Gilgamesh Essay
Rachel Cedano
World Civilizations 10100
Professor Joseph Castora
September 26st, 2017
Mesopotamia is known as one of the earliest civilizations that has existed. Gilgamesh: a verse Narrative is a literary work that goes back into ancient Mesopotamia showing us the importance of the Mesopotamian culture and society. Archaeologists have been able to learn from ancient civilizations throughout literature and artifacts. The story of Gilgamesh gives us a more broad view of the Mesopotamian people belief system, including their views of death and afterlife. “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, shows a lot of relations to this story and the theme of friendship and similarities between sudden characters.
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Unlike the epic of Gilgamesh, Steinbeck’s novel takes place during the Great Depression in California, where two migrant workers, Lennie Small and George Milton in search of employment. Both of them had the dream of having their own ranch together with a rabbit hutch. George warns Lennie if he ever gets in trouble, he won’t have rabbits which Lennie wanted so he can pet them. Eventually, when they both found a job, Lennie ends up having a fight with the son of his boss, Curley. Curley used to be a boxer and even with his small height he picks on fights to prove everyone that he is tough even with bigger and stronger men than himself. In another scenario, Curley’s wife who seems flirtatious with other men ends up talking to Lennie. In where, Lennie accidentally ends up killing her by shaking her to the point her neck breaks. Lennie holds her hair and won’t let go leading to her scream. It was not of his intention to harm her but he was shaking her to stop her from yelling (B, p131).This death causing George and Lennie having to leave their job. Sadly, George decides to kill Lennie, quickly and painless. Instead of having a mob with Curley doing …show more content…
In the novel, Lennie mostly have to depend on George because he's unable to control his conscious. Throughout the novel, Lennie shows violent behavior. Which is compared to a wild beast contributing to animalistic characteristics. Similarly, Enkidu who was born in the wild and raised by animals. In Gilgamesh, Enkidu is described as “a creature was all covered with hair and yet his hands had the dexterity of men’s” (G, p.16). Which brought fear and led to him meeting Gilgamesh. Just as Lennie is physically strong but mentally incapable of survival, Enkidu is shown in the story (G, p. 27-28). In addition, both of them show a bond with the wild. Differently, Lennie harms every animal he encounters. Meanwhile, Enkidu who grew up among animals, slept with a harlot which made the animals ashamed of him (Gap. 18). Showing how Lennie and Enkidu both shared similar
In the beginning, the farm and the bond between George and Lennie presented to us is so beautiful yet strong. Foreshadowing already appears constantly in the first section of the book and Steinbeck stresses the doom that awaits the pair. The rabbits ran for cover immediately after the footsteps, hinting their American dream is getting away from them. We learn about Lennie’s deadly desire to stroke for soft things, and the dead mouse explains to us that the weak, innocent will not survive. The innocent soft things from mice to Lennie’s puppy all dies because of Lennie’s incapability to control his immense strength, which he has completely no idea how to control which makes him no less helpless than the animals he kills. George recounts the reason why they had to flee from the previous weed and we are made aware that similar ending will fall upon the one and only woman in the ranch-Curley’s wife.
As we journey through life, we must make difficult decisions, even when few options exist and the situation is grim. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the decision George faces after Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife is complicated, as none of his choices are good. The importance of his relationship with Lennie forces George to look at the big picture and act in Lennie’s best interests, even though the action he must finally take will result in a weight that he will carry forever.
George, like all other men, see women as exchangeable objects that satisfy certain needs with the exchange of money. Women were either seen as this type of stereotype or as nothing more than a stay home wife. This is shows how so call “men” can be seen as cowards because they think they have all the power in the world. “George said,’She’s gonna make a mess. They’s gonna be a bad mess about her. She’s a jail bait all set on the trigger. That Curley got his work cut out for him. Ranch with a bunch of guys on it wint no place for a girl, specially like her’” (Steinbeck 93). George is setting an example of how women are seen as weak and have no mean to be in a man's work place. Curley’s wife soon becomes like an animal in Lennie’s hands, for women were considered as
Life for ranchers in the 1930’s was very lonely. They have no family, and they do not belong anywhere. They come to the ranch, earn their pay, go into town, waste their money, and start all over again at another ranch. They have nothing to look forward to. But George and Lennie are different; it is not like that for them because they have each other. It was George and Lennie’s dream to own a piece of land and a farm. That dream is long gone. In the story, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, Curley caused the death of his wife and Lennie’s death; Curley also shattered George and Lennie’s dream.
Gilgamesh and Odysseus are two heroes from two different time periods that were both in search of the meaning of life. The epics that the two characters are featured in Gilgamesh, was developed from early Mesopotamia and the Odyssey in early Greece. Gilgamesh was a very popular and it was very valuable to the historian of Mesopotamian culture because it reveals much about the religious world, such as their attitudes toward the gods, how a hero was defined and regarded, views about death and friendship.
Strengths and Weaknesses play a huge roll within the story. Steinbeck explores different types of strength and weakness throughout the novel. As the novel begins, Steinbeck shows how Lennie possesses physical strength beyond his control, as when he cannot help killing the mouse. Great physical strength is valuable in George and Lennie's circumstances. Curley, as a symbol of authority on the ranch and a champion boxer, makes this clear immediately by using his brutish strength and violent temper to intimidate those who look down on him. Lennie means no harm at all. The reason why George and Lennie had to leave in the beginning of the novel was because it was believed that Lennie attempted to rape a woman there. Rape was not the case at all, when Lennie expressed his love for the touch of soft things, such as a dress or a mouse, this panicked the woman causing a chain reaction, and causing Lennie panic also. When Lennie accidentally kills the mouse, it foreshadows the future of Lennie and Curley's wife.
To begin, Steinbeck’s foreshadowing throughout the plot to reveal the element of cruelty. On example of foreshadowing is when Crooks, Lennie and Candy are in Crooks’ room and Curley’s wife walks in asking if they have seen Curley. In response, Candy replies, “You gotta husban’. You got no call foolin’ aroun’ with other guys, causin’ trouble” (77). In this instance, Steinbeck foreshadows Curley’s wife eventually causing trouble. This shows the cruelty in human nature because Curley’s wife is not innocently talking to the men, she is purposefully causing a row on the ranch. The next example of foreshadowing in the novel is when Candy’s dog is killed. Carlson says to Candy, “Look Candy. This ol’ dog jus’ suffers hisself all the time. If you was to take him out and shoot him right in the back of the head-“ (45). Throughout the plot, the reader can see the parallels in the relationships between Candy and his dog and Lennie and George. The dog and Lennie are both nuisances due to their handicaps. The cruelty lies in the fate that awaits characters like Lennie and Candy’s dog; they are killed because they are no...
The world that surrounds John Steinbeck's’ Of Mice and Men is cruel and unforgiving. From George Milton and Lennie Small having to walk ten miles to the ranch to the final scene, their existence is full of strife. The characters are living in the middle of the Great Depression, a period of time when much of the country was unemployed and migrants were looking for any work available. The entire setting for this story explains why George had to have killed Lennie in the end. All of the men were callous and harden, therefore they would have not offered Lennie mercy. Having George mercy kill Lennie was the best option available.
It first started with a feud between Curley and Lennie which didn’t really make any sense but Curley felt some kind of intimidation from Lennie size. So he got in his face to show that he was the bigger man. But most knew, he wasn't. Another situation where Lennie and Curley had a feud was when Curley did something dumb which made Lennie laugh. Curley wasn’t going to take that from him so he viciously assaulted him. After Curley was a few punches in Lennie finally decided to fight back and break the hand of Curley. This got Curley even more angry and upset with Lennie. What didn’t help it was another situation with Curley's wife. Lennie was minding his own business when Curley's wife walked in. Long story short Lennie ended up killing Curley's wife. He was stroking her hair too hard and when Curley's wife was begging him to stop he wasn't sure what to do. So he just held on. While Lennie was begging her to stop he was also shaking her head back and forth to the point where it broke her neck. Things like this happening just didn't make it safe for Lennie to be around anymore. At the end of the story, Curley wanted to make him suffer a painful death. George did a good thing by shooting him in the head he didn't feel a thing and it ended all the trouble he was
Lennie is day dreaming/laughing about the dream farm, but Curley gets the wrong idea from Lennie laughing. He thought that Lennie was laughing at him. The scene of everyone laughing at Curley made him furious and he went for the easiest target to take his anger out on. Lennie. We already know that Curley hates big guys and that he doesn’t joke around when he fights. As shown in the second part of the quote, Lennie “helplessly looked at George, and then he got up and tried to retreat” meaning that Lennie was confused and forlorn. Steinbeck uses “helplessly” to show how Lennie feels about Curley approaching to him and that he doesn’t know what to do thus looking at George. In other words, because of his size and his dream not being a reality, Curley can’t stand people that are bigger than him. Towards the end of the story, Curley’s wife comes inside the barn where Lennie was and tells him what her life was before she married Curley. “Well, a show come through, an’ I met one of the actors. He says I could go with that show. But my ol’ lady wouldn’ let me. She says
Throughout the year the class has read books and watched movies, all with the common theme of the achieving the American dream. From Scotts Fitzgerald's 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, focusing on the dream of the wealthy, to Sylvester Stallone's epic film, Rocky, directing the dream from a rags to riches standpoint. A novel the perfectly portrays the reality of the American Dream, is John Steinbeck's, Of Mice and Men, the story of how two migrant workers give their all to reach everything they have always wanted. Sadly, though they tried their hardest, due to their given situation they failed to reach their dream. Many believe that the American dream is attainable with hard work, but in reality the dream is nearly
The ancient Mesopotamian writing, The Epic of Gilgamesh, gives readers insight into the traditions and customs of the people who wrote it. Like all epics, The Epic of Gilgamesh is the story of a heroic national figure: this epic gives the story of the life of Gilgamesh from his birth as two-thirds god, one-third man to his death. Throughout the epic the importance of loyalty is addressed. In The Epic of Gilgamesh readers see that loyalty is the most important aspect of a Mesopotamian relationship and that there are always consequences for violating trust.
The Epic of Gilgamesh introduces us to the Mesopotamian culture, where citizens believe they should live in a just society, women have power, and people feel that their ideal death would be in an honorable manner. (####) The story of
The epic is based off of a group known as the Sumerians. The Sumerians were the first educated inhabitants of Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia was a society established around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The Sumerian society were the first group of people able to build and maintain a society that included people working together for a common goal. They are also known for having the first sort of use of language to communicate, they also had some sort of a government used to keep everything in order and working smoothly. They also were the first known society to use a form a caste system where people were apart of different classes. They were also able to develop some form of crop rotation and able to work the land for the best turn out of
...uring the Great Depression and I think that Steinbeck really captured what it was like to be a human-being during that time. George didn’t want to kill Lennie, but he did what he had to do. After Lennie killed Curley’s wife, George let him know he wasn’t mad; however, he knew Curley was going to get revenge on Lennie and George did not want to let him suffer through that. Slim is the only one who understands that George shot him out of love. Even George did not know how much of a danger to society Lennie was and he always thought his strength could be contained. What I learned from the book is that if you have a dream, go for it. Nothing was going to stop George and Lennie from trying to achieve their dream of being property owners. It took a lot of courage for George to physically shoot the gun, but in the end, he knew it was best for him and everybody else.