Lives of Girls and Women

“Age of Faith” marks the beginning of Del’s attempt to discover the language to define the meaning of life, specifically through her exploration of religion. Del’s desire to believe in God, which adheres to The Discovery of Identity Through Exploration, occurs because she is “attracted more and more to the idea of faith” (106). Ultimately, she wants to understand faith due to reading books about the Middle Ages, which sets in motion her attempt at understanding the different churches in Jubilee. Munro’s decision to tie this desire to books on the Middle Ages emphasizes Del’s individuality because Del could have been easily influenced by the other community members or even her parents. However, Munro’s narrative choices reflect the coming-of-age process as it uniquely fits with Del’s development and curious nature. Munro’s focus on Christianity and what it means to have faith is just one area of exploration that Del must undergo.

For the town of Jubilee, attending church is both expected and widely accepted. Del realizes early on that the practice of going to church allows community members to be perceived a certain way, or it aligns with the individual’s social status. For example, Del breaks down each church in Jubilee, and in her depiction of the Baptist church, she implies that Christianity functions like a popularity contest: “No person of any importance or social standing went to the Baptist Church, and so somebody like Pork Childs, who delivered coal and collected garbage for the town, could get to be a leading figure, an elder, in it” (104). Here, churches are sorted by social and economic class status, indicating that each individual has a station within the larger community at play as well as roles within their respective social classes. Del’s realization of this indicates her increasing ability to understand complex ideas, which aligns with her continued development. In each of the stories in the collection—including this one—Del illustrates these subtle, yet pivotal, moments of understanding that expand how she views the world.

The end of the story reflects another pivotal moment and the conclusion of Del’s religious experience—or at least her obsession with understanding faith—through her relationship with Owen. Owen, who primarily exists in the background of her stories, becomes a focus when Del not only leans on him to help with her understanding of God but also when he comes to Del with his own crisis of faith. When the children must face losing their family dog, Major, Owen’s attempts to pray for his survival parallel Del’s prayer to get out of sewing lessons. By then, Del has reconsidered her views on faith, recognizing that she would rather choose reason over faith; further, she does not want Owen to be disappointed if his prayers do not save Major’s life. Munro’s decision to force Del to confront such large and complex ideas illustrates a narrative shift as the protagonist moves from childhood to adolescence and begins to discover her place in—and beliefs about—the world.