Authority, Rebellion, and Self-Realization: Thematic Threads Across Four Novels

I’ve been thinking hard about how to describe the thematic elements of my third and fourth books. Last time in this space, I attempted to describe the thematic and philosophical notions behind my first two books (Gods Instant and A Better Place).

Specifically, what do young people need when they feel lost? Can they dig themselves out of an emotional and/or spiritual hole or do they need adult assistance, even supervision?

Every time I think about these issues I come up with a different question and often very different answers. If what I have to say about my books seems inconsistent, it is because my understanding of these books changes the farther away I get from their initial composition.

I suspect God’s Instant and A Better Place are set deliberately in rural, even rustic, locations because at the time, and in some way, it seemed necessary to put the main characters in an isolated environment, separate from the distractions that might have prevented them from finding their way out of their particular predicaments.

Hence the isolated ranch in God’s Instant and the remote Blue Mountain homestead in A Better Place. But… I think this is important: At the time, I did not have anything concrete or specific in mind. I simply (yes, simply) had a story that I wanted to tell, and the thematic connection between the characters and their problems simply (there’s that word again) emerged as a product of the story.

Okay. To get back to the next two books.

Both deal with athletes, specifically with immensely talented young runners, the first uses rage as a motivator and the second is consumed by ego and his status as an unbeatable superstar. Each of these young athletes – Mike Beck in Always a Runner and Jonah Hart in The Right Kind of Boy – struggle with authority.

Mike’s refusal to recognize the authority of the school system predictably makes it difficult, if not impossible, to realize his unspoken goals (to see how hard and how fast he can run). Jonah hears a voice from some apparent spiritual authority that is telling him his devotion to running is a diabolical distraction from the “real work” a young Christian like himself should be doing.

Here’s the important thematic element these books have in common (after taking a step back, getting some distance, and thinking about the philosophical or thematic implications).

When it comes to what we expect – no, require - young people to do with respect to authority – whether the overt authority of school officials in Mike’s case or implicit spiritual coercion in Jonah’s case – how much say should kids have in their response to authority?

I think it is worth mentioning here that Jonah Hart first appears at the end of Always a Runner as something of a foil to Mike. Originally, I tried to tell the story of the two boys as parallel narrative threads in a single book but was dissuaded by my first editor, Jennifer Ciotta, who convinced me that each boy deserved his own story.

So, while God’s Instant and A Better Place can be linked thematically with no concrete narrative connection, the two running books are linked by a competitive connection between the main characters, from which the thematic elements emerge.

After saying all that, I want to make sure readers understand that none of this was planned. The only plan was to tell each story and see what emerged. In retrospect, it’s clear to me that the narrative and thematic threads that emerged from God’s Instant affected A Better Place. And that the connection between Mike and Jonah – particularly the avenues of authority each had to navigate – was what drove the narrative and the ideas that emerged from Always a Runner and The Right Kind of Boy.

The Right Kind of Boy is ready for publication and will be available soon. My other novels and Man of the Oval, the track and field biography of former Washington State University and U.S. Olympic Team coach John Chaplin can be found on my website Christian Books with an Edge, or on my Amazon Page. For a limited time, the Kindle version of the novels is on sale for $2.99.