Roderick Thomas

December 5, 2013
English 2111 Final Exam

In the story The Epic Of Gilgamesh the character Enkidu “gains and looses “ in his transformation as a human. He is created by the by the god of agriculture named Ninurta. He started off as animal like man. He shared characteristics of animals. He was described as “Shaggy with hair his whole body”(p102). His life starts off simple and he does not have any interactions with human beings. He is actually not even on the level of a baby. As a baby I had way more social interactions and social development then Enkidu. Enkidu comes off as soul less person, like animals. He is not aware of what the world holds and is subject to his own small surroundings with his animal counterparts. When he takes on his human characteristics and befriends Gilgamesh he is introduced to a whole new world. He is introduced to a completely different environment when he comes to Uruk. His human side comes in to play when he sees how Gilgamesh is treating the people. Enkidu and Gilgamesh became good friends and partners in adventures. He gains a great lot of experiences and a kind of love from Gilgamesh. Through his adventures with Gilgamesh he ends up loosing his life and right before he dies he wishes that he had stayed in his animal world and not join the world of man. Enkidu gets sick and tells Shamash that he wishes the hunter never met him, “…he cursed the hunter to his heart’s content” (p129). He ends up gaining a great friend and looses his life, through the friendship. Achilles comes off as a tragic hero. He comes off as a selfish warrior who does not care for his people. He is all for himself. He can be seen as heroic for his frightening skills and his part-god abilities. In the lliad Achilles, does not improve over time. He acts on his own rage and personal feelings. You can feel sorrow for Achilles, for the death of his close friend Patroclus. When Achilles drags Hector’s body around his a horrible thing to do. The Gods even think that it is harsh and disrespectful, that they step in a make the damage to the dragging body less severe. When Priam comes and sneaks into Achilles tent and begs for his son’s body, Achilles shows some kind of compassion. His actions finally leads to his death which makes him un changed he has been the same , he has had his positive and negative moments I can see why Jocasta would be in disbelief of the gods and prophecies. When Laios was told that his son would kill him he ended up leaving the child on a mountain to die. When Jokasta tells Oedipus that no one man has ever “mastered prophecy” gives a glimpse into why she might not believe in the vision. It is ironic that the story has the part where they try to stop the prophecy from happening and then it ends up becoming true. Oedipus is her son and her husband. Something that she doubted ends up being the truth.

Aeneas is duty bound, al of his action are completely for the start of the Roman Empire. Some of Aeneas choices could be judged negatively. He leaves his wife to die in Troy while he flees. He puts all of his personal wishes and desires aside to do what he is told by Hector. “ I am Aeneas, duty bound” (p 675). He chooses to leave Catharage where he has got a new wife to continue what he was told to do by Hector. Aeneas displays the value of Romans. I can see why people would feel indifferent about him considering he had to leave his way of life on two different occasions to basically go start a new country.

In Madea, Euripedes shows how imperfect people can be and how cruelty can be justified for a broken heart. He shows the ugly sides of people that is definitely shown to this very day. You would never think someone would kill their own kids just because they are heartbroken. You would not think that a mother would kill her own kids and feel justified for doing it. Madea feels that the ultimate punishment to Jason would be to kill their kids. Madea was emotionally crushed when she found out that there was another woman in Jason’s life. Showing this terrible side of people makes the story even better. The story showed no characters that would be considered “good guy” or “good woman”. Medea did the horrible deed and got away with it. Sophocles shows in Oedipus The King that people are shown, as they ought to be. Oedipus ends up killing his father and marrying his mother. Oedipus comes off a as heroic man seeking to find the murderer of the king, but comes to realize that he is the person that has killed the king. The king was his biological father He makes a lot of mistakes in his life and the story shows that you can learn from your mistakes and try to make retribution for your mistakes.

The Odyssey, in my opinion is a love story, an epic love story. The story took over ten years to happen. Odysseus goes off and fights the war, manages to have a love affair or well at least not be all the faithful to his wife Penelope. She manages to keep the city of Ithaca in tact to the best of her abilities while he is away for all that time. She is told that by Odysseus that if he does not return in a certain amount of time that she should take on a new husband. The story might not be the typical love story of a man and woman, but I feel that it is a love story for the love of family and one’s home. Odysseus loves Penelope and Telemachus, his son. Odysseus fights the suitors to regain his country and to have his family back together.