The document provides an analysis and comparison of Confessions by Augustine and a work by Douglas Coupland. It summarizes that both authors ultimately show that finding meaning in life only comes through accepting God. While Augustine reflects philosophically on his journey to faith, Coupland allows readers to drift through the lives of lost characters and relate to their struggle to find purpose. Both accounts reach a point where the characters realize they need God to overcome feelings of meaninglessness.

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Christian Dwyer
Charlie Wilson
Religion 202A
March 27, 2015
Pears and Syringes
Two Men, One Compass: Augustine and Coupland explored, coming soon to a theater near
you. Saint Augustine portrays a pompous lifestyle of directed God-questing in Confessions while
Douglas Coupland’s characters drift through life before hitting rock-bottom in the British
Columbian wilderness. The culmination of trials of Coupland’s characters create a relatable work
that strikes a chord with us, much like a timely horoscope. Alternatively, Augustine appeals to
those of us looking to philosophically journey through a life filled with God. A key similarity
between Coupland and Augustine, however, undermines our initial perception of their apparent
differences: religiously, they reach the same point.
Coupland drives us through the lives of some crazy characters. His nonlinear movement
changes speed, direction, and even narrator throughout the course of the work. Each new character
and story unfolds with a reactiveness to life. No one seizes control of their journey inasmuch as
they settle for the numbness of either loneliness or lack of direction (170). Coupland’s injection of
randomness into the stories and lives of his characters provides a direct point through which we
can relate to them. We do not know what tomorrow will bring and we do not care what yesterday
meant. Coupland emphasizes this ambiguity in his characters.
Coupland sums up this reactive, random livelihood perfectly in his interaction between
father and son as the dad says, “I stop talking right there—filling your head with these stories about
these animals, these beautiful little creatures who were all supposed to have been part of a fairy

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tale but who got lost along the way” (24). Each of Coupland’s characters seem to be one of the
animals, getting lost somewhere between their job, relationship, or drug addiction. Coupland walks
us through the daily life of a character, beginning with the list of television programs they watch,
closely followed with drifting between silent rooms, and pretending to have real things to do (78).
This lostness and meandering pervades each of his character’s stories and his entire work to the
point that we leave feeling like drifters ourselves, even if only for a moment.
Now consider the contrasting Confessions in which Augustine quests to find God from a
young age. His strong desire to know God leads to a methodical approach toward understanding
in which he struggles with sin and Manicheism. Augustine’s difficulty with confining sex to
wedlock proves to be one of his biggest hurdles (25). His Manicheism led him astray as he recalls
it was filled with seduction and deception in a variety of desires (52). Once he renounces
Manicheism, he prioritizes developing his notion of God and finding ways to fit in to communities
with those who share similar beliefs. He wanders through life not knowing what his life means or
how God fits into the whole. He recalls neglecting to turn his life over to God, not by lack of desire
but lack of strength of will (60). After over 28 years of searching, he comes to a conclusion in a
garden with one of his holy friends. In this moment of intense emotional outpouring, Augustine
realizes he needs God in order to find meaning in life.
Augustine and Coupland’s characters deceptively appear to be at different points in their
faith journeys. Coupland and Augustine agree that meaninglessness plays too big of a role in our
lives. Recall Augustine’s realization that he has in fact been the problem stirring within himself as
he writes, “I had become to myself a vast problem” (57). We find similar tones in Coupland as he
says, “I think I am a broken person. My life feels like a joke” (309). After Augustine and
Coupland’s character Scout reach low points in self-worth, they exhaust all options in which they

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maintain control of their own life. Ultimately they realize that leading a worthy life only comes
through choosing to accept God. Augustine converts to Catholicism by asking for God to enter in
to him, “Let it be now. Let it be now,” he says (150). Scout asks for God for the first time at the
very end of Coupland’s work. “I need God,” he says, “I can no longer make it alone” (359).
We find that Coupland’s Scout reaches the same rock-bottom conversion point as
Augustine. Coupland does not so much push us along as he allows us to drift through the lives of
his characters, grabbing on to whatever parts of their lives resonate with us. Following no apparent
path to needing God, we relate with the stumbling act he pulls in the final pages of his work.
Similar to Scout, we find ourselves sitting in the car, dressed for work, ready for the day, until we
come to grips with our lives’ dysfunctional nothingness (330). We need something new: God.
Augustine’s philosophical journey in and out of various religious sects proves that he has also
exhausted avenues by which to experience and understand God. He grapples with the fact that God
has been with him the whole time. Augustine just needs to allow God to enter his life to work for
his own good.
We finally see that the true difference between the authors is not in their paths to the point
of God-necessity, which they both clearly reach, but in the way they report their journey.
Augustine’s belonging to God begins in the garden and causes a reflective account of his previous
struggles. He uses his memory to recall all of the previous events and associated feelings.
Augustine writes Confessions reflecting on his experiences before God. In the garden, he makes
his reflective tone clear with his attempt to find words. He does not recall exact words or even
approximate sayings, but rather the ideas he tried to get across (150). During the pear-stealing
scene, he recalls his state of mind and feelings toward his actions, reporting them from memory
instead of reacting to what had just happened (33). Coupland’s final character, Scout, questions

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the path his life takes, from regret-filled compromises to his “vaguely crappy” job. To this point,
he truly wonders what the world did to him (309). Under no circumstances do God-reflective
people blame change and strife on the world. They realize that God actively faces them with the
obstacles of difficult relationships and morally compromising jobs.
Ultimately Coupland’s characters and Augustine reach the same rock-bottom point of
conversion, however, their two accounts serve complementary purposes. Augustine writes using a
higher level of rhetoric and philosophy which pegs him as a God-people comforter. He appeals to
God-people by quoting scripture and through reflection of his life before reaching his God
moment. Each episode contains elements of “I screwed up, but I meant well” and “I have fallen
short of God’s plan for me,” both things Christians feel on a regular basis. Coupland, however,
appeals to religious skeptics and serves more as a God-people recruiter. His characters’ wandering
and extreme levels of lostness relate impeccably to people searching for a higher meaning in life.
He takes us stumbling and bumbling to rock bottom where we realize that very normal people
struggle with life and finding God. Each author does an incredible job of “keeping” or “recruiting”
God-people. If this were not the case, we wouldn’t be writing essays about them, would we?