American Gods

“Shadow was not superstitious. He did not believe in anything he could not see.”

At the beginning of the novel, Shadow is comfortable with his lack of belief. He is a practical, agnostic man who will not believe in anything that he cannot see. Over the course of the novel, he will be shown such strange and mystifying sights that the concept of rationality will be completely undermined. Shadow remains just as practical and just as agnostic, but his evidence changes. He has firsthand experiences of the spiritual and the superstitious, meaning that his skepticism is rendered irrelevant when he simply knows these things to be true.

“Rigged games are the easiest ones to beat.”

Wednesday warns Shadow early in the novel that “rigged games” (31) are easy to beat. He says this as part of his attempt to rig a game in his favor. The comment foreshadows how Shadow will stop Wednesday’s plan by refusing to play and revealing the rigged nature of the game to the other gods. In the end, Wednesday is brought down by his own advice and his own hubris.

“His gods were already waiting for him when he arrived.”

America, as the novel states, is not a land for gods, but the gods continue to exist there. Without believers, however, they are caught in a state of powerlessness and are forced to wait for the arrival of credulous humans.