Feminist theology and feminist studies in literary criticism are two areas of study which have grown immensely in recent years. The application of feminist theological ideas such as the mother as a metaphor for God to literary works yields significant results for both theology and literary criticism.; In American literature, three characters whose lives serve as rich models of the mother as God are Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter, Ma Joad from The Grapes of Wrath, and Celie from The Color Purple. Besides introducing the basic metaphor of the mother as God, these characters also model the female deity at work in the community and show her redemptive qualities.
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