Saint of Slums

Corrigan is in a way very similar to the hookers in the way that his brother once describes them: they are somewhat alien, inhuman. He is faith embodied; a universal concept manifested at such an extreme that it is almost detached. Corrigan is unrelatable in the sense that he is a messianic figure: an ideal which is in many ways unattainable to us. And yet, he is also, on the opposite pole, so extremely dirty in the same way that the hookers are. But this is what allows him to be messianic, Christ-like; he embodies what he preaches. It is very similar to the path that Van Gogh took before painting – he was a priest in the slums of the coal mining towns in France, the bottom of the bottom in terms of human life and the pains that are possible. Both characters became one with those whom they wished to help, but it was also too much for them.
Interesting also is the fact that Corrigan’s conflict, while so extreme in how it exists physically, is more of an internal conflict. His faith is personal, and he does not necessarily align with religion and its traditional ideas of the church and living on earth for paradise. He is focused on the present and making this world around him a better place: this is not a means to reach paradise, but rather both the means and the end. But he is forced to decide between this mission and love for another person, and he struggles. His brother helps him begin reckoning, but before he makes a decision, he leaves the earth. Again, while Corrigan is such an extreme, I would say that he is relatable in his struggle of faith – faith not necessarily in a religious context.
In terms of New York and the other aspects of the story, they are what related me to it from the beginning. My family is from Ireland but generations ago, and it has always been a mystery to me their story. The story of their mother and their past was also very relatable, and the impact that it had on their lives as they aged. The story is also extremely interesting in the same way Smoke was: it tells a specific story in a specific part of New York at a specific time, one that is very different from my own story now, and yet I feel a strong connection to it.