and Christopher Godfrey are to some extent shadowy figures of whom we hear people in the story speaking in praise or in blame. As the story tells that it was son Godfrey who personally lived for a time in Old Hertham, and then had the bridge constructed that made access to his father's New Town possible, it symbolizes Jesus Christ who sacrificed himself at the cross just to make way for our sins to be paid.
As Bernard recalls an innocent Eve at a summer party in the Adamses' garden near to Habel's farmyard at Paradise Green, this echoes a chapter in Genesis just as Eve destroyed her relationship with God and her peace of mind by her faithlessness.
There are, still, here and there, throwaway double-meanings that are intended to deepen the texture of the story. One of my most favorite symbolism was when no one could go to the New Town without having an R.I.P. license. This really makes sense here on earth because one cannot be judged whether he/she will go to heaven or hell unless he/she dies- rest in peace. Also, such as when Marie looks up at the roof of the burn-out room and says, "It was nail-weariness that saved us from an even more disastrous fall." This, after all, is what the crucifixion of Jesus Christ that indeed saved us from our sins.
But before I started reading this book, I asked myself then as I’ve read its synopsis at the back, can a man really caught between dream and reality choose between the familiar and the unknown? As I continued reading its content, questions then played out on my mind. I wonder what’s the reason behind Bernard’s hospitalization. On the time that he was already in the Old Town, what basic gap between Bernard and Dr. Fisher makes their first meeting awkward? In their second meeting, what is it in Bernard's attitude that draws out Dr. Fisher's sympathetic help? What was the reason for Bernard-Eve’s break up? Staying only in one house, how can Eve bear their situation that his old boyfriend, Bernard was drawn in love to her daughter, Marie? Marie says: "You can't legislate for an area subject to subsidence as though all the ground were firm." What does she imply in this remark? And lastly, Eve has a dream that turns her past thinking upside down. To what extent does it comprise a conversion experience?
In this experience of Bernard, as he consciously went back in his own bedroom on earth, I think he would already straighten his Christian walk here on earth. He would realize his wrong doings and make these wrong doings to right. He would accept the fact that he is not complete without God and definitely we need Him in our lives. He would double his effort to share and spread the good news that there is really a bright city waiting for us if we just believe in God as our personal Lord and Savior. He would also then realize that for God, everything is really worth waiting for.
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