Meta: Kara's faith

[lanalucy]

This is the last of my questions from April 14th

astreamofstars asked me:
What are your thoughts on Kara's faith?
Where do you think it comes from, what do you think she actually believes, and how much do you think it affected her actions during the show?

I think Kara’s faith is such a deep part of her that she neither knows where it came from, nor thinks about it much. It just is.

It’s clear to me from the way she unwraps her idols that first time that she holds the idea of the gods in great reverence. It's also clear to me that she hides this part of herself, whether from a simple sense of privacy, or from learned necessity, I don't know, but it's a part of herself she doesn't share lightly with someone else.

Her actions during the show also tell me that she believes the gods are not judgemental - she doesn’t give any indication that her actions are in any way something the gods would frown upon. She holds herself accountable for many things over the course of the show, but seems to believe that drinking, smoking, cursing, and sex are things the gods would not necessarily encourage, but would see as natural human behavior, even unimportant in the overall scheme of things.

I wouldn’t be surprised to know that her father was the one who first took her to temple or gifted her with her first set of idols, taught her to pray. I doubt that Socrata let her keep those if she knew about them, so the ones she has now are ones that appealed to her when she saw or held them and she’s never asked herself why. She might not even remember the idols her father gave her.

I believe that Socrata’s “faith,” if you can call it that, was more about suffering and rising to unreasonable challenges, suppressing any sense of individuality Kara had, than it was about benevolent deities or patron gods, so to some extent, Kara’s faith is in spite of Socrata, not because of her. Her belief that she herself is not worthy, is less than, comes from her mother's treatment of her, though.

She internalized every syllable her mother uttered about what she was meant to be, how being special connected in some way with being abused, and that reflects particularly in her relationship with Lee, and during her incarceration in the dollhouse with Leoben. Both those relationships are unhealthy in their own unique ways, both men giving her what they think she needs, Lee unconsciously for the most part, and Leoben intentionally. Neither of them see their behavior as abusive or unhealthy, and if asked, neither would Kara.