The religious allusions abound in Going After Cacciato and create, to me, the most compelling underlying theme. Simultaneously, Cacciato becomes a representative of Christ and Buddha. O'Brien was able weave both Eastern and Western religious traditions into the plot which is incredible to me. Similar to my embarrassing disclosure about my inability to recognize Darryl Van Horne as a Satan-figure in the Witches of Eastwick, I also have to admit that I only recognized O'Brien's allusions in a more general sense. Yet once it was brought up, the specifics jumped out at me and were overwhelmingly present in the text. I would have to do some more research if I was going to present a more unified theory on this, but I do have some impressions that I want to sketch out in this post and at least reference some of the more obvious allusions. Unfortunately I have a lot more experience in the Christian tradition and am not overly familiar with Buddhist and other Eastern philosophies, so I will have more to say about Cacciato as a Christ-figure, but that does not mean that O'Brien privileges the Western belief system.
To begin, the very mission that they embark upon has religious parallels. They follow Cacciato as a "guiding light" from the Hell of the war to the very romanticized paradise of Paris. On the way they are left tantalizing clues as to the path to follow and often times are heading to Paris without a clear sense of where Cacciato is, just operating on faith that he is always ahead of them. He also providentially appears to help them out of jail in Tehran. More than that you never see him engage in violence and his encounters with Paul Berlin provide Berlin with the sustenance to continue. In an article I read, the scene in which Berlin has Cacciato touch the grenade was seen as a parallel to Christ's temptation in the desert. In a more direct allusion, Cacciato is cornered and possibly killed on a hill, not a valley or a cave, but a hill, much like the place which Christ was crucified. Without the other allusions, that last part could be coincidence, but the last scene ends on the hill without any physical evidence of Cacciato which parallel's Christ's ascension into heaven after his own death. Cacciato also is pursued and needs to be caught to atone for the companies sin of deserting the war. Some of these allusions I am drawing are relatively thin, especially since Cacciato did not wait three days after his "death" to ascend to heaven, but they do add up. He is also seen as a monk in Mandalay and is constantly a figure of benevolence, which is characterized as dumb by the more cynical members of the company.
As for Eastern allusions (as far as I can tell), the most obvious is Cacciato's appearance. His round, always smiling, pudgy face is a fair rendition of Buddha. He always stays within himself and maintains an equilibrium. Also many of his actions can be characterized as Taoist. For example, when he is fishing in the crater that has filled with rain, there is no way he will ever catch a fish, so the activity will never end which is inline with Taoist views of the joy is in the actual activity instead of the result. My knowledge of Eastern philosophy and religion doesn't allow me to make any more points, but some very well read people have made other connection, so I trust that they are there.
Which philosophy is ultimately endorsed by O'Brien, if any, is the question that is raised by this duality. I think the evidence points more towards an Eastern philosophy more strongly, but I also think there is an underlying message of the importance of spirituality. Once again, these are more impressions than well researched theses. To me, what Paris turns out to be is blow to the Christian tradition. Paris is a city like all the others that the group passed through to get there. There is poverty and ugliness if you want to look for it. There is no peace and no happy ending when they finally catch up to Cacciato. Soldiers and police are still searching for them and there are still consequences to be paid. If they reached Paris and somehow found a way to be absolved of their desertion and Paul Berlin was allowed to settle down with Sarkin Aung Wan, then the Christian tradition would be fulfilled. Yet the opposite happened and their journey from East to West is reversed. They were headed West to be absolved and find paradise, but they just ended back East. In fact before the end of Paul Berlin's imagined journey, both Lieutenant Corson and Sarkin Aung Wan have headed back East. So Berlin's love and a mentor of sorts have already left the West. I think this evidence adds up to an endorsement of Eastern philosophies. There is a lot of possibility in this line of thinking and I would need to do some serious research in Eastern religion to back some of my impressions up, but I wanted to get some of these thoughts out. As always any comments are welcome and maybe I'll come back and develop these ideas a little more in the future.
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