Book_of_the_Dun_Cow

Book of the Dun Cow Biblical Relationships in Wangerin’s The Book of the Dun Cow The relationship between good and evil in Wangerin’s novel, The Book of the Dun Cow, is conveyed by farm animals that portray characteristics of religious characters and events from the Holy Bible. Wangerin, being a preacher and long-term religious writer clearly shows examples of these biblical events. The plot and events that happen throughout this novel are very closely related to the events that happen in the Holy Bible, and can easily be interpreted by the reader. Biblical events such as David and Goliath, the Birth of Christ, War in Heaven, and King Alexander’s decapitation (Old Testament) can be linked into this novel. In the early chapters of the novel we are introduced to an evil being known as Wyrm. Wyrm represents the Devil in the novel. Wyrm is described as something that “lived in the darkness, in dampness, in the cold. He stank fearfully, because his outer skin was always rotting, a runny putrefaction which made him itch, and which he tore away from himself by scraping his back against the granite teeth of the deep.” (Wangerin, 23) Wyrm, much like the Devil lived underneath the earth. Wyrm and the Devil both spent wyrm, dun, novel, events, cow, bible, wangerin, reader, son, jesus, holy, heaven, chauntecleer, character, both, between, because, animals, very, mary, farm, battle, wangerin’s, two, throughout, same, said, represents, religious, related, people, one, old, neither, name, mundo, much, man, lord, linked, horn, happen, good, god, evil, devil, closely, cani, book, battles