Saturday, January 23, 2016
The Literary Significance of the Bible
At this point, we've read many of the most well-known stories from Genesis. After spending these weeks discussing the ways in which Genesis is different from many other pieces of literature that you've encountered before, now I would like you to consider in what ways Genesis may be an important example of literature for us to study. After discussing the various themes, the difference between flat and round characters, and the many other elements we've discussed, what do you think is the purpose and value of studying Genesis in an English class? For whatever reasons you offer, please provide some illustrative examples of those reasons from the text. You do not need to quote specific lines--though you are welcome to--but you should refer to particular stories.
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Genesis is no doubt another fantastic selection by the English Department for freshmen class. For me, first of all, studying Genesis allows me to understand the great history background of the Hebrews, as much as I am able to understand the Greek culture and traditions through the Odyssey. For example, referring back to the story of Cain and Abel, God's choice of Abel's offerings over Cain's implies the Hebrew's lifestyle preference of a mobile shepherd to a stationary farmer. The same favorite goes to Jacob, a shepherd who triumphs over his brother Esau who was, interestingly, described as an image of a wild animal, is tamed and controlled by the shepherd. In addition, the sacrifices as well as gifts used by the characters throughout Genesis are cattle. Abrahams's family continuous movement to different places illustrates the migration life of the Hebrews in the past. Some of their believes are indicated in Genesis such as the acceptance of incestuous marriage and heredity monarchy within families. Secondly, another major historical context mentioned in Genesis is the existence of the Egyptian empire. This suggests that Genesis is written during the time of 3500BC-1000BC. Through Genesis, we gain knowledge about the Egyptian's traditional practice such as farming (planting corns in Joseph story), trading currency as valuable metal (Joseph brothers trade silver pieces for coin), organizing in bureaucratic system of Pharaohs, Officers, Merchants, Farmers and Slaves (Joseph's story). Finally, probably the most important, the influence of God. God appears in the Bible as a supernatural power with ultimate wisdom over humanities (which he makes sure it stays that way) and possesses an impact in every life's decision. God creation stories explain an unique theory about lots of things from woman's pregnancy to the beginning of the universe. And God's intervention becomes the core reason for every lucky or misfortunate events in our lives. In comparison to Noah, Abraham, Jacob and Joseph whose God's favorite, it arises a feeling that our lives are laid out by God, too. God overlooks our lives and makes amendments along the way to put us back on the right track of destiny that he has chosen. Thanks to Genesis that we were able to caught on this sense of dependence, obedience to God that occurs in different religions. People thank God for his blessing of good things in their life. And even if things didn't turn out as wanted, they still turn to God for guidance and reassurance, then thank him for their existence because they believe that God approves their birth into the world for a reason (like how Isaac and Joseph were born from God's action of "opening Rachel and Sarah womb"). To understand others religious belief and God's impaction in real life and followers' mind, reading Genesis is definitely an important start.
ReplyDeleteGenesis is important to read even in a secular context because it has so heavily influenced human society, literature, and more. For example, Eve’s punishment for eating from the Tree of Knowledge has carried over into reality and has been a major basis for sexism against women in the past and in some parts of the world and very religious sects today. However, anything that influences society will influence literature as well, which is why it’s important to read Genesis in an English class. The Bible, being an incredibly old and widely recognized work, has impacted the work of many authors and storytellers that have followed it. Often, when we discuss some of the stories in Genesis, we find ourselves making connections between them and the Odyssey, which is a very important piece of literature, in terms of impact to human culture, in itself. We can observe God’s absolute leadership and control and how it seems similar to the way Odysseus would direct his ships and his kingdom throughout his literary journey. Finally, there aren’t a lot of books set up in the same way as Genesis, where we see one “round” character (God) and many other “flat” characters who only exist in the story to teach a single lesson and have very little character and/or character development. Reading stories from Genesis helps us gain exposure to different setups in literature, and informs us on the pros and cons of using them in our own writing.
ReplyDeleteI think that Genesis was an important selection for us to read because it has influenced society today so heavily. The majority of societal ideals and concepts today stem from the existence of the bible. I think that the primary stories in Genesis are so important for us to read because one could honestly find a connection to any of the main stories to everyday life. I noticed that throughout the stories we read, there was never a female role model or protagonist. Throughout almost all of the stories, the only purpose of the women was to have babies. I also noticed that it was a major theme for the women to not even be able to do that. God almost always had to help the women have babies and “blessed them” by doing so, as if they were nothing without an “open womb.” (I realize that they probably were in those times.) The women were also never portrayed as smart as the men were. Like Sarah mentioned in the Adam and Eve story, Eve was the one who was blamed for eating from the Tree of Good and Evil, yet Adam was a perpetrator as well. Of course neither of them knew what was right or wrong, but the story established a theme of the man thinking more quickly and being more cunning than the woman. Also, in how Eve didn’t even have a name for the majority of her story was a definite call that the man is more important than the woman. I can easily relate her namelessness back to cat-calling, name calling, and degrading comments that are hurled daily at women and girls today, as if they aren’t worth their name. I think that culture certainly may have began with its appearance in Genesis. There are obviously many reasons why reading the bible is important, including the literary beauty of it in how the stories are told and the writing techniques used and the historical context that brings meaning to how and when the bible is read. But, I really do think that the relevance of Genesis perpetuates throughout history and has meaning today too, especially in how women are seen.
ReplyDeleteThe Genesis unlike the other literatures we have studied so far, does not focus on a particular character other than God. All the other characters in the Genesis are known as flat characters, whom doesn’t change much throughout the story. These characters are only mentioned in a few chapters of the Genesis and the story goes on introducing new characters. The Genesis has influenced the world we live in many ways. In the story of Noah and the flood in the Genesis, Noah’s son, Ham, saw him naked, so Noah cursed Ham and his descendants to be servants/slaves. Before 1865, slavery is globally practiced, and is seen as normal. People back in the 19th century may not have seen slavery as wrong because the bible explicitly shows that Noah, one of God’s chosen people, cursed his son to serve a life of slavery. Even this force of good, has seen that slavery is a suitable punishment. This serves as biblical evidence that slavery was a norm. Even though slavery has ended, the divide in social class still exists today. We have to accept the truth that even people today with different social status or ‘class’ are not treated equally. Reading the Genesis helps us get a broader sense of why and how people see the world we live in today.
ReplyDelete-Pinn C.
It's important for us to read Genesis because it has an impact on society, literature, religion (duh), character, and more. In the main stories of Genesis that we read, men were the heroes and women were naive or insignificant compared to men. Women were perceived as naive in Genesis, for example when Eve the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. However, Society blames women for eating the fruit even though Adam was with her when she ate the fruit. The main purpose of women in Genesis is to have children. In Genesis, the main women couldn't even have children without God opening their wombs. Women have also been shown to be tricking, but not in a good way. For example when Potiphar's wife falsely accused Joseph of rape, didn't reflect well on women. Genesis also explains regular events in daily life. For example, people go to church on Sundays because that was the day of rest when God was creating the Earth. However Genesis also says that God made Woman equal to Man, which is still not true in many countries. There have been many novels written around the Garden of Eden. For example, "Paradise Lost" and the clearing in "Of Mice and Men" and "Lord of the Flies". The clearings are places were there everything one needs is given, much like the Garden of Eden. It is also a place of innocence like in "The House on Mango Street". Many characters from literature are round rather than flat, because round is just more interesting. Characters from literature are more based off characters from Exodus, in my opinion. Characters from literature like Sidney Carton (A Tale of Two Cities), Gandalf (Lord of the Rings), and Simon (Lord of the Flies) are thought of to be Christ Figures. But I'm sure that there are some characters based off of characters in Genesis somewhere. Genesis has made an impact on many things in literature, which makes sense why we read it as a piece of literature. Genesis is has influence on modern day life as well.
ReplyDeleteI think the reason that we read Genesis was more for the literary history than the religious history. Because I remember before we started reading it that Mrs. Devine said to look for key things that we use now a days in our writing that may have stemmed from the Genesis. I think the biggest example of this is the flat vs round characters sometimes known as one dimensional vs two dimensional characters. For example God being the only round character and everyone else being flat characters, which we have already discussed before. Culturally I know that Genesis is very important some more important than others. But I definitely feel that it is important to read even if you don't believe in what it says, but just so you have an understanding of it. Also as my classmates above said the creation stories. Such as the rainbow representing god’s covenant with every living thing, or God punishing Adam, Eve and the serpent being the reason why men have to work, child birth is painful and why snakes slither.
ReplyDelete- Nicola Sommers
Genesis was clearly very different from any thing I have read in an English Class this far, which makes it very important. With everything I read in Genesis I would really have to analyze, and put together and through doing that I realized how much Genesis impacts things that we read today. I think one of the most prominent examples of this is with Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve is used throughout many different kind of books. Often times things are compared to the world(garden) that Adam and Eve once lived in, which now makes a lot more sense because I actually know the story of Adam and Eve. Another huge part of Genesis that impacts more than just literature today is the ideas about power. We see that God obviously has the most power, and we also see how he handles this power. He does not like when humans seem to be getting more knowledgable and more powerful, he feels threatened and usually makes a change so that he feels less threatened. We see people handling power like this all the time in real life and in books. Often times with leaders, or strong governments who are trying to keep their power. Also we see in Genesis that the people who are loyal and follow rules usually are favored which is defiantly true in our culture today. I think that it is easy to relate to this because even for our family they tend to sometimes favor the child who at the time is listening and behaving. I think through studying Genesis we defiantly are able to take a lot because the effect the book has on our lives today whether it be through references to the bible, or just common actions or choosing a favorite child or handling money.
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree with Sarah that Genesis strongly has influenced our Culture. In my eyes the strongest example of this influence would have to be the view of women, due to Eve's actions. Since Eve "seduced" Adam into eating the fruit of knowledge, women are known as being seductresses, who can not be trusted.I also think many of the stories in Genesis influenced many plots in the future, as the themes introduced are further explored by other authors. Genesis however, is extremely different from almost all stories today, as there is only one character who is round. Today, writing is made up of the thoughts and ideas of characters, even if they are not explicitly stated.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that Genesis influences our culture today. There are still child favoritism in our culture, and we also look at women a certain way too. Like Bella said, Genesis differentiates from anything we have read so far, and really analyzing it helps us realize how much it impacts our world today. i would have to say the story of Adam and Eve is one of the more popular reoccuring scenarios throughout history. There are many stories based off of adam and eve, just with different character names. Power and control was also a big thing from Genesis that still holds true to this day. When governments and dictators see people lower than them getting power they try to put a end to it to preserve their power just like God. We see people who are obedient to God's commands tend to get favoritism from God. Families now a days always give more rights to the child that they can trust more and follows directions just like God. Genesis definitely has a big impact on our life.
ReplyDeleteReading The Bible’s Genesis in class helped me put a lot of things together on a personal level. All of the stories I had heard bits and pieces of as a kid, the plays I watched depicting scenes/stories from the bible, all of the other stories you gradually just grow up knowing parts of, reading the text that those things actually emerged from helped me to gain a fuller understanding of not only the stories themselves but also of what they meant in the context of the Bible as well as how that meaning has stayed the same/changed over time. For example, the extent to which I understood Adam and Eve’s story boiled down to humans being tempted with sin and giving in, portraying them as naturally sinful and aberrant. Whereas, after reading the chapters dedicated to Adam and Eve’s story, I realize that while some of what I knew/thought before still applies, there are other sides to the story that I hadn’t considered, details that I hadn’t accounted for. All of that added up to me attaining a fuller understanding of the stories within Genesis as well as the implications that those lessons and morals have in today’s day and age. An example of those implications being the fruit that Adam and Eve consume from the tree of knowledge, while it is never specifically stated that the fruit that they consume is an apple, the translations of this story into Latin, the word malum, which also means apple, appeared as a part of the phrase “the tree of knowledge of good and evil”, hence the imagery of the apple associated with the story. Apples throughout pop culture are referenced as inducing sin or robbing one of innocence. The perfect example of this being Disney’s classic Snow White, Snow White is an innocent girl (Eve) who lives in a forest (the garden of Eden) when an evil witch (the serpent) gets her to eat an apple (the fruit from the tree of knowledge, or after the whole Latin thing, the fruit that causes Adam and Eve’s fall from Eden) that causes her to fall into a deep sleep, or in other versions of the story, die (a reference to the loss of innocence that happens after the fruit from the tree is consumed). Reading Genesis, a collection of story’s so ingrained in our culture that we continue to echo them thousands of years after the fact, to me represented an important cultural milestone in the human race’s history, whether or not you believe in the stories it tells, its influence surrounds us.
ReplyDelete-Eilidh Dunsmore
Genesis is a very important work religiously, but it was also a great idea to think of it from a literature standpoint. It was very significant that we paid attention toward repetitive themes and the types of characters. It really opened my eyes, because before, just reading the Bible before seemed so different. It was not just that we were taking notes, but that we were having in depth conversations on how events in Genesis reflected how thing s are in real life. Many of these connections occur in the first few chapters. Of course the most obvious is God creating everything including humans and the universe. Then, after Adam and Eve sin, their punishments by God explain why women are in pain when they conceive and gave birth, why men are seen as more dominant (by some opinions), and that when you do work, you will actually have to do work (dun dun dun). Later God chooses Abel over Cain, because Cain is a farmer, while Abel is a Shepard. This represented the same people, and how the Hebrews were the shepherds and were not welcomed by farmers. When Abraham and his family and friends were circumsized it signified his connection with God, and Jewish people used to be the only group with this discrepancy, until modern day technology showed it was healthier to get circumsized. Anyway, the point is that there are many examples and as many of my classmates have said, Genesis not only impacted religion, but also modern and past literature. We have seen similar connections in the Odyssey and I've seen other example in novels I have read.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Huong that Genesis is very important in order to understand the history of early groups of people and civilizations such as the Hebrews and Egypt. In relation to this, in Genesis as well as the Bible as a whole, I think the most influential factor that it presents to us is the existence and importance of God. The presentation of God as an all-powerful deity who rules over everything in the universe and can transcend the powers of nature, as well as the rapid spread of this idea throughout the world, was a major factor in the development of many major civilizations and schools of thought. At a literary standpoint, the way that the authors of the Bible wrote as they revered and probably feared God in some ways gives us insight of this influence transformed into writing. As Sarah mentioned, impacts that are made on society also heavily affect that society’s culture, which leads to an effect on that society’s literature. Therefore, it is important to understand the Bible as it is an ancient text that has influenced many historical works that came after it. Also, the stories within the Bible give us some more ideas about the common themes in ancient literature, like The Odyssey did. For example, the idea that the person in charge will always come around to punish those under him/her who disobey that person is a recurring theme in the Bible. There are many instances where God punishes a few individuals or the human race itself, such as when he banished Adam and Eve from Eden, flooded the earth in order to purge all of the evil people from the world, or sent a plague to Egypt because the Pharaoh desired Abraham’s wife, Sarah, for himself. There are humans who punish those under him/her in the Bible as well; in the story of Jacob, the Pharaoh sends him to jail because the ruler was tricked by his wife to believe that his loyal servant had attempted to have sexual intercourse with her. He later sends his baker and his butler to jail as well for offending him. Even women sometimes follow this theme; as was mentioned before, the Pharaoh’s wife was the one who tricked him (leading to Jacob’s imprisonment). Also, Sarah was the one who convinced Abraham to throw Hagar and Ishmael out of the family. Ultimately, the purpose of reading Genesis is to understand how the ancient text has influenced modern culture, society, and literature through the key ideas that it presents.
ReplyDeleteGenesis was a vastly different text compared to any other one I have ever read. As I soon realized, reading and comprehending Genesis wasn’t going to be easy. Analyzing and putting together what was in a matter of two pages was surprisingly more difficult than the expected. Something I realized, was how many concepts of the bible have influenced a lot of contemporary notions in society. In many of the stories, women weren’t very significant and if anything they were just there to give birth to multiple children. Ironically, most of the time the women in these stories were not able to (at first) have children. In these cases, God had to assist them in being able to have children by “blessing” them. In addition, I also noticed that women weren’t really shown as intellectually capable as the men. For instance, in the Adam and Eve story, Eve was blamed for telling Adam to eat from the Tree. Neither of them were aware of what was good and bad. I think that something as simple as Eve not having a proper name in the beginning depicts, how Eve was dependent on man and in a sense would have to prove herself worthy of a name. This is a correlation to modern issues of sexism and thing as simple as cat-calling or misnaming a woman for her decisions, whether good or bad. I think that the bible in general showcases an array of themes that are still relevant to today’s issues and is a text that many will find beauty in. I definitely think the Bible has impacted today’s world whether good or bad and has allowed for themes to carry through history.
ReplyDelete