In chapter eleven, the narrator talks a lot about religion. He starts attending church twice a week and becomes engrossed in Christianity. One topic that comes up a lot is the idea of indulgences. According to the narrator, days of indulgence are given to people who say more prayers. The narrator continues that, “…the greater the number of prayers offered, the better one would live, and the smaller the number, the more troubles and pain one would have to endure.”
This becomes particularly significant when Garbos starts hanging the narrator up by his hands and leaves his dog, Judas, in the room to threaten him. During the months that Garbos hung him up, the narrator’s goal was to save up as many indulgences as possible. I find this curious because, if indulgences are supposed to improve one’s life, why does the narrator’s life get worse?
This whole idea of indulgences intrigued me so I found a sight that further explained this idea. According to Matt Slick of the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry, indulgences reduce the time one spends in purgatory. The website is consistent with the narrator’s explanation in that indulgences can be saved up over time.
In The Painted Bird, the narrator saves up countless days of indulgences. If the whole theory of indulgences were to hold, it means the narrator would most likely not spend very long in purgatory. However, I don’t believe the suffering he went through while being abused by Garbos and Judas can justify all of his indulgences. If I were in the narrator’s position, I would rather live a better life and deal with the consequences later.
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