Return Of The Prodigal Son Literary Analysis

In 1984 Rembrandt’s, Return of the Prodigal Son, caught the eye of author Henri Nouwen. Since discovering the painting in a friends room that fall, Nouwen has gone on this life long spiritual journey of discovering parts himself he had never paid close attention to before. During this process Nouwen was able to define the three stages in which he believes are all apart of the spiritual journey of one’s life. Although Nouwen makes it clear he hasn’t completely gone through the full process, he does a very excellent job at describing each stage thoroughly, allowing his readers to really understand each stage. In this well written novel Nouwen, through personal examples and depiction of the art work of Rembrandt, successfully describes the three …show more content…
Unlike the past to parts this part follows a slightly different pattern of separating ideas. Where as the last two have talked about the leaving and the returning of the sons, this one breaks the part into the Welcoming and the call for celebration. In the section where it discuses the father’s welcoming home his sons home, the key word to recognize is sons. The plural indicate that both the Younger and the Elder sons are welcomed home by their father. One is not more or less than the other brother, they are equal in their father’s eyes. The father although sees their qualities as equal, also realizes that the are not the same person, but still wants them to know that they do belong to the same household and the same father. (pg. 105) What this emphasizes is the fact that, “ love existed before any rejection was possible and that will still be there after all rejections have taken place.” The father (God) doesn’t allow the rejections to effect what he think of his sons. Now if one could adapt these qualities, which is part of Nouwen’s thesis, that eventually after going through the “son” stages we should be mature spiritual to make steps in becoming the