Religious Abuse in America after World War II in Pollock's The Devil All the Time

Abstract

Religion seems to have a very important and vital role in the life of American society after World War II especially in suburb area, however there were still religious abuse case that occured in America. This article scrutinizes the religious abuse in America post war era which is potrayed in Donald Ray Pollock’s The Devil All the Time. This analysis employs non-numerical data and dissection. It uses Goldmann’s Genetic Structuralism to find author’s worldview. It asserts that literature has strong relationship with the social life. The result shows that religious abuse phenomena in The Devil All the Time arise through the implementation of a terrible and destroying approach to religion fundamentalism. This represents hypocrisy in religion occurring in America. The heinous acts by these hypocritical priests solely aim at fulfilling their own satisfaction and profit. Moreover, it features a sadly realistic portrayal of how veterans were suffering from PTSD after returning from their military service in World War II.