English 2 Lesson 155: Did these two literary documents give guidance in their era as to how a typical Christian should live?

The 2 stories we are talking about are ‘The Song of Roland’ and ‘The Little Flowers by St. Francis of Assisi’.

In the story of Song of Roland the story was in my opinion showing the characteristics and actions of the people mentioned in the story such as Roland himself and his very good friend Oliver. Oliver was a type of person that thinks things through and plans before exercising that plan. Roland on the other hand was more of a just-do-it type, he was impatient and quite arrogant. Although he has quite a bit of flaws, he has a high confidence, he’s brave, and persistent. These are the qualities not many have or can obtain. Their actions however show a typical Christian how things can turn out the way act during a particular situation.

These typical christians can observe how Oliver acted and how Roland acted to reflect their decisions and choices in their daily lives. They can basically use their actions as an example of maybe what not to do and what you should do. In Song of Roland, during battle, Oliver suggests Roland to call Charlemagne for backup. Oliver in this case was being wise by thinking things through, while Roland on the other hand reacted to his suggestion quite irrationally and ignored his warning of decreased amount of soldiers. Typical Christians can read, observe, and learn for themselves that if they were to also act irrationally, then they would end up with an unwanted result with whatever the situation may be.

In the Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi, there lived a guy by the name of Francis. He became a saint and the leader of the Franciscan order after giving up everything he owned and living a life in poverty. The Little Flowers contains stories of how St. Francis helped convert many people to christianity. Along his journey he gained followers to which they joined the Franciscan order and became fellow brothers to St. Francis. Many things happened while being on a journey to teach people about God. After all, it was his purpose in the first place. God gave him a vision that he restores the temple. Francis came to learn that by restoring Gods temple he must give hope and faith back to the people in churches.

Typical christians can use this more as a motivation and as an example of how one person changed the lives of a lot of people by simply having that close relationship with God. I don’t mean you should start living life in poverty, because that’s the right thing to do. That’s just how St. Francis viewed as the right way of living. Although I keep mentioning typical christians this doesn’t only apply to them. This can apply to anyone who is willing to listen and learn. Even some non believers can find these stories quite fascinating.

In conclusion, in my opinion these 2 literary documents don’t have to be taken seriously if you don’t want to. You don’t have to live exactly how these stories teach us to live, but people can use this as something to reference from and learn lessons from the mistakes and actions of the people in these documents.

Thanks for reading this essay. I hope you liked my thinking process and my views on this topic! I will be posting more soon and have a great rest of your day!