Introduction
The End of the Spear was a life transformation story of a tribal people in Ecuador called the Waodani, through the relentless efforts of five missionary men (Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Nate Saint, Roger Youderin and Peter Fleming) and their family members. All five men were brutally speared to death by a group of fierce Waodani warriors. Their devastated family members, however, continued the missions by living among the violent tribal people. As a result, the entire tribe of Waodani accepted the Christian gospel and experienced positive changes in their lives.
What was the key to their dramatic transformation? In my personal critics of this movie, i think the question was answered by the apt employment of a literary device – the Chiasm (a literary structural device that exhibits the A-B-B-A pattern), in the overall structure of the movie. In total, there were five distinct inclusios (a literary bracket formed by making the ending of a section parallels the beginning) that form a nice inversion (an extended Chiasm that is shaped like a pyramid, e.g. A-B-C-B1-A1) to point to the crux of the story. All these will be discussed in greater details below.
The Five Inclusios
Inclusios are normally added to form an inversion in order to draw attention to something important. Each inclusio will prompt audience to the next one until the eventual climax is revealed. In this case, five inclusios were employed to point to the crux of the story.
Violence and Hatred vis-à-vis Peace and Reconciliation
Set in the Ecuadorian jungles, the Waodani were depicted as violent people right from the beginning of the show. Apparently, they were taught since young to spear and live or be speared and die. They risk extinction through their vicious cycles of revenge killings among themselves. Towards the end of the show, this hopeless state was contrasted by the peaceful living within the Waodani village. Even Steve Saint, a missionary’s son, was reconciled with Mincayane, the tribal leader and murderer of his dad. What caused the dramatic change in the conventional lifestyle and attitudes of the Waodani and the family member of the missionary?
Escape of Dayumae vis-à-vis Return of Steve Saint
Having lived and witnessed such violent and harsh environment, young Dayumae, one of the Waodani, decided to run off and escaped to the ‘white foreigners’. She saw no hope or whatsoever in staying any longer with the tribe and perceived the other ‘world’ as a better place to live in. This was contrasted by the return of Steve Saint from the developed country of United States to the rural compound of Waodani. After paying his last respect to his deceased aunt, Rachel Saint, Steve decided to live among the transformed Waodani with his family members. What caused the change to the living conditions and perception in the land of Waodani?
Nate Saint to Waodani vis-à-vis Waodani to Steve Saint
Nate Saint, the father of Steve, was the pilot among the missionary team. He was flying as often as he could in search of the secluded Waodani settlement. The search was not easy because they were always on the move, especially if they were targeted by their rival tribesmen. They were an exclusive community with the sole purpose of self-preservation. Later, it was the Waodani who began to look for Steve to have him return back to them. Their community was thus expanded to include rival tribesmen and even non-Waodani people. What caused the change from exclusivity to inclusivity of the Waodani community?
Distant Contact vis-à-vis Intimate Contact
When Nate Saint first discovered the Waodani people, he began to drop gifts from his aircraft in order to establish good rapport with them. The reciprocal of a gift from them made him perceived that he had succeeded in his pre-contact mission. The movie later depicted that it was not so. Surface contact is never as effective as in-depth relationship building. After the death of the five male missionaries, their family members took the risk of living among the Waodani. Through their ways of life, they were able to convince the tribal people of their sincerity and pure motives of establishing contact with them. What caused the long persistency and the strong courage of the difficult contact works by the missionary team to the Waodani?
Problems vis-à-vis Solutions
After some time, the five missionary men finally came into physical contact with the Waodani males. That short encounter witnessed the real problems of the Waodani – their chronic fears, violence and revenge killing instincts. Due to a miscommunication, all five were massacred. This was the practical communication problem faced by the missionaries. They undermined the need to acquire native language before coming into close contact with the primitive Waodani. When the family members of the deceased missionaries went to stay with the Waodani, they brought along Dayumae so that she could help with the oral translation work. In addressing Waodani’s problems, they demonstrated in very practical ways on how one should extend hospitality to people, even enemies, and tend to their needs. Slowly, the Waodani people followed suit and realized the fruits of showing kindness to others, thus ending their constant fears and endless revenge killings spree. What caused the change to their ways of life and conduct to others?
The Crux
After five inclusios, the movie finally revealed the crux of the story – the Christian gospel. It was precisely this piece of good news that first called the missionary team to embark on such dangerous missions, and at the same time, converted the revenge killings Waodani people into a peaceable tribal group. The changes mentioned earlier were all made possible because of this seemingly impossible task of sharing the gospel to the Waodani.
Gospel on the Missionary Team
The gospel inspired the missionary team to step foot into the uncivilized regions of Ecuador. They were committed, as an entire family unit, to invest their time and efforts to bring the good news to the unreached Waodani people. The inherent risk was high but the potential rewards were even higher. A few lives for the many lives of Waodani and their future generations to come. The intensity of the call could be clearly seen when Nate responded to Steve: “Son, we can't shoot the Waodani, they are not ready for Heaven. We are!”
It was the same gospel that helped the family members of the deceased missionaries to forgive their enemies and live among them. For them, the gospel was not merely something to grasp and know, rather it was to be internalized and lived out. The impact of such strong life testimonies enabled the gospel message to penetrate into the lives of the illiterate Waodani people.
Gospel for the Waodani
From unbelief to accepting the gospel, the Waodani experienced what they had never encountered in their tradition. Initially, they could not accept the gospel from the words of Dayumae. How could Waengongi’s son, who was speared to death, not speared back at his enemies? Literally, this gospel message was reinforced by the fact that the family members of the deceased missionaries did not seek any form of revenge. Instead, they showed kindness to Waodani people, and such hospitality was even extended to their rival tribesmen.
The gospel message was not forcibly given to the Waodani people. They were given the gospel and the practical life testimonies that corresponded with the gospel. Slowly, when the Waodani people began to embrace the gospel, it liberated their mindsets and ways of life, and resulted in positive changes in their lives. The local Christians, in terms, through their own life testimonies, advanced the gospel further to the rest of their tribesmen. Eventually, the Waodani Chief and the entire tribe were converted to Christianity.
Conclusion
The End of the Spear first discussed the problems faced by the Waodani and the missionary team. Through the transforming power of the gospel, the missionary team overcame all odds to bring the same gospel to the Waodani. Indeed, the gospel was what the Waodani people needed the most to bring an end to the spear – the ceasing of their revenge killings problems and start of their more humane and civilized ways of life, in accordance to the gospel.
