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
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
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.
Lennie dreams of living on a wide open ranch with George where he tends to the fluffy little rabbits he loves so much. Nevertheless, Lennie sadly never reaches his ultimate goal as his flaw finally becomes his fatal flaw. Lennie kills Curley 's wife by shaking her so hard that her neck breaks. He does not kill her on purpose but Lennie does not know his own strength. He is only shaking her like that because he wants her to stop yelling. Curley 's wife observes that Lennie is "jus ' like a big baby" (Steinbeck 99) and invites him to stroke her soft hair. Lennie begins to feel her hair and likes it very much indeed, which leads him to pet it too hard. When she started to complain, he panicked and started to try to silence her. He was afraid that George would not let him be part of the dream anymore if Curley 's wife got mad at what he did. So he 's shaking her to try to protect his part in the dream but he kills her and the dream too. Lennie observes that he has "done a bad thing" (Steinbeck 100) and covers her body with hay. Lennie is hiding in the brush where George had told him to hide when he got into trouble. George finally emerges to get Lennie while he is an emotional mess. He then tells Lennie to take off his hat as he continues to recount "how it will be" (Steinbeck 104) for them. He orders Lennie to kneel and pulls out Carlson 's Luger. As the voices of the other men in the search party near their location, George tells Lennie one more time "about the rabbits,"(Steinbeck 106) tells Lennie that they 're going to get the farm right away, and shoots his companion in the back of the
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.
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.
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.
Curley’s wife represents her broken dreams of becoming an actress. Lennie and George represent a dream in progress, it is uncertain if their plans will work out as intended or plummet before takeoff, even Crooks and Candy see the appeal in Lennie and George’s fantasy and join them. The dream in progress gives hope to Lennie and George and continued to even after losing previous jobs. Curley’s wife is constantly restricted, she married Curley so that she would no longer be alone but now is in the same state as before, just on a ranch of men. She tries to talk to the other men but she is then seen as "jail bait" and avoided, making her even lonelier. Her dream of being an actress has failed because she chose a quick way out and married Curley. She is now living in her failure and has no longer a dream to aim for. Perhaps the most important part of the story is the the part in which Lennie has accidentally killed the puppy given to him by Slim, and is grieving over him in the barn, “This ain’t no bad thing like I got to go hide in the brush. Oh! no. This ain’t. I’ll tell George I foun’ it dead.” He unburied the puppy and inspected it, and he stroked it from ears to tail. He went on sorrowfully, “But he’ll know. George always knows. He’ll say, ‘You done it. Don’t try to put nothing over on me.’ An’ he’ll say, ‘Now jus’ for that you don’t get to tend no rabbits!” (Steinbeck, 85) He feels powerless to his own strength, he believes that he will never achieve his dream because of his mistake. George and the other men are out once again and the only person who comes to his emotional aid is none other than Curley’s wife. “Don’t you worry about talkin’ to me. Listen to the guys yell out there. They got four dollars bet in that tenement. None of them ain’t gonna leave till it’s over.” “If George sees me talkin’ to you he’ll give me hell,” Lennie said cautiously.” (Steinbeck, 85) He
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
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
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.
Enkidu and Gilgamesh were the main characters in the Epic of Gilgamesh. In the city of Uruk, King Gilgamesh was a merciless ruler, a strong man, and had long, beautiful hair. Under Gilgamesh’s rule, the people asked the gods to generate their tyrannical king’s competitor. To cease Gilgamesh from dominating people, Enkidu was developed. Enkidu was a hairy-bodied man raised by animals. He was prepared to accept the challenge. The two men were almost iden-tical in their courage and physical abilities. Gilgamesh had a vision ...
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
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.