#2 (Howe's themes)

In The Good Thief, Marie Howe employs a wide variety of themes. Perhaps the most common, because of its encompassing nature, is religion. In her poems, she both alludes to and directly mentions Christianity. A lamb is a central figure, representative of Jesus, the Lamb of God. Many poems have Scriptures directly mentioned underneath their title. Other titles directly reference significant Biblical figures, such as Mary, Issac, and Eve. I was concerned about this abundance of religious references at first, merely because I had never read so many in such a short collection before. I feared that the references could take away from her own talent of writing, but in fact they greatly enrich it. Although Biblical context can seem an overwhelmingly huge topic, Howe successfully breaks it down and directly and uses it in conjunction with her own writing. I applaud her work and think that it is a sign that she has mastered the craft that she can tackle subjects that others would avoid. This is also present in some of the other themes, when she mentions family relations that can sometimes be glossed over, such as an abusive father and an invisible mother. Overall, it is Howe's mastery of a wide variety of complex themes that allow her work in The Good Thief to be so successful.