Comparing Gilgamesh And Cormac Mccarthy's The Epic

The Road by Cormac McCarthy and “The Epic Of Gilgamesh” both tell a story about a hero’s travels to accomplish a task. In The Road, the Man’s goal was to survive and keep his son alive, while Gilgamesh searched for immortality. The authors use stages of a hero’s journey to help shape the character's adventure including close mentors, entering the belly of the beast, the reward and facing enemies. When comparing these stories based on aspects found in a hero’s journey, there are many similarities and differences on how the author uses them throughout the story.

In both journeys, the heros have a mentor that is very close to them and keeps their goals on track. In the horrible world they live in, “you won't survive for yourself... A person

who had no one would be well advised to cobble together some passable ghost” (McCarthy 56). By being there for the man, the boy gives him a reason to keep pushing on and not give up. If the boy was not as important to the man, he would have given up a long time ago, but he knows the child is reliant on him. This gives him the strength to wake up each morning. Enkidu also helps Gilgamesh achieve his goals. When they set out to kill the giant Humbaba, “At the sound of Humbaba’s roar, Gilgamesh suddenly trembled with fear. Enkidu saw the terror in his heart and said, ‘My friend… remember why we have made this journey! Now let courage enter your heart, and prepare to kill this monstrous giant!’” (“Gilgamesh” 39). Without Enkidu’s encouragement and faith in Gilgamesh, he would have fled the giant’s forest and gone back to Uruk in shame. Gilgamesh had complete trust in his friend and went through with the task. The Man and Gilgamesh’s mentors helped push them to succeed and did not let them give up.
Gilgamesh and the Man also willingly went into the belly of the beast in order to accomplish their goals. The Man and Boy always search every house and store alongside the road, but when they came upon a suspiciously intact house, the Man desperately decided to go inside. When they approached the house, it “was tall and stately with white doric columns across the front… The windows were oddly intact” (McCarthy 105). In a post apocalyptic world, intact windows means someone has been taking care of the house and living there. The boy recognized the windows as a red flag for danger and tried to warn the Man, but he was so desperate to care for his son, he didn’t listen. Similarly, Gilgamesh purposely walked into the belly of his beast on his quest for immortality. Gilgamesh hiked into the Cedar Forest, where Humbaba’s sacred trees stood and “to attract Humbaba’s attention, he lifted his axe and cut down one of the cedars” (“Gilgamesh” 39). Gilgamesh was so determined to gain immortality, he was ironically willing to risk his life to find it. He knew killing Humbaba and banishing evil from the land was a necessary step to reach his goal, so with the help of Enkidu, he stepped into the belly of the beast. The Man and Gilgamesh both willingly entered the belly of the beast, no matter how dangerous it was.
The biggest similarity between the two hero’s journeys is that they both succeeded in accomplishing their goals and received their rewards of happiness and peace of mind. All the man ever wanted was to live as long as possible so he could care for his son. As he was dying, he told the boy, “don't give up. Okay?... You'll be okay. You're going to be lucky. I know you are” (McCarthy 279). The father knows that he has trained the Boy to take care of himself and how to find supplies. He hopes that the Good Guys will find him because of how lucky they have been during their travels on the road. The man successfully kept the boy alive and didn’t have to kill both of them like his wife wanted. Also, when Gilgamesh returned back to his ordinary world, he was content with what he had discovered. He proudly explained to Urshanabi, “No human being, not even a king, will ever be able to construct more impressive walls than I have built around our city of Uruk!... Gaze upon one man’s supreme achievement!” (“Gilgamesh” 56). In his search for immortality, he realized that it physically could not be achieved, but his legacy would live on. The greatness of his actions and the structures he built would be forever remembered. Gilgamesh was finally happy and felt that he had achieved immortality. Both heroes achieved what they had set out to do by the end of the story.
Although there are many similarities between Gilgamesh’s hero’s journey and the Man’s, the way they approach their enemies and danger is very different.

During the Man’s journey, they encountered a group of people on the Road. The Man quickly told the Boy to “‘keep your face down. Don't look’… He wallowed in to the ground and lay watching across his forearm. An army in tennis shoes, tramping. Carrying three-foot lengths of pipe with leather wrappings” (McCarthy 91). Whenever a group passes by on the road, the Man and Boy hide in hopes that the people will not know they were there. They fear for their lives because they don’t know if they are cannibals or the Good Guys. A conflict on the road could lead to all their supplies being taken, getting injured, or killed. Approaching their enemies would not help them succeed in accomplishing their task, unlike Gilgamesh. In his journey for immortality, he told Enkidu, “The fierce giant Humbaba lives at the base of the Cedar Mountains… Come with me to slay him, and then we will have banished all evil from the land” (“Gilgamesh” 34). Gilgamesh’s mission requires him to face many enemies and run towards death to see if he is worthy of immortality. Without killing the giant Humbaba or the lions to pass through the mountains, he would have never discovered the secret to becoming immortal and would always be unsatisfied. The two heroes face their enemies in two vastly different

ways.
Even though both the Man’s and Gilgamesh’s travels were quite different, the stages of a hero’s journey were similarly used throughout. The heroes had close mentors that encouraged them to follow through with their goals; both willingly entered the belly of the beast hoping to find something that will help them with their task, and eventually found their reward in the end. Although, one difference was how the heroes reacted toward their enemies and danger. By comparing these adventures based on aspects found in a hero’s journey, there are many similarities and differences how the author uses them in the plot.