Author Archives: wlam

King Lear is one of the greatest written tragedies. Both the most vile and virtuous characters in the play die. Does the play seem to suggest that justice will ultimately triumph or is justice only an optimistic concept in a world filled with despair?

            Niccolo Machiavelli’s letter from his book The Prince resembles a New York Times article about Republican stance on making the economy better. Both the book and the article stress the importance of appearance. In Niccolo Machiavelli’s book The Prince, Niccolo presents his perspective on how to gain and/or maintain power. In his perspective, Niccolo stresses the importance of maintaining a good public appearance. Niccolo mentions how maintaining a good public appearance does not require a person to have any substance in his quote “it is not necessary, then for a prince to have of the qualities mentioned above, but it is certainly necessary that he appear to have them.” (C, 237)

(double indent function) everyone sees what you appear to be, few touch what you are; and those few do not dare oppose the opinions of the many who have the majesty of the state defending them; and with regard to the actions of all men, and especially with princes where there is no court of appeal, we must look at the final result (C, 237)

In this quote by Machiavelli, he explains how important appearance is because majority of the people only see and judge solely on appearance. As a result, this majority will make the minority who actually knows whether or not a person has substance seem unnoticeable.

            The New York Times article relates to Machiavelli because Republicans have successfully created an image of being more capable of dealing with the economy. However, the main idea of the article is that Republicans have currently done little to fix economy. The article states how a policy document provided by the House Republicans called “Pledge to America” was criticized for providing little direction on how to deal with the economy due to its vagueness. In a statement by Phillip L. Swagel, an assistant Treasury secretary policy during President Bush’s presidency, he says “even if the next two years do not result in legislative compromises on taxes or entitlement reform or other issues, we will see a vigorous and open debate in Congress about economic policy – a huge change from the Obama administration’s closed-minded and self-righteous approach” (B3) shows strong relation to Machiavelli because Phillip L. Swagel clearly states it only matters that Republicans appear to be doing something rather than actually accomplishing a task. On the other hand, The Prince and the article are different because Machiavelli explains the importance of creating a good appearance for an individual or group, but the quote by Phillip L. Swagel in the article goes further by showing how damaging the appearance of the opposition can also be important.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/business/economy/01economists.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Economic%20Policy&st=cse

1) How does Genesis and the Odyssey show that incurring the wrath of Gods is dangerous?

2) How is the power of a higher deity in the Book of Job and Gilgamesh different? How is it similar?

3) In The Epic of Gilgamesh and the Genesis, how is the theme of doubles prevalent?

An article in the New York Time called “Germany, Unscathed, Remains a Hub of Terrorism Scare” shows a resemblance to the Odyssey. In the article, Germany is basically showing how great of a nation it is and downplaying the negative things in the country. For example, the article states “This wealthy port city advertises its bustling canals and bridges and its towering 19^th century churches to draw visitors from around the world. It is less interested in drawing more attention to Al Quds Mosque, where the Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta prayed and which has become a destination for jihadi tourism.” Germany makes it seem as if the area is a great place to reside, however, they downplay the potential danger the area has. In the Odyssey a similar situation occurs, when Odysseus is leading a group of crew members and they are placed in a difficult situation. Odysseus leads them towards Scylla a six-headed monster instead of Charybdis, a giant whirlpool and is shown when Odysseus shouts

‘You helmsman, here’s your order- burn it in your mind- the steering oar of our             rolling ship is in your hands. Keep her clear of that smoke and surging breakers,             head for those crags or she’ll catch you off guard, she’ll yaw over there- you’ll                 plunge us all in ruin!’ So [He] shout[s].” (A, 405-406)

Odysseus order shows how he downplays the path towards Scylla by not mentioning how dangerous Scylla is and only mentions how dangerous Charydbis is. The article and the Odyssey show how in both scenario, leaders deceive the ones they lead because the leaders believe it would cause more harm. The leader in the article would be Germany leading its citizens and the leader in the Odyssey is Odysseus leading his crew members.

Slackman, Michael. “Germany, Unscathed, Remains a Hub of the Terrorism Scare.” New York Times. 13 Oct 2010.

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The Book of Job strongly relates to a recent New York Times article called “Suicides Put Light on Pressures of Gay Teenagers” where the protagonists are in a dilemma. As a result, the protagonists Job and Seth Walsh are both suffering. In addition, both of them are the characters or persons being attacked by an attacker who is the opposing force. Job is being attacked by God who places several obstacles before Job by basically cursing his fortune he has. Job is cursed in several ways, for example, “the fire of god fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them” (126) in which the fire god annihilated Job’s sheep and servants as a result of God’s curse. In the New York Times article, Seth Walsh is being abused for being gay, “Seth went into the backyard of his home in the desert town of Tehachapi, Calif., and hanged himself, apparently unable to bear a relentless barrage of taunting, bullying and other abuses at the hands of his peers.” They are both in a sense, helpless because Job is a mortal, and Seth Walsh is only part of a small community.

Although there are similarities between Job’s story and the New York Times article, there are also differences. In Job’s case God’s curse on Job can not be comprehended by mortals. In Seth Walsh case, he was abused because the teens wanted to taunt and bully him out of pure enjoyment. Secondly, the end result of both stories is different because although Job and Seth Walsh cursed their lives, Job did not commit suicide, but Seth did. Lastly, Job was actually rewarded by God after the trials he faced, but Seth doesn’t seem be even remotely rewarded.

McKinley, Jesse. “Suicides Put Light on Pressures of Gay Teenagers.” New York Times 4 Oct. 2010, New York ed.: A9. Print.

The readings of the “Epic of Gilgamesh” and “Genesis” both present a common theme of human lives under the control of a higher being. In the “Epic of Gilgamesh”, one of the gods, Enlil almost annihilated the entire human population. In the “Genesis”, God also almost annihilated the entire human population. Although both stories present the common theme of a higher being controlling the lives of human, there are differences. One difference between the “Epic of Gilgamesh” and the “Genesis” is the reason of the annihilation. Enlil decided to destroy humankind at his whim because “The gods may come to the incense offering, but Enlil may not come to the incense offering, because without considering he brought about the Flood and consigned my people to annihilation (A, 94). God in the “Genesis” desired to destroy humankind entirely because God wanted to punish humans for being evil and regretted creating humans. “And the LORD saw that the evil of human creature was great on the earth and that every scheme of his heart’s devising was only perpetually evil…. ‘I will wipe out the human race I created from the face of the earth, from human to cattle to crawling thing to the fowl of the heavens, for I regret that I have made them’” (A, 34). Another difference between the two stories is that in the “Epic of Gilgamesh”, there are several gods who conflict with each other and even among the gods; there are gods that are superior while in the “Genesis”, there is only one all-powerful God who is undisputed.