Sunday, November 24, 2019

The Great Flood - Gilgamesh vs. The Hebrew Scriptures essays

The Great Flood - Gilgamesh vs. The Hebrew Scriptures essays Upon reading The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Old Testament: Hebrew Views on God and History we find embedded into each of the texts a story of the great flood. In analyzing the two pieces we see that the stories are very similar. This is very interesting since they were written within several hundred years of each other. The similarities and the differences within the stories shed light on what types of belief systems the ancient Mesopotamian civilizations had as well as giving us an idea of what might have been important to the people. As we look at the two texts, the storyline of both texts is based on the same historically significant event. In each of these stories these aspects are the same. The first is that each man in the stories was contacted by his God/Gods and told that they were angry at mankind. Because of their anger the gods decided that they were going to send a flood to destroy them. These gods, taking pity upon specific men, gave Utnapishtim and Noah instructions to build large boats in which they were to save their families and a male and female of every thing living. Each man obeyed the words of his god, built the boat, covered it in pitch to protect it from the water, filled it with the supplies, and an instance of every living thing. The story goes onto give an account of a terrible storm with torrential rain; which created such a flood that man, plant, and animal kind were destroyed. When the rains had stopped and the sun returned, both boats settled on an underwater mountain top. Utnapishtim and Noah both sent out a series of three birds to help them to know when the waters had receded enough for them to leave the boat. Upon leaving the boat both men offered sacrifices to his god for allowing them to survive. As a reward for their obedience both men were blessed. Although the stories are very similar there are many differences within the story which set each group of peoples apa ...

Thursday, November 21, 2019

The Life and Story of Joan Baez Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Life and Story of Joan Baez - Essay Example Born in 1941 in the New York suburbs, Baez had quite a normal childhood (Baez 19), although due to the Mexican background she did face the discrimination and slurring at times based on racial differences. Yet she never responded in any negative way and worked on developing tolerance trying to live purposeful life. Her father was a physicist and was associated with United Nations agency on different fronts. The traces of singing and music started showing up in her teen days. Guitar was her best friend since the early times, and those early days can be traced back to performances at local clubs which set the foundations for bright prosperous future as a world-famous singer in times to come ahead. â€Å"Honey Love† (Retuya, n.p.) was one of the early performances of her school times. This was the first of many good performances that would follow up and eventually make her a standard hit singer in times to come. Her discography is quite rich and has never been interrupted for too long since 1960s going on with paced intervals. The 60s decade saw turbulent times on the United States of America political scene. With Vietnam War, Missile Crisis, Korean War, and endless internal and external unrest that had a direct effect on human rights, made an impact on her mind and, hence, made her think of using her strength in her field to convey ideas she was passionate about. Her songs’ contents soon took a turn for social events. The next few years saw a thick diversion to the anti-war movement, social rights, justice and equality. All this was conveyed through the strongest tool she possessed – her music. Her forte also stretched to the rights of women in mainstream as she advocated their equal participation and protested against exploitation in any way. At times she had to go through the challenges; a glimpse of it was seen when she was arrested for violating the law and refusing to pay the taxes in response to the Vietnam War, since she saw it as serio us violation of human rights by the United States on a global scale. Her autobiography that was released in the end of 60s shed light on her struggle, her critical and humane eye for the human sufferings and the imperialist pursuits of the government of her country and other superpowers worldwide. The autobiography was entitled â€Å"Day Break† and was the diary of a strong woman who dreamed of justice for everyone in spite of race, gender and nationality. To her best ability and input she established an Amnesty International branch in part of the country where she could manage and develop it. The efforts were not just limited to staying at one place and promoting the purpose of the foundation. She travelled far and wide and through her music and philanthropic pursuit spread the word and successfully conveyed the message of peace and harmony. Even in the 70s her music depicted the message of peace loud and clear. â€Å"Diamond and Rust†, one of her best known songs tha t was released in 1975, had the same tone and purpose to it.