Explication of "Life After God"

The most prevalent Dramatic Situation that appears in the short story "Gettysburg" in "Life After God" By Douglas Coupland is Obstacles to love, which consequently is "the Incompatibility of Temper of the Lovers"(Polti). This section was a letter from a father to a daughter about his love for his daughter and why her mother fell out of life with him. The father also goes into the details of honeymoon, her conception, and his contemplates on the major life changes taking place in his life. Its underlined theme is a story of love with a strong religious stance. This section revolves around the failed marriage between the young girl’s mother and father. The obstacles that the couple had to face had obviously taken a toll on their marriage.

Consequently, the daughter is left with many questions, mixed emotions and is at a total loss. While the father has wondered – where has my life gone, "I never thought that we would end up in the suburbs with lawnmowers and swing sets. I never thought that I'd be a lifer at some useless company. But then wasn't this the way of the world? The way of adulthood, of maturity, of bringing up children?" (Coupland). The dream-crushing facts of life are so well-established that they become impossible to change or question without also taking on the very truth and nature of the modern world and the dramatic situation that unfolds as you continue to read the short story. The reader notes that the father of the daughter (also the narrator) is very depressed by the fact he is getting a divorce. Although the impression you receive from the mother regarding her ex-husband is that the love is gone – or never really existed – and that she tried everything in her power to save the marriage, she even remained in a loveless marriage for the sake of her daughter despite her true feelings, "Honey, God is what keeps us together after the love is gone" (Coupland).

This Dramatic situation is also a recurring theme that follows throughout the novel. Not in a literal sense such as the conflicts and situations in the story, but the underlined theme in the novel. The theme in the novel (which has been referred to in the apologia) is lack of faith and in god. In today’s society the ability to love someone or something unconditionally without allowing obstacles to interfere are being tested daily. But the ability to irrevocably love and follow god in modern society is nearly impossible. The obstacles to love are constantly tested and many unforeseen circumstances interfere with not only our judgment but with our faith – which occurs in every short story in “Life After God.”

In summation, the dramatic theme that is the most constant and prevalent is “obstacles to love.” Not only is it a literal theme in a few short stories. Though it is the very foundation of Couplands novel “Life After God.”