Screwtape Letters (Letter 22)

This was a very confusing letter for me to understand and I hope that someone who read it can give me a little more insight into what Screwtape is trying to tell his nephew.  

The letter begins by brining up the patient's new girlfriend and Screwtape seems really annoyed that the nephew has not included this significant fact in his last letter.  In response to his annoyance he sends his nephew a booklet.  

Screwtape seems very disgusted by the patient's new girlfriend calling her a "brute" and states "she makes me want to vomit" why does Screwtape feel this way about the girlfriend?

When he talks about her house he speaks of it reeking and that anyone who visits smells horribly after they leave the house.  What is the smell suppose to symbolize?  

I also thought that it was very interesting that at the end of this letter he turns himself into a centipede...how that happened I am not quite sure though.  

Overall this was just a very jumbled and confusing letter.

Hopefully some of you can help me to better understand the deeper meaning!

Screwtape Letters (Letter 21)

The most important subject that Screwtape discusses at the end of this letter is "the sense of ownership" (page 113).  He says that "humans are always putting up claims to ownership".  We all see this in our everyday world and we all mutter a sentence or ten every day that includes a possessive connotation.  In reality we do not own anything, but it all belongs to God or Satan.  Screwtape brings this point up by saying that the ownership that humans put on objects "sound equally funny in Heaven and in Hell".  Although we each have our "own" possessions here on earth, the reality is that once we get to heaven none of those possessions actually matter anymore.  Our actions here on earth are what will matter once we leave our bodies to live in heaven, so our obsession with possessions here on earth is comical in heaven and hell.  

I also thought it was interesting that he brought this sense of owning our time.  Often in our daily lives we are interrupted by different people and activities and can react in different ways.  Some people choose to graciously accept these interruptions as a way of charity, but other times people choose to get angry, because they feel like "their" time is taken from them.  The second response is how Screwtape tells his nephew to help his patient feel. "Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor of twenty-four hours".   

How do you feel about claiming possessions and claiming the day as "yours"? Does it actually get us anywhere in the long run, or is it just a way to get us ahead in the modern world?

I am anxious to hear your thoughts!

Screwtape Letters (Letter 17)

The first thing that came to mind after I finished reading the first sentence of this letter is that Screwtape always starts his letters off by telling his nephew that what he is doing is not good enough. Letter after Letter begins with Screwtape scolding the nephew and telling him that he never can do anything right. I feel as though this is how Satan treats us. He tells us that we need to do something, but we can never be good enough for him (but why would we want to be?). The only trouble occurs when we think that we are following God, but indeed are following Satan and become misled and bring ourselves down for never living up to God's expectations when they actually might be Satan's.
I thought that this letter was very interesting the way that it talked about the Mother's glutony in her determination to get what she wants. Instead of working for what she wants and being satifisfied with her result, there is always something more that she can never attain. This unattainable goal that is always there creates "daily dissapontment" and produces an ill temper. Does anyone know anyone who lives their lives like this?
One last part of the letter that I though was interesting was on page 90 "What begins as vanity can then be gradually turned into habit". I think that this is very true in our world today for some people. They begin by simply acting vain, but after this action become a daily routine, it is habit and then they do not know how to stop. This vanity turns people away from them and away from what that person may represent. Has anyone ever experienced this type of behavior from someone and how did it make you feel?