The Atheist's Mass Sparknotes

Denin Bieberitz
4747096
CSCL 1401W – Midterm Paper
Humanism in The Atheist’s Mass Balzac was an authors who wrote about the French Revolutionary period as he experienced it. He wrote a large variety of material, and in the short stories that I have read and investigated there was a large amount of realism portrayed, especially in The Atheist’s Mass. The Atheist’s Mass is a short story about the life of a surgeon named Desplein who started off with no money for schooling. Balzac used realism in his stories in order to help deliver his message of humanism.
Realism is a style of writing that represents things as they are, often talking about the everyday activities. It is the attempt in writing to represent things simply and truthfully without
He was born into a family with little money and without many opportunities to change their situation, but he managed to become one of Paris’s best surgeons of his time. Desplein was also an atheist (in a time when you could get in trouble for being atheist) which in its own way is a humanistic belief. He affirmed his humanistic views because he believed that his hard work and decisions that he made, as well as the decisions of those around him, is why he became who is. To be atheist implies that you believe that there is no higher power, and therefore everything that happens in our lives is solely derived from human actions. He was very educated so he used reasoning and prior evidence in order to rationalize his atheism which exemplifies his humanistic
Since Desplein made the decision to attend mass, he exemplified humanism because he was searching for evidence, in order for him to make a decision on his beliefs. He was on a constant search for information and reason to believe, but since he needed definitive information and reasoning in order to determine a conclusion, he could not believe in a higher power. Having a humanistic stance opposes almost everything that religion is based off of. Desplein, although he did not have faith, still lived a very ethical and good life. This was not due to wanting to live a good life in order to have a good afterlife, instead he was driven and lived his life in a way that he thought was best for society as a whole. Desplein believed that he could have made himself into many different versions of himself based off of his choices that he made. He was lucky to be self aware enough to make the best decisions for himself, and that translated into Desplein becoming who he was today, and contributing to the world on that