Everything Happens for a Reason
M. Night Shyamalan uses the impact of Colleen’s sacrificial death on the Hess family, Graham’s struggle with faith, and every character’s quirk to prove that everything happens for reason.
Graham is a dynamic character throughout the story. He begins as the town Reverend, and as a follower of Christ. But, when his wife is killed, he begins to question his faith and he wonders why God would let something so horrible to him because he was a good person. He then becomes a non-believer of God. Throughout the whole story, he denies the existence of God, such as him removing the crosses from his house or when he says, “I will not waste another second of my life on prayer!” When Graham sees the alien in first person,…
Graham described that people are divided into two groups. “Group one,” he said, “Sees aliens and they see hope because they think someone will help them. Group two, “Sees aliens and they see fear because they know that they are all alone.” Essentially, group one believes in God and group two does not. Since graham used to be a reverend, he had to believe in God and was in Group one. But, when Colleen died, Graham questioned his faith and eventually stopped being a reverend and transitioned to group two, the non-believers. When Graham and his family left the basement, after the alien invasion, and he saw the alien that remained in his house who gassed Morgan, he began to change his faith. Graham orders Meryl to attack the alien while he takes Morgan and rushes outside to kneel in front of the cornfield which is juxtaposed by a bright sky above the cornfield which represents God. After injecting Morgan with medicine, Graham starts chanting, “It can’t be luck. His lungs were closed. No poison got it.” Graham is saying all of this as if he is praying to God, which is something a believer of God would do. Inside the house, all of the glasses of water that Bo leaves become “mines” for the alien. After Meryl had killed the alien, he then rejoins with Graham, Morgan, and Bo. Morgan begins to become conscious again and he mutters, “Did someone save me?” and Graham responds with, “Yeah, I think someone did.” This someone that they are referring to is God. Since Graham agrees with Morgan that God saved him, it is clear that Graham has transitioned back to Group one because he knows that God saved his family in his philosophy and is now a believer of…