The Da Vinci Code Controversy...

The Da Vinci Code was not only controversial for its false claims about the Christian belief (even though the book is ficitional), but also a topic that is still hot today.  The power of women is a topic discussed that is quite recurrent in the book as it talks about Mary Magdalene and the present time character Sophie.  Mary Magdalene is seen today in the Bible as a powerful woman because she was an apostle of Jesus whom he revealed deep insight too and she was the first to encounter Jesus over anyone else.  This is important because Jesus knew she wouldn't be taken seriously when she said she saw the risen Jesus.  In the book she is claimed to have been married to Jesus and had a child with him whose bloodline is still around today.  The book talks about the old view of women which was seen as less then men and adds a modern woman to compare the progress that has been made and is still to come.  Sophie was this female character that is shown as powerful.  In the book Sophie is often underestimated, but she has pulled off no feat that a man could have accomplished.  She was able to save Langdon from arrest but wasn't expected to be able to in the eyes of Fache.  Fache didn't see much in her as he called her a female cryptologist.  Also she was left out of examining the clues hidden in the rose box, but when she sees the box she understands how to interpret the clue.  Countless of other women are seen as underdogs in the book but they are actually greater than men.  Overall the power of women is often seen as less than men but should be seen as a threat.

Mothers Day Surprise (The Da Vinci Code)

For Mother's Day I decided to get my mom the book Inferno by Dan Brown.  She has always enjoyed this series and I wondered what was all the hype about it, so I decided to read The Da Vinci Code.  As soon as I started reading I realized what was so good.  I really liked the setting and topic of conspiracies within Rome.  When I began I thought it was going to be another religion-basher like His Dark Materials by Pullman but Dan Brown decided to not look at religious people as ignorant.  Dan Brown refused to look at religion as a form of ignorance of the truth.  Dan Brown sort of made a great push for religious people with all the criticism they've been receiving lately.  He wanted to show that being a believer in God and in science is possible as opposed to atheists thinking all Christians are creationists.  He kind of pushed this idea in the wrong way but he had good intent.  In the book the Church was misleading the people about the existence of Jesus' descendants (which really isn't true), keeping believers ignorant.  Dan Brown was saying that the Bible isn't a literal book (which Catholics already know) and is full of metaphors.  The book was really thought provoking because this same situation could be applied to our very lives.  How do we know that we aren't being told false truths about our history because this actually happens in real life (i.e. Nazi Germany during World War II).  Propaganda used to be a tool to provoke similar thoughts about a subject in a population which was really no different than the Church making people believe a similar false idea.  The Da Vinci Code was a very fun read because I got to see why it was so controversial when it was published.