Essay Outline

By: Kunal Bindra

Thesis: Religion gives people hope to succeed with what they want to accomplish.
Religion doesn’t guarantee a road to success however; it gives hope so people
won’t give up on their dreams or goals in life. In the movie “Saint Ralph” and the
book “Hey Nostradamus”, Michael McGowan and Douglas Coupland have religion
to help their characters through problems that occur in both the movie and novel.

1st argument: Religion is always there when you lose hope in a dream or goal.

- In the book “Hey Nostradamus” religion brings hope to two young

characters named Jason and Cheryl. The way religion gives these two
characters hope is when Jason and Cheryl decide they want to have sex.
The only problem is that religion blocks this idea because it’s considered a
sin. After Jason and Cheryl hear this they lose all hope. Later on they see
that there is a solution, if they get married they can then accomplish their
goal. This is significant because people lose hope in religion and other
things very easily. This shows how there is always a solution if there’s a
problem however, no one believes there are other ways out of a solution. If
people had more hope in their dreams and goals we would see a lot more
success in the world. All the people who aren’t as successful have given up
and have given up on religion because they thought it was wrong. To
conclude this argument people need to believe and hope for the best
instead of being negative about their dreams.

2nd argument: Religion helps build hope and confidence

- In the movie “Saint Ralph” Directed by Michal McGowan the main
character named Ralph believes in a miracle. He believes if he wins the
Boston Marathon his mom who is in a coma will finally wake up. The way
religion has an effect on this is because when Ralph was training for the
marathon he thought in his mind he could never do it. When Ralph sees
Santa Claus who symbolises God in a way, he builds up hope. He thinks to
himself since Santa Claus told him he can do it, he knows he can do it. This
is significant because religion plays a big part in the movie. If Ralph never
turned to religion to build up hope and confidence he would never be able
to do the Boston Marathon and successfully complete what he started. In
the end Ralph didn’t win the marathon he got second place, however
religion gave him the hope so he still went through the marathon. This goes
back to how religion doesn’t guarantee a road to success however it builds
up hope and belief. To conclude this argument, people should never give
up and keep hoping for the best because if they don’t even try they would
never know what they could do. If Ralph gave up on running the marathon
his goal would never come true and he at least had hope and tried.