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The writer who understands
redemption is on the border of
enduring fi ction.
Many great stories are about a character’s redemption—
or the failure to redeem a character. This aspect can lend
real power to an otherwise standard plot.
In A Man for All Seasons the thematic-redemptive
thread is in the Richard Rich character. He is given a
clear moral choice, and chooses to give false witness
against Sir Thomas More for a chance to rule in Wales.
(I love the way Paul Scofi eld delivers that devastating line
to Rich in the fi lm, “Why Richard, it profi ts a man noth-
ing to give his soul for the whole world … but for Wales?”).
The Thomas More character is given the mirror image
choice to give up his principles, and refuses.
In the fi lm The Fugitive, it is not Richard Kimble (Har-
rison Ford) but Sam Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) who is
offered redemption, and takes it. He goes from being the
lawman who says, “I don’t care!” (about the facts, that’s
not his job) to caring for and saving Kimble. “Don’t tell
anybody,” he says to Kimble at the end.
Flannery O’Connor talked about the need of a story
to show “grace being offered.” So it can be either the
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