External Authority In A Voice In The Wind

Internal Authority
Many believe that authority is held either by the highest ranking official or, by the most convincing speaker, or even the public figure with the most support. These claims are slightly true, but there are other, much more powerful forces, that control how people act, speak or even think. These forces are the ones that must be accepted internally. For if an idea is forced upon you it could never take hold in your life and control you the same way your own ideals could, in other words an internal authority such as one’s beliefs will control a person more than an external or earthly authority. These unseen and powerful forces are human values and beliefs. Whether they be theistic or worldly, they have the authority to shape every aspect of human life. In A Voice in the Wind these beliefs greatly impact the story and the main characters: Hadassah, Marcus, Julia, and Atretes. …show more content…
That idea is that the Christian God loves her and sent his son to die for her. The authority that was forced on her was the Valerians when she was sold to be their slave. When Julia told Hadassah to leave the baby on the rocks Hadassah was forced to make a decision between obeying the Valerians or obeying the God that she accepted on her own. Hadassah chose to obey the will of God because she had internally accepted the word of God as truth. “Hadassah answers to God, not Rome.” (Rivers 469) Because she chose to obey God she knew that she could never leave the infant to die. Hadassah chose to take the baby to the Apostle John, directly disobeying her mistress but instead choosing to obey her God. Julia chose to have the baby killed because the authority that she accepted allowed her