Religious Fervor

Religious fervor and fundamentalism is a theme throughout The Book of Everything, and is embodied in Thomas' father. Father reads each night at dinnertime from the Bible's Old Testament, and takes his family to church services held in a home. They are not allowed to use public transportation Sundays, and must walk to their services. As evidenced several times in the book, Father references what he's read in the Bible and interprets it literally, using it as an explanation for his close-mindedness and even immoral behavior. He abuses his wife and son when they disobey him, and believes that is his right as a man. He refuses to intervene when his brother, Benno, abuses Aunt Pie. He believes that the kind Mrs. van Amersfoort is a Communist and anti-Christian. And he calls Louis Armstrong jazz as "heathenish black music" and the poems that Thomas recites as sounding...