In Shipwreck at the bottom of the world, Jennifer Armstrong tells the story of Ernest Shackleton and his crew's expedition to the South Pole which quickly goes awry, leaving the men with no ship and only the supplies that could be carried on one's back. One particularly intriguing passage occurs shortly after Shackleton gave the order to abandon ship and after he made the decision to try and reach Paulet Island on foot. In preparation for the journey, Shackleton dropped his heavy gold cigarette case and coins on the ice and then pulled out his Bible, ripped a page from the book of Job, and dropped the remainder of the Bible to rest on the frozen sea. He read an excerpt from that page before folding it and sliding it into his pocket: "Out of whose womb came the ice? And the hoary frost of Heaven, who hath gendered it? The waters are hid as with a stone, And the face of the deep is frozen." These words are from Job 29-30 and are spoken by God. …show more content…
God is reminding Job that although he is in control of all things, he still cannot guarantee that there won't be any hardships in life.
The context that this passage comes from talks about how God is in control of all things. God is giving Job examples of the control he has over the Earth and its various inhabitants. When God uses the phrase, "…the face of the deep is frozen.", he is giving insight to his purpose in giving Job all these examples. With this phrase, God is telling Job that although he has power over everything he created, he cannot guarantee that sin will not rear its ugly head and make life difficult. In fact, God is reminding Job that sin will rear its ugly head. "The face of the deep is frozen" is God telling Job that there is much uncertainty in the world, almost like an opaque sheet of ice that covers the face of the deep. The sheet of ice obscures what lies underneath, leading to great
uncertainty. The deeper meaning to this phrase has great emotional and spiritual impact on both Job and Shackleton. Job went through many sorrows and wounds. He was "comforted" by friends who accused him of sin. He lost everything except his life, and still remained faithful to God. This passage of scripture most likely took on the meaning towards Job that sin is the source of pain on Earth, not God. God reminded him that he has control over everything, but God also reminded him that the Earth is like a mystic sea obscured by a sheet of ice for the humans living on it. For humans, there is no way to know what lies ahead. That is the nature of sin. However, for those who put their faith in God, who is unchangeable, unshakable, and incapable of sin, uncertainty is only experienced on this Earth, of which we are temporary residents. For Ernest Shackleton, who had just abandoned his ship, this passage of scripture takes on a whole new meaning. His journey is both literally and figuratively covered in a sheet of ice. The face of his coming expedition was frozen leaving much doubt as to what lies ahead. Similarly with Job, Shackleton is trying to grasp his current situation. The passage that Shackleton tore out of the book of Job must have impacted him in a very positive way. It talks about how God has power over everything, and that nothing falls outside of his reach. Sitting atop the frozen sea of Antarctica must have brought a new dimension of meaning to the quote: "…the face of the deep is frozen." for Shackleton. There were no definitive answers about the journey that lied ahead, but the one thing that this passage should have taught Shackleton is that God is in control, and that is for certain.
“The Wreck of the Sea-Venture,” written by Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker in their book Many Headed Hydra, tells the story of the shipwreck of the Sea-Venture en route to Virginia in 1669, which left the passengers of the ship stranded on Bermuda without a ship to continue the journey to Virginia. While the members of the Virginia Company made a boat to continue the journey, the remaining passengers of the Sea-Venture had to cooperate with one another in order to survive. The authors’ thesis in this document is the shipwreck of the Sea-Venture and the actions taken by the sailors portray the themes of early Atlantic settlement. For example, the sailing of the Sea-Venture was caused by expropriation. The Virginia Company advertised the New
“The Boat”, narrated by a Mid-western university professor, Alistar MacLeod, is a short story concerning a family and their different perspectives on freedom vs. tradition. The mother pushes the son to embrace more of a traditional lifestyle by taking over the fathers fishing business, while on the other hand the father pushes the son to live more autonomously in an unconstrained manner. “The Boat” focuses on the father and how his personality influences the son’s choice on how to live and how to make decisions that will ultimately affect his life. In Alistair MacLeod’s, “The Boat”, MacLeod suggest that although dreams and desires give people purpose, the nobility of accepting a life of discontentment out weighs the selfishness of following ones own true desires. In the story, the father is obligated to provide for his family as well as to continue the fishing tradition that was inherited from his own father. The mother emphasizes the boat and it’s significance when she consistently asked the father “ How did things go in the boat today” since tradition was paramount to the mother. H...
There are mysteries which man can only guess at, which may only ever truly be solved in part; the SS Edmund Fitzgerald’s sinking is one of them. At the time it was launched in 1958, the 729-foot long, 75-foot wide freighter was the largest ship to ply the Great Lakes. Although, on November 9, 1975 the ship embarked upon what would become its final voyage. She was carrying 26,000 tons of iron ore pellets and bound for Detroit, and though the day was bright, in her path laid great turbulence. On November 10, at 1:00am, the first signs of trouble appeared, and prevailed into the afternoon. As the waves built, luck was neither with the ship nor the crew. At 7:10 PM, Captain McSorley delivered what was to be his final message "We are holding our own." Ten minutes later, the Fitzgerald could neither be raised by radio, nor detected on radar, and no distress signal was received. With that, the ship and crew of 29 men sank to the bottom of Lake Superior. Several expeditions have been mounted to the wreck and have been the subject of some controversy. There are many theories for how the Fitzgerald found itself hundreds of feet below the water; however none of them have been proven indefinitely. One possible cause of this disaster includes the ship crossing the Superior Shoal, with water as shallow as 22 feet. Additionally, the ship may have suffered a stress fracture and broke apart on the surface. Another possibility is that the ship succumbed to the forces of the Three Sisters, a Lake Superior phenomenon, consisting of massive waves. These current theories are merely conjectures, and since each holds the possibility of being true, it cannot yet be determined which one actually is.
...n the world. Job questions what god is really doing for him. Then god talks to job in question form about the creation of the earth. This shows that jobs is very small compared to god, so small that he cannot even being to understand some of the the things god is telling him. Chapter 38 proves to job that humans are far below the power of god then in chapter 42 job quickly shames himself for the previous things he said.
...sterton, G. K.. "Introduction to The Book of Job." The Hebrew Bible In Literary Criticism. Ed. and Comp. Alex Preminger and Edward L. Greenstein. New York: Ungar, 1986. 449-50.
“The Raft of the Medusa”, by Theodore Gericault, 1819, was inspired by the catastrophic wreck of the French frigate, The Medusa, on July 2, 1816, off the west coast of Africa, during a voyage to Senagal. The ship ran aground on the Arguin Reef, in calm seas. In an attempt to preserve the lives of 400 passengers aboard, the crew, soldiers, sailors and passengers built a raft, manned the lifeboats and the raft, and abandoned the Medusa. What followed was a most harrowing experience that would challenge the soul and condemn the government of a world power.
In the poem “A Man Adrift on a Slim Spar”, the phrase “God is cold” (Crane) is repeated constantly throughout. This phrase is only written in this poem, but it is apparent in the telling of the other poems, that “God is cold”, and that it’s expected for that point to come across to the reader. And if they hadn’t read “A Man Adrift on a Slim Spar”, they would of found, most likely, through the other poems that it is implied that “God is
mastery of no mere mortal. As such, they capture the image of a person's heart being
Job was a man of the purest faith. When the world shunned God, Job's faith never declined. Job was a wealthy, handsome man with a beautiful wife and a vast amount of property. At some point in time, Satan made a bet with God that if Job situation was changed, his faith would quickly falter. On this note, God took Job's wealth, his property, his family, and his wife. When times were at their worst, God gave Job pus welts on Job's face, taking his looks. Job's faith, however, did not falter, instead it becamestronger. Job passed the test. God then healed Job, gave him more land, greater wealth , and a better wife. Job was baffled, he wondered the purpose behind his fall and rise. When he asked God this, God replied: "...Because I'm God." That was answer enough.
Think back to your childhood; a time where everything and anything was possible. Magic and imagination was something that was used everyday in your life. Now think about where you are in your life right now. There is no longer any magic or mystery. Neil Gaiman and Antoine De Saint-Exupry write two different novels that include multitudes of fantasy. But in the midst of all of the fantasy is the fact that children and adults think differently. Both of these novels explore the idea that children think positively while adults grow out of that stage, developing a pessimistic way of thinking from what they experience in life.
As a "misty" rain settles on the waters, all the waves have the intent to pound the earth with destructive forces, and it seems as though Frost personifies these waves. For example, the waves "thought of doing something to the shore / That water never did to land before." Is Frost portraying God as in control of t...
Throughout the Bible many servants’ faith are tested, one of them being Job. Job can be used as an example for everyone, he was a good person, Job had everything taken from him and never lost his faith in God. Thus, the lesson from Job is that bad things do come about, but those bad things should not mold shape someone’s personality for the worst and deter them away from something they believe in. But instead, it should be something to push them even harder and make them want to be a better person and remain loyal to the one who has given them everything, just as he did.
Within the context of film industry, the film Titanic by James Cameron belongs to epic romance/ disaster genre. The film, released in 1997, was a global box office hit because the director provided equal importance to history, fiction and romance. To be specific, one can see that the film’s plot is based upon the history of RMS Titanic. On the other side, the main characters including the protagonist and the heroine (Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater/Dawson) are fictional characters. Besides, the element of romance between the main characters (Jack and Rose) is the film’s main attraction. Thesis statement: The critical analysis of the film Titanic proves that the innovative mode of storytelling (flash back and other techniques), Acting, Cinematography, Editing, Sound, Style and Directing (equal importance to fictional and historical characters), Societal Impact, and Genre (epic romance/disaster) are the most important factors behind the film’s success as a historical/fictional masterpiece (special references specific shots, scenes, characters, stylistic devices and/or themes).
Fear has taken a hold of every man aboard this ship, as it should; our luck is as far gone as the winds that led us off course. For nights and days gusts beyond measure have forced us south, yet our vessel beauty, Le Serpent, stays afloat. The souls aboard her, lay at the mercy of this ruthless sea. Chaotic weather has turned the crew from noble seamen searching for glory and riches, to whimpering children. To stay sane I keep the holy trinity close to my heart and the lady on my mind. Desperation comes and goes from the men’s eyes, while the black, blistering clouds fasten above us, as endless as the ocean itself. The sea rocks our wood hull back and forth but has yet to flip her. The rocking forces our bodies to cling to any sturdy or available hinge, nook or rope, anything a man can grasp with a sea soaked hand. The impacts make every step a danger. We all have taken on a ghoulish complexion; the absence of sunlight led the weak souls aboard to fight sleep until sick. Some of us pray for the sun to rise but thunder constantly deafens our cries as it crackles above the mast. We have been out to sea for fifty-five days and we have been in this forsaken storm for the last seventeen.
In a beautifully descriptive poem titled “Diving into the Wreck”, author Adrienne Rich seems to be depicting a quest the narrator is on, to delve deep into the sea and explore a wreckage beneath the waves. The poem focuses more so on the preparation and process of the dive rather than of the search of the wreckage itself, which plays an interesting factor in the poem. But, as the narrator dives into the water, the reader is taken into a deeper journey along with them. Diving under the surface of the poem, and looking further into the meaning, there is a central theme of women who have been oppressed for hundreds of years struggling for their rights in a society that is mainly dominated by males. The poem is much more than just an adventurous