The Pilgrims Progress

The smell of musty yellow paged books invades my nostrils as I quietly walk down an aisle of overwhelming shelves filled with countless adventures waiting to be discovered. I lust after the hardbacks, wondering which one would I call my own for the week, which one would I learn to both love and hate for taking a part of my life, which one would I gladly allow to capture me into its bindings and harshly spit me out once it was done telling its story. My hand lightly grazes the books as I walk, feeling the smooth spines until I hit my mark.
I catch sight of a small plain book titled, “The Pilgrims Progress” by John Bunyan. A sad hunched over man carrying a huge bag on his shoulders fills the cover. What kind of adventure is this? Why is he depressed? Intrigued, I take the book home and fully engross myself into the exciting journey of Christian, the pilgrim who I see play out much of my own weaknesses and strengths in his perilous travels. The story of Christian is not only a wonderfully written piece of literature, it has caused me to change the way I think and interact with the world and my spiritual life. I have learned to look and interact with people in a more …show more content…
Some of which who become his loyal companions till the end and some who only seek to bring peril to the pilgrim’s journey. Bunyan titles these characters after their personalities and how they interact with their world. This simple but profound way of writing has changed the way I perceive people. I now seek, to not only see them for how they act on the surface, but to strive to get to know them and their internal personalities better. I long now to understand why they act the way they do and what causes them to react in certain situations. This has become the basis of every relationship I have developed after “The Pilgrim’s Progress” and has helped me to better understand what roles people play in my