This Blessed House: Relativist and Fundamentalist

The short story “This Blessed House” ties in with the discussion we had about relativist and fundamentalist in class very well. Sanjeev is a fundamentalist and Twinkle is a good example of a relativist. Twinkle embraces the new Christian objects that they find in their new house; she adapted and accepted different culture and religion. Sanjeev, on the other hand, believes that since they are not Christian they should not display the Virgin Mary in their front yard. No one is better than the other. Relativists are not necessarily more fit to survive than fundamentalists. Depending on the place and time, each type of characteristic has its advantages and disadvantages. In most Asian communities, people tend to be fundamentalists who have more structure and rules. Sanjeev is a fundamentalist, more or less, is because he was brought up that way. For example in Philosophy class last semester there was a discussion about whether god exists. I used the opportunity and asked many of my friends in China about their thoughts. One response that particularly strikes me was “you should go with what everyone else in the class think.” (I told my friends that it was a class discussion). This friend is definitely a fundamentalist who does not want to bring out or embrace anything that is “new.” A relativist like Twinkle would find it hard to adapt to a strict fundamentalist environment. When persons of completely different culture meet like Twinkle and Sanjeev, problems will occur inevitably. When this happens, both parties need to learn to compromise. Twinkle and Sanjeev reached an agreement on where to put the Virgin Mary statue. If everyone compromises a little, there will be fewer wars in this world.