Friendship Between a Demon and Angel | Teen Ink

Friendship Between a Demon and Angel

February 8, 2024
By TristanLyu GOLD, Beijing, Other
TristanLyu GOLD, Beijing, Other
14 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Good Omens is published by two authors Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaimen in 1990, It has have been translated into a total of 37 languages around the world and in each of the languages, there are a few changes to either the name of the character or some parts of the novel based on the country’s culture and language. Good Omens have earned several awards, including the World Fantasy Award nominee for Best Novel and Locus Award nominee for Best Fantasy Novel in 1991, Mir Fantastiki Special Ward for “The most anticipated book” and Won FantLab.ru poll ofr “Best Translated Novel in 2012. Also, in 2003, the novel was listed at number 68 on the BBC's survey, The Big Read. This novel also been filmed into movies and television shows.

Since ancient times, the moral compass of humanity had been held for a long time. by the angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley. One day, Crowley found the newborn Antichrist, Adam Young, in a basket, who would become fully empowered at the age of 11. Crowley was placed under Aziraphale's supervision with Thaddeus Dowling, the American Cultural Attaché. The Antichrist, Adam Young, found up living with the Youngs in Lower Tadfield, Oxfordshire, England. As Adam's 11th birthday drew near, other characters joined the story, such as Anathema Device, Witchfinder Shadwell, and the Four Horsemenof the Apocalypse. With Agnes' prophecy book in his possession, Aziraphale made the decision to assist in averting the End of Times. For example,  Atlantis rising, cities being overran by nature, plutonium vanishing from nuclear reactors, and the M25 highway turning into a lethal route of burning doom were some of the signs and portents that indicated the End of Times was near. The last clash would take place at the Tadfield Air Base, which was where this terrible force was concentrated. With the aid of magical objects, Adam and his pals took on and defeated the Horsepersons and defeated them. The strongest of the four horsemen. Death, retreated in defeat. God's representative and counterpoint, The Metatron and Beelzebub, ordered Adam to submit to Fate and let the Final Battle to take place. Adam's rebellion, according to Aziraphale and Crowley, was an unanticipated element of the plan. The Metatron and Beelzebub returned to their superiors for more instructions after becoming perplexed, and life on Earth resumed as usual.

In their effort to sway the Antichrist, Aziraphale and Crowley discussed how heredity and environment interact. According to Aziraphale, all efforts to sway the Antichrist would be ineffective because of his innate propensity for evil. On the other hand, Crowley contended that because children were unformed, parenting had a greater influence. He made reference to his own master, Satan, who was originally an angel but evolved into the very essence of evil. In the real world, the argument raged on between those who contended that environment and heredity worked together to influence behavior and others who contended that human development was a tremendously complicated, dynamic, and emergent process. Adam's reaction to the demands of Heaven and Hell appeared to be in favor of the nurtured since he was finally driven to cast out his own demons by his exposure to environmental elements including the idyllic Lower Tadfield woodlands, ecological destruction, and peer relationships.

Aziraphale and Crowley argued that neither angels nor demons possessed freedom. While Crowley denied the possibility of evil, Aziraphale worried whether bestowing his blazing sword upon Adam and Eve was the proper course of action. In the end, both departed from their fundamental selves—Aziraphale lied and disobeyed heavenly orders, whereas Crowley did good deeds. It was still unclear whether their rebellion and Adam's decision not to trigger God's unfathomable plan, as well as whether their decisions were undertaken voluntarily or as part of a bigger, unanticipated plan. Free will raised the issue of God's involvement in day-to-day activities for people. While some contended that everything was predetermined by God, others countered that God grants man free will. In reference to Deism, the religious notion that God was like a watchmaker who quietly watch the gears move without intervention. The universe of Good Omens proposed a hybrid religious idea: God had a Divine Plan and would for his servants to follow it but people frequently stray from it because they wanted to do things in their own way.

“Crowley took Glasgow, Aziraphale had Edinburgh (neither had any responsibility for Milton Keynes, but both reported it as a success).” Aziraphale and Crowley came to a tacit understanding to divide the globe into their own domains and respect one another's borders as emissaries of Heaven and Hell sworn to influence humanity. Milton Keynes was defined as a "modern, efficient, and healthy" community about 50 miles northwest of London in a brief footnote "for Americans and other aliens". The Guardian reported, however, that Milton Keynes had been disparaged as "soulless" and "a nonplace." The writers’ parody that hotly contested subset of urban design: the suburb. Over the last 70 years, a great number of people had moved to the suburbs, praising their spacious houses and open areas, while opponents had criticized their bland monotony and territorialism. The writers were saying that it was whether good or evil.


The author's comments:

This is a book review for the book Good Omens.


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