What do Secular Humanists and Puritans have in common? LOST!

So I really don’t know where this blog will go; however, for now it’s going to be a somewhat crazy English teacher-esque exploration of LOST as I re-watch the series. Forgive me.

Season 1, Episodes 1-2 (Pilot)

The first thing I noticed was the solitude of Jack. He’s alone in the jungle/forest/woods and disoriented. Traditionally, trips in the woods reflect a deeper journey into the subconscious. Since Jack leaves the woods, I’m not entirely sure what to make of it. It’s also noteworthy that when Jack first arrives at the beach, it appears to be normal—there is no sight of wreckage or other passengers in distress until a few seconds later. While this normally would suggest to me that he’s hallucinating; the further textual history of show that doesn’t include Jack should strongly dissuade anyone from thinking this is all his hallucination.

More importantly, I think they create a very interesting contrast between Jack and Kate in these first couple episodes. I think there is some support that they function as some sort of odd duality. In the second part of the pilot, Locke beats us over the head with the light/white and dark/black symbolism we will see repeat throughout the series—most importantly for me in the season five finale with Jacob and “the man in black” (who I will refer to as Esau.)

When Jack tells Kate to give him the stitches, she is wearing a white shirt. Jack is shirtless; however, elects for black thread for his stitches. Okay, I’m reading a bit much into that, but we do see Jack established as the traditional hero while Kate takes her place as the antihero. Jack fits the epic hero archetype rather well (I could go into explaining, but I prefer that you just believe me.) Kate is the perfect antihero—the noble criminal (Wikipedia—which is apparently a credible source according to the U of Iowa, and if I can’t trust them to tell me what’s credible when doing cultural and literary criticism, who can I?) The pilot episodes establish that Kate is a criminal (crime unknown in eps. 1 and 2) but chooses to protect others over herself. When the plane crashes, the air marshal guarding her is knocked unconscious. When the oxygen masks drop, she secures the unconscious marshal’s before her own. Clearly, she paid no attention to the flight safety information presentation before take-off, and she’s noble.

So now that Jack and Kate are established as hero and antihero, two sides of the same heroic coin, let’s talk about the Puritans! Puritans (the Salem witch burning ones) believed in and practiced this crazy form of literary analysis known as typology. They would read a story in the Old Testament (this story would be called the “type”) and find it’s parallel in the New Testament (the “antitype.”) I’d give examples, but I don’t know the Bible that well/at all. Puritans, after understand the type and first antitype, would then look for the second antitype in their own lives. In other words, they would see how their lives lined up with Bible stories to determine if they were going to Heaven or not. (Puritanism is and off-shoot of Calvinism, so they believed in predestination.)


For clarity’s sake in this post, I will consider the five current seasons of LOST as two different texts. The Old Testament of LOST (OTL) is everything up until the Dockey Wheel Magic at the end of season 4. The NTL is season 5.

So anywho, this relates back to the primary relationships and leaders in LOST, I think. I think we can all agree that Jack is the leader in the beginning and his primary relationship is with Kate. That’s Jack as hero plus Kate as antihero and also the type in the OTL (perhaps The Book of Charlie? I like Charlie.). The first antitype in the NT of LOST is the Sawyer/Juliet relationship. Sawyer is now the leader (and the antihero) while Juliet is his obvious lover (and has heroic qualities.) Our goal then is to predict what the second antitype will be in season 6. I offer the following incongruent theories:

1. Since LOST is a postmodern* text, it is logical that the antiheroes are the true heroes. I would posit then that Sawyer and Kate hook-up (hooray!) and time doesn’t reset post The Incident.

*If you disagree with me about the postmodern nature of the show, think about the fact that they call people they don’t the Others…with a big O even. Yup.

2. Juliet and Jack end up taking most of the responsibility for The Incident (deservedly.) They become the second antitype and drive the series to the conclusion. I don’t know if time resets or not from this theory.
3. Locke is the leader in the second antitype. His relationship, as we know, is with the island.
4. Claire is the leader in the second antitype. Her relationship is with Aaron. Lots of crying will happen when they are finally reunited in the series finale in May. The crying will be on my part.
5. I’m totally off the mark on all this typology stuff.

I think my theories are ranked from most likely to least likely in this order: 5,1,3,2,4

Number 4 is what I actually want to happen. Claire and Charlie have always been my favorite relationship. Rumors are flying about Dom’s return to the show. I wish I went to Comic-Con this year.

Also, why do I, a Secular Humanist, know this much about Puritanism? Seriously, I know how to give a Conversion Narrative...