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Examine the idea of Dust in ‘Northern Lights’
Northern Lights is a well- written book about a small girl, named Lyra, a device that tells the future, a trip to the north, and a strange particle called Dust. Dust comes from the sky, supposedly from the aurora (or northern lights) above Svalbord. Three main characters in the novel have different views on what Dust actually is. The characters are Mrs Coulter, Lord Asriel and Lyra. Mrs Coulter’s view is shared with the church’s. Dust is evidence of original sin (the Adam and Eve story) and in the bible , when God is punishing Adam, it proves that Dust exists.
After getting enough information about Dust, Lyra comes to the conclusion that Dust is good. She thinks this because Mrs Coulter told her that all adults have it within them. Mrs Coulter and the church themselves thinks it’s bad, but necessary for the world, and that priests preach about it. “Where there are priests, there is a fear of Dust.” is prove of this belief. Asriel thinks Dust is all knowledge, which, according to the Adam and Eve story, is evil. The Adam and Eve story explains that They eat from the tree of knowledge, which was, at the time, the only sin (original sin).
Lyra thinks Dust is good because adults have it and it doesn’t seem to effect them. “Everyone gets Dust in the end.” The alethiometre is very helpful to Lyra and it is powered by Dust. This is prove that Dust symbolises knowledge. Asriel thinks Dust is sin because the Adam and Eve story includes original sin, called Dust by God. He thinks God adits he’s partly sinful in his nature when he’s banishing Adam. This all proves Dust is evidence of original sin. He also thinks without Dust, we won’t sin. Dust is “An emanation of the dark principle itself.” Mrs Coulter and the church think Dust is sin, because the fact that it is attracted to humans at puberty.
Dust not only has a physical effect on people, but has lots of other effects. Mrs Coulter and the church are forced into ‘cutting’ children away from they’re dæmons to stop Dust getting in using a blade made from a titanium-maganese alloy. The effect of Dust getting in is that it will make the teenager greedy and sinful. Lyra hates this, as they killed Tony Makarios. Dust has also caused the death of her best friend, Rodger. Lord Asriel was imprisoned because of his experiments with Dust. He was called ‘profoundly heretical’ for he has a entirely different idea of Dust than the church.
Dust can be used for telling the future, as Lyra does with the altimeter. Asriel had used the alethiometre in the past, but he wants to use Dust to build a bridge to the other worlds ,a theory that the Church highly disagree with because it denies their belief in only two worlds-the physical and the spiritual, so he can destroy the source of Dust. The church use Dust to preach and be strong. “They’ve been preaching about Dust for centuries, only they didn’t call it by that name.”
The church see Dust as sinful because in the Adam and Eve story, we read that he is punished by God, God mentioning Dust, he is ashamed of being naked, making sex sinful. Puberty is the time where “troublesome thoughts and feelings….let Dust in…”these feelings and thoughts being of course the attraction to the opposite sex, so puberty is a period the church are against. Because they are against it, they cut away the daemon, to stop it from keeping in one form, and to stop Dust getting in via puberty.
In conclusion, Dust symbolises different things for the three different characters. But if we took more character from Pullman’s world, for example Serafina Pekkala, we would get even more views on what Dust is, whether it’s good or bad, and where it comes from. Pullman tries to establish a link between his own ‘dark materials’ world and our own, by having Dust to represent knowledge and sin. Lrya reckons Dust is something good. “Yeah! What if it’s really good….” is Lyra's view. Whereas Asrial thinks it’s knowledge, and Mrs Coulter and the church think it is sin, but still need it to be strong.
> Kyz22 wrote:
> Ahh dude you can't leave coursework until the final day *shakes
> head*.
>
> If you do it as soon as you are set it, then hand it to your teacher
> early they will go through it for you and write HUGE sections you
> cna
> change to get a top grade. This only works if yours in handed in
> first
> because they are enthusiastic. If you hand it in after he has been
> through loads of other papers he is tired and just write, "yeah
> whatever" on it. :-D
>
>
> this is a bit sexest he is it y cant teachers be shes
>
> or he-shes
>
> or she-hes
Yes, I am a raging sexist. Now excuse me whilst I go and protest...
"Boo to Boobs!"
"We hate women"
"Don't bomb Iraq, get Portugal"
And soforth..
> yer i agree about pie
Pie?
What the bloody hell are you rambling about?
And not one of them helpful to wam_man.
Bad luck, eh?
*is printed*
> wot do u think i am
I think we should stop with the mofo now.
> Ahh dude you can't leave coursework until the final day *shakes
> head*.
>
> If you do it as soon as you are set it, then hand it to your teacher
> early they will go through it for you and write HUGE sections you cna
> change to get a top grade. This only works if yours in handed in first
> because they are enthusiastic. If you hand it in after he has been
> through loads of other papers he is tired and just write, "yeah
> whatever" on it. :-D
this is a bit sexest he is it y cant teachers be shes
or he-shes
or she-hes