Beignets are heavenly. Light, fluffy deep-fried pastries made magnificent with the addition of a heavy coating of finely powdered sugar on top. Because of my love for these pastries, I have created a routine out of having beignet breakfasts. Each morning, after waking up and working out, I head off on foot towards Cafe Du Monde, New Orlean’s most famous beignet restaurant. I hop on the streetcar, which heads down Canal Street until it turns parallel to the Mississippi River, hugging the edges of the French Quarter as it propels me toward my final destination. Jumping off at Dumaine station, I briskly stroll to the Cafe, pick up my beignets and Café Au Leit to go, and then make my way towards the nearby Jackson Square. As I sit down on the park bench, I look up to gaze at the large branches of the oak tree providing me shade on this hot, humid summer day. I then swivel my head towards the large, imposing church sitting adjacent to Jackson Square and towering over the French Quarter. 

One day, when sitting under this magnificent oak tree, after finishing my beignet breakfast, I decided to head towards the church - which I learned from a placard is named the Saint Louis Cathedral after the famed King Louis IX of France - and slowly walked inside as if in a trance. After sitting down on a creaky, old wooden pew to take in the beauty of the church’s interior, my mind started to wander. I started thinking about the book our bookpacking cohort was reading in New Orleans - Anne Rice’s “Interview with the Vampire” - focusing specifically on the philosophical religious questions the book raises, how those inquiries arise, and the fitness of New Orleans as a literary setting in which to attempt to answer these faith-based questions. 

And just a quick side note before diving into the sticky subject of religion, I myself have been an atheist my whole life. Despite this, the role religion plays in our history, as well as today’s social and political scenes is so great that to avoid examining religion out to disbelief would be a disservice to people like me who are trying to better understand a place and its people. In my case, that place is New Orleans.

In Anne Rice’s novel “Interview with the Vampire”, Rice deep dives into examining faith-based questions - specifically questions regarding God’s role in our lives - in the setting of New Orleans. To deal with these massive, overwhelming questions while still telling a compelling story, Rice uses vampires as subjects to form these questions on. For those who haven’t read the book, “Interview with the Vampire” is the story of a plantation owner living in New Orleans in the 1750s who nearly dies but is “saves” when he is transformed into a vampire by another vampire named Lestat. Part one of the book - which is the portion of the book in which most of Rice’s questions of faith can be found - chronicles Louis’ self-reflective quest, with Louis attempting to determine the ethical, social, and most importantly spiritual aspects of vampirism. As Louis further uncovers what it means to be a vampire, he begins to question the nature of vampirism, and in turn the nature of God. Louis contemplates, if God has the power to create life but also the power to destroy life, do life-taking vampires serve as agents of God? In other words, do vampires exist to aid God in the destruction or taking of life by draining the blood out of someone each day to satisfy their hunger, or are they working against God, killing people before the time God has chosen for them to transcend their mortality?

To try and answer these questions of whether vampires are the agents of God or actively work against him, Anne Rice pushes readers to examine what God’s role is in our lives through interactions Louis has in New Orleans. Since the book takes place in the highly Catholic setting of 18th century New Orleans, the mortals that encounter Louis and recognize him ward him away with crosses, calling upon God to smite this vampire, this agent of the devil. Obviously, the religious citizens of New Orleans see vampires as working against God, with vampires releasing people from the mortal world before their time and therefore working to compromise God’s plan. However, Louis’ vampire friend, Lestat, holds a different opinion. He believes that God is not simply a kind, loving creator of life, but God is also in charge of taking life to complete the human life cycle. Because of this, vampires work as agents of God, helping God take life in sync with God’s plan. With these differing opinions, the central question is if vampires fit into God’s plan for humanity and its people, or if they actively work against it by aiding the devil in sowing unholy chaos and disorder.

While the faith-based questions Anne Rice presents in her book revolve around vampires and their role, what these questions are really examining is the role God plays in our lives. Is God simply a force of good, creating life and protecting humanity, or does God take a more holistic approach, working to both create life and take life, therefore managing all stages of the human life cycle? While these are great, probing questions, there is no way to answer these inquiries because there is no way to know God’s intentions or actions. Since the early days of Christianity, religious scholars and intellectuals have been contemplating the same questions Anne Rice poses in her book, and since there is no way to answer such inquiries there will never be agreement on what God’s role is. 

Though unsolvable, it is highly significant that Anne Rice asks these religious questions in her book, as over her lifetime she constantly left and rejoined the Christian faith out of uncertainty. These questions are likely highly important to Anne Rice, and by examining “Interview with the Vampire” readers can gain insight into Rice’s own religious contemplations and considerations. Additionally, recognizing the faith-based questions Anne Rice poses helps in understanding the meaning of Rice’s book, allowing readers to look past the story and dive into why this narrative is being told. This book was made not only to be a compelling read, it was also meant to interrogate religious idealogy and have readers question their own religious beliefs regarding the role of God.

These religious questions on the role of God in our lives - which as previously mentioned are set up in the context of the religious role of vampires - are able to be effectively communicated thanks to the setting in which this book is located: New Orleans. New Orleans is the perfect literary setting for a story that questions the role of God in our lives. This is because the Crescent City has a deep-rooted religious, and specifically Catholic, history. When New Orleans was first founded by French colonizers, they were quick to set up Catholic churches and areas of worship around the city, with there being five prominent catholic churches in and around the French Quarter. Additionally, under French rule, it was determined that for colonizers to be faithful subjects of the Crown they had to adopt the Catholic faith. Because of this, the entire city was from its founding engrossed in Catholicism. Later, when slavery began to take root in New Orleans, the French Code Noir - which was a set of laws governing the treatment of slaves - mandated that slaves be instructed and baptized in the Catholic faith, as well as have Sundays off for worship and to attend mass. These various religious historical events shaped New Orleans into a city with a rich Catholic-based culture, making this an amazing city in which to investigate the Catholic faith.

Without these deep religious roots that seeped through New Orleans in the time in which Rice’s book takes place, Rice would not be able to set up the important faith-based questions her book examines. There would be no religiously zealous citizens to scorn the vampires as agents of Satan and the devil, and Lestat - a native of New Orleans himself - would not have had the religious background to contextualize vampires in the grander topic of God’s plan for humanity. So, without New Orleans as a literary setting, there is no strong religious context, meaning there would be no strongly Catholic characters to connect the question of vampires’ roles with questions of God’s role, meaning it would be impossible for Rice to incorporate her complex religious inquiries into her narrative. Without New Orleans, “Interview with the Vampire” is simply a compelling story, lacking the deep meaning that makes the book so great.

As I walked out of the Cathedral, I headed down Saint Louis Street to take in the wonders of the French Quarter. I then made my way back to the hotel by crossing Canal Street - a street that historically divided the French Catholic section of the city from the American Protestant area. I then made my way through the business district where slave auctions were once held, auctions that continued a system of slavery propped up by religious beliefs that maintained white supremacy was ordained by God when he created man. I finally made my way down Saint Charles by streetcar, getting off at the stop located next to Xavier University - the first historical black and Catholic university in America - to walk over to the adjacent Tulane University to read and study. It is impossible not to notice the signs of Catholic influence in New Orleans, just as it is now impossible for me to read a New Orleans literary work and not analyze the religious aspects of the book. Thanks to my stay in New Orleans, I was able to recognize the city’s Catholic influence and the effect it had on Anne Rice’s novel, leading me to obtain a much richer understanding of the novel and its meaning.