The Value of Faith

Aaron Reid In his short story “The Rich Brother” Tobias Wolff delineates a tale of two brothers who have many external differences resulting from their differences in faith. The two brothers are Pete and Donald, and they live in present day California, where their lives are much different from each other. Pete owns a Century 21 franchise and has a wife and two children, and many highly regarded material possessions of which he is very proud. Donald is Pete’s younger brother, and he is single and has difficulty maintaining a steady job, and so most of the time he relies on his older brother Pete for support. Pete dwells on his external prosperity and has no involvement with faith, while Donald devotes his life to faith, and promotes the importance of faith to those who oppose or are indifferent to faith. In “The Rich Brother” the text’s theme accentuates the importance of a foundation of faith, and how true inner security cannot be feasibly attained without a basis of faith.