The Golden Goblet Analysis

“The Golden Goblet” is a tale about a little boy named Ranofer who has been dreaming about becoming a goldsmith, but these dreams are crushed because of his vile half brother Gebu. Ranofer is an orphaned 12-year old boy whose mother died when he was born. Gebu runs a goldsmith shop than Ranofer is forced to work at because if he didn’t then he would be living on the streets. One day in the goldsmith shop the tailies did not add up, when Ranofer tries to find out why, Ranofer figures out that Ibni ( the Babylonian porter ) has been stealing gold and taking it to Gebu through transportation of wine skins. This leads to Ranofer searching Gebus house for the stolen gold, but Ranofer does not find stolen gold, Ranofer finds a chest, and inside

This event is the most meaningful part to the story because if Ranofer never found the goblet he would have never known that Gebu had been robbing pharaohs tombs. This is critical information because if Ranofer did not outsmart Gebu, Ranofer would had never of told his friend Haqet, Haqet has an idea to tell the master goldsmith(Zau). When Heqet and Ranofer get a chance to meet Zau they tell him about the robberies and since Heqet started working for Zau they agreed to meeting in the thicket after Ranofer was done at the stone cutting shop (midday) and they would exchange food and water while spying on Gebu and Wenomon (Gebu’s “partner in crime”) to “see what they’re up to”. The text explicitly states “I will keep my ears open. I will grow ears like that donkey yonder. If word comes of thievery in anyone’s shop, I will know which

I caught only a few words one was ‘never’- that was your stonecutter-another was ‘dangerous’, or ‘danger’. It was Setma saying that. Then Gebu said, ‘a third part, no more, no more!’ There was more hissing and snarling, and a few fine names they called each other, but I heard nothing more of interest until Gebu swung away and walked past the edge of the marsh so close to me I could have touched him. ‘You’re finished,’ he was saying. ‘There are other captives on the river.’ I stood quiet as an image, and he went by me and away toward the docks. When I looked again Setma was gone too, and good riddance to them both.”. If Ranofer had never found the goblet he would have never of thought to spy on Gebu and would of never had gotten the information to be able to catch them