A Grown Angel Research Paper

Anne Dupont
Ms. Steinlage
American Literature and Composition
December 21st, 2012
A Risen Angel Throughout life, everyone has different roads they have to travel, some easy and some difficult: “For some of us, one mile can be more to walk than thirty” (164). The road of Angel, a young prostitute, is dark and hope is lost until she is rescued by Michael Hosea, a man called by God to marry her. Although Angel is extremely stubborn, she slowly opens her heart and learns to trust, but she still feels unworthy of his love and she continuously runs away. Each time she runs, Michael chases after her, bringing her back to her home and shows her the undying love he and God have for her. As more people are brought into her life, she continues to
feel unworthy and runs away for good, but this time as a changed person wanting the best for those she has learned to love. In the end she must make the difficult decision to stay away or to return and ask forgiveness from her faithful husband. Angel, a lost prostitute, struggles to find hope and truth in Francine River’s, Redeeming Love, but through lessons taught by the people she encounters she finds a new life and an understanding of real love. As a young child, Angel falls prey to lustful acts of a man named Duke; He teaches her not to trust men (they only use women and throw them away) and causes her to form a false image in her mind of what “love” is.
When she is sold to him, she is an innocent child, safe from horrors of lust, but he quickly shows her the evils in the world and takes away her hope for a normal life. She tries to run from him—numerous times—without success. She finally escapes, but she is found by Duchess, a greedy owner of a prostitute house, and is brought back into the life she has known from childhood. Angel learns not to have any feelings anymore. She is forced to work and please the unending stream of men that pay for her company; furthermore, she is assigned a body guard not only to protect her from men, but to make sure she is putting in her day’s amount of work. When she confronts Duchess about wanting to get out, the greedy overseer angrily remarks, “I picked you up out of the mud and made you into something. You’re a princess up here” (92). There is no escaping the life she has been taught to live; she is shackled to the lifestyle Duke introduced and with which Duchess “blessed”
her. Angel sees no hope for a way out until Michael Hosea saves her and, although she is stubborn, he shows her his undying love and brings her into his faith filled life—completely opposite to the life she knew before. He slowly fills her life and she slowly transforms from a stubborn, independent girl (not wanting to listen to anyone) to a woman determined to please Michael and be the wife he should have. However, Angel is not content; she doesn’t think she deserves Michael and she continues running away to give him the life she thinks he deserves—each time he finds her and brings her home as the Lord tells him. To prove to her that he sincerely loves her, he takes her up to the mountain and shows her the sunrise: “I want to fill your life with color and warmth. I want to fill it with light. Give me a chance” (140). Angel slowly is filled with the realization that she is deeply in love with Michael—despite hearing Duke’s voice in her head saying, “Love is a trap, Angel. Stick to pleasure. It doesn’t require any great commitment”( 277). Michael gives Angel a life of love, freedom, and happiness; although she has no plans of returning to prostitution, she struggles with feeling unworthy of Michael’s love and the prejudice she feels from her brother-in-law, Paul. Although Michael has given Angel a new life, his brother has given her nothing but trouble from the beginning; he knows what she was and his judgment of her keeps her from living a new life, without her past in the way.
Paul cannot see past Angel’s old life and thinks he knows her every move. In his mind, Michael deserves much better and Angel will never be able to change her ways and become a new person. As Paul says, “Once a prostitute, always a prostitute” (177). Angel knows what Paul thinks of her and every time he is in the same company, she starts feeling unworthy of Michael and contemplates leaving. Paul’s presence in her relationship with Michael is the only thing keeping from being completely free from her past; until Paul starts seeing Angel as a real person with feelings, Angel cannot truly be a new person. Both Paul and Angel want the best for Michael—and both think Angel is not it. Both want Michael to be with the new neighbor Miriam Altman, someone who has a clean past and who can give him what he really wants—children—which Angel cannot
give. When the Altmans first appear in the Hosea’s life, Angel is unsure of what to think of them, but through their loving nature they adopt her as family, forcing her to realize that the people surrounding her and the new life she has been given are a true blessing. Michael and Angel first encounter the Altmans on the side of the road with a broken down wagon. Michael rushes off to help and Angel comforts the children and mother who immediately see her as an “Angel of Mercy”(234). When Michael invites them to spend the winter at their home, Angel is not pleased, but as she is forced to interact with the Altmans she finds their company pleasing. The loving family provides her with a positive atmosphere to help her find herself. Gracie, the youngest, and Miriam, the eldest girl, adopt Angel as their sister and although wary at first, Angel learns to love them back. Miriam wants nothing more in the world than to be married to a loving man—a man who loves her as much as Michael loves Angel—and Angel wants to give her just that. Although the Altmans have changed Angel for the better, she wants both Michael and Miriam to be happy and leaves in hopes of the two marrying in her absence. This time, the Lord tells Michael not to follow Angel and she faces the world alone; first happy and in good hands, until Duke finds her and she struggles to escape once and for all. Jonathan Axle, a highly respected bank owner, is her way out of the hands of Duke and provides her with a faithful family, home, and helps her start an organization—an idea of hers that will bring new life to many women. When he finds her, Angel is singing the only song she can remember, a biblical one taught to her by Michael, on a stage in Duke’s business. He knew he had to get her out and rescues her and two other children from the hands of Duke, bringing them to his own home. The Axles show Angel kindness even though she is a complete stranger. This opens her heart and she finally has the strength, along with their support, to join them when they attend mass. This is a huge step in her becoming a new person because before she refused to have anything to do with religion. With the support of Susanna, Jonathan’s daughter, she gains the courage to walk to the front of the Church and receive Christ for the first time. She decides it’s time to do something with her life and with the Axle’s help she opens up a house where former prostitutes can go to learn skills ,such as cooking, cleaning, and sewing, so they too can find a new job and a new life. With the Axle’s help, Angel finally becomes the person she was intended to be and realizes what she has to do now is return to her loyal husband and ask his forgiveness with the help of the Lord. Through many trials and new encounters, Angel finds love and hope through the people she meets and transforms from being a lost prostitute, stubborn, and independent, to a faith filled farmer’s wife with a heart full of love for her husband, ready and willing to do the work of the Lord. All the people Angel encountered on her journey to her new life helped her in some way to become whom she wanted to be. Michael was her rock, Duke was the obstacle she had to overcome, the Altmans opened her eyes to love, the Axles provided her with the support she needed to finally become herself, and Paul was Angel’s partner in becoming someone new—he married Miriam, let go of his prejudice, and the end walked with Angel to her long-waiting husband. Although her journey was rough, Angel progressed towards a new life with each acquaintance she made—taking small steps, but huge in her transformation, towards a future of love and eventually spreading her wings. As Michael wisely told her from the start, “For some of us, one mile can be more to walk than thirty” (164).