This was probably one of the most interesting pieces of literature to read this semester. I really enjoyed the castaway story, and I could not stop thinking of the Tom Hanks version.

The thing that I found the most interesting about this castaway story was how heavily religion, specifically Catholicism, was incorporated into this tale. We spoke about this today in class, but I would like to elaborate more upon this subject.

The first sign that I found to be a clear reference to Catholicism is the idea of killing an drinking the turtles’ blood. The idea of drinking the blood of Christ in the Catholic tradition has a lot to do with Jesus’ sacrifice that he willingly goes through on the cross for the salvation of humanity. Serrano drinking the blood of the turtles is very similar and gets to the idea of how the turtles sacrifice grants him salvation and allows him to continue to survive on the island.

The next major sign was him diving into the water to search for pebbles to strike and create fire. He clearly strips off his old european clothes and baptizes himself in the ocean’s water. This is a clear notion of how he has become a new person and has converted to the island’s lifestyle.

The last major sign was how he thought he saw the devil on his third year on the island. He clearly is referencing to Jesus here with how he too was tempted by the devil in the valley of death. Just like Jesus, He also overcomes the devil and reaches true salvation by getting rescued even if it is several years later.

This strong connection to Catholicism makes perfect sense too because the European audience, specifically Spanish and the Holy Roman Empire, were very Catholic audience.