William+Miller

In //Goldengrove//, Nico's father counsels his grief by researching William Miller and his doomsday cult. The doomsday cult formulates the ideas for Nico's father's book, which he eventually calls //The End of Days// (271). He is fascinated with Miller and his abilities to inspire such a vast amount of people, fifty thousand to be specific. Nico's father discovers that the Millerites were waiting for the return of Christ on October 22, 1844 and they gave away all their property as a form of sacrifice and preparation for the otherly world (86). On October 22nd, the cult dressed in white robes, climbed the highest mountains, and waited for saints to pull them out of the world. They wanted for two whole days and when Christ, or the Saints, did not appear, Octobe 22nd became known as the //Great Dissapointment// (88).

This topic is scattered so vastly throughout the novel in just about every scene with Nico's father; he is either talking about the book, researching facts, speculating ideas, or actually writing. I found that there was an actual Millerite movement of the 1830s and 1840s, particularly in the Northeast. According to the source, [|ChristianOdyssey.com], there were about 100,000 followers and when they did not get what they came for, the Millerites experienced a "spririt of weeping" as never experienced before. Some lost faith altogether and some argued that Christ did come, but he was invisible and commenced an investigation of Christian lives. This website also states that from the Millerites came Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh-day Adventists.

What a hopeful face!



**Similarities to Nico** -Miller also has some startling similarities to Nico. According to //Memoirs of William Miller//, Miller had regular access to the vast personal libraries of a prominent judge as well as a local congressmen at the young age of seventeen -- the same access that Nico had to her father's bookstore. Miller also faced deaths in the family, including the death of his sister -- just like Nico -- and became infatuated with death and the afterlife. Francine Prose could have chosen any iconic preacher for Nico's father to obsess over, but she picked William Miller, who just so happens to share qualities with Nico. It //has// to be intentionanl, right?