datty117
Nov 22, 2010
Book Reports / Essays on Gilgamesh, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. THEME: BEING [2]
Instructions:
Use the texts either to provide an analytical approach or to provide evidence for something you want to say.
*Use an analytical framework presented in one text to analyze other texts
*Use one text to explain something in the other texts
*Use an analytical tool or contextual point from outside your texts to explain something you see in all three texts
*Explore a specific symbol or image that appears in your texts
Those are some general instructions, i've realized i didn't really follow any of them and this is one of the worse papers i have ever written. Finals are around, this class is fairly not important comparing to my other science classes so i didn't put alot of time into. So i am here to look for helps with editing and possibly ideas? The professor will allow me to resubmit the assignment for being grade after shes done grading this one.
Thanks,
Sorry for any inconvience.
The Essence of Being
Some things people are born into and other things people choose to become that is the essence of being. The process of being is growing to know, accept and loving one's self through all that the person is born into and then becomes to be something is to become that thing and that something is what makes the person unique. It is just being yourself and being shaped by the environment and people around you. In the book The Epic of Gilgamesh, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, and A Thousand Splendid Suns, the main characters are born into environments and culture which predetermine their lives but yet they all still struggle with the process of how they came into being. A person's status only constitutes a small part of whom they are; it should not define the person. It is the process of becoming, the essence of being, and the effects of the environment and others surrounding them that determines the uniqueness and true self-being each individual.
In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh is the king of Uruk who tyrannizing his kingdom and shapes his virtues and personal existence through power of being one-third human and two-third god. Citizens in Uruk would consider Gilgamesh an evil king because he has sex with virgins and usually offend the gods. He is a ruler whom everyone fears and a ruler who forces the people to respect him through his manner and nature. After the encounter with Enkidu, who is sent by heaven in order to stop Gilgamesh from terrorize kingdom Uruk, his state of being at the end of the book completely change from his arrogant beginning of the epic.
In tablet five of the book translated by Andrew George, Gilgamesh decides to changes the views of the people in Uruk and make himself a better person by slaying Humbaba of the Cedar Forest with the help of Enkidu. Gilgamesh's cruel actions in the past cannot be changed but his self-being can always be altered with great deeds that would eventually enable a drive for respect from his people. Another distinct reason, which helps Gilgamesh to change his way of being, is that he becomes soft and we see more of a human side of Gilgamesh in order to make Enkidu happy. These two love each others as much as they would love women but it is not necessarily sexual because it just a way to describe deep friendship between these two men at that point of time. What points in the book prove this theory? In tablet five, after arriving to the forest of Humbaba, they created a shelter together, and cuddle together to keep each warm and lie down and sleep together. Also, in tablet eight, Gilgamesh is crushed because of the loss of Enkidu. He mourns for days and nights and finally set out on a journey to find immortality, trying to bring Enkidu back to life so that he does not have to endures the loneliness. Gilgamesh learns to love and appreciate the existence of not only his being but also the well-being of the others especially Enkidu.
In the book Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza written by Gloria Anzaldua, she discusses the reality of her life as it is; a woman who not only is a lesbian but also a "new mestiza," which means that she inhabits multiple worlds because of her gender, sexuality, class, and spiritual beliefs. The way society has been shaped through social institutions gives evidence to the fact that men are superior to women, placing women below men. Additionally, she is not fully white therefore she is placed even lower on the hierarchy model and to make matters more difficult for her she is also a lesbian, further lowering her status. In many sense, others who are fully Mexican may believe that she has stepped up in her status ranks but in fact she feels as if she has not. She considers herself a Mexican-American who happens to live on the border of the United States and Mexico but on the United State's side.
She describes the border as a mere invisible line separating two cultures from one another through barbwire. The border divides the gringos who are the Americans from the people of the other culture unfamiliar to them. She compares the ocean to the Mexican-American border. The ocean is a natural, vast and uncontained area whereas the border is something unnatural created by humans and a separated entity from each other. She also describes the border as being one-sided to keep the Mexicans out because the Americans can easily travel back and forth but a Mexican traveling back and forth must live in fear and through this their dignity is lost. The border has also pushed the inhabitants of the country where their ancestors lived into a confinement and has given them a second-class status to their white superiors.
In order for her and people like her to survive in this type of nature they have to be able to be flexible enough to switch from English to Spanish and vice versa at a moment's notice. To show that she's able to do this she switches from the two languages in her writing. Moreover, she has understood the different ways of being and unspoken cultural codes that are relevant. She has two cultural identities and merges the two together to make one solidified identity for herself, one which is sometimes more dominate then the other depending on the context. Anzaldua writes in her book,
"To survive the borderlands, she needs to learn how to be wise enough to defend herself. Otherwise she will be an easy prey of "the mill with the razor white teeth [that] wants to shred off/your olive-red skin, crush out the kernel, your heart" (Anzaldúa 217).
She states that if the person is unable to be flexible in this situation that the consequences of not being able to do so would result in a chokehold that the person is unable to break free from.
In the book A Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam is female that lives in a society where men are dominating women. But throughout the novel, she demonstrates ones characteristics can be developed and change during ones life through powerful actions. Mariam is a strong and hardworking child who is always depending on herself and no one else because she is the bastard daughter of a rich businessman, Jalil, who distastes in her and do not acknowledges her as his daughter. And so beg taught and raise in an environment where she belongs to the one of the lowest ranks in her society, Mariam shows lack of self esteem and confidence but her self-being yet was altered by an individual, Laila, who inspires and encourages her.
Mariam does not like Laila in the beginning but one day, her views of Laila changed after Laila defended her while Rasheed was beating her up. After this instance, Mariam then care for Laila and her daughter, Aziza, as if they were one of her own. "An unguarded, knowing look. And this fleeting, wordless exchange with Mariam, Laila knew that they were not enemies any longer." (Hosseini 224). Her loves for Laila and Aziza shows the sensitive and selfless side of Mariam. She would protect them from getting beat by Rasheed and often go find food for the baby and Laila to eat. Although Mariam almost die many times trying to protect Laila and the baby, the incident that eventually sparks fire within her and show her true self-being and gather all the courage to run and grab a shovel which she used to murder her husband after Rasheed was beating Laila and shoving his gun in to Laila's mouth. She showed extreme courage because women who were living in this society at this era would be too scared to do anything to hurt a man.
Gilgamesh, Anzaldua, and Mariam were born into predestined statuses and positions but through inspirations of others they were able to stop being who they were supposed to be and became who they were meant to be. Through the process of becoming they have now found their sense of being. In essence through the process of being they have learned how to love and accept themselves in their own way and have established their being.
Instructions:
Use the texts either to provide an analytical approach or to provide evidence for something you want to say.
*Use an analytical framework presented in one text to analyze other texts
*Use one text to explain something in the other texts
*Use an analytical tool or contextual point from outside your texts to explain something you see in all three texts
*Explore a specific symbol or image that appears in your texts
Those are some general instructions, i've realized i didn't really follow any of them and this is one of the worse papers i have ever written. Finals are around, this class is fairly not important comparing to my other science classes so i didn't put alot of time into. So i am here to look for helps with editing and possibly ideas? The professor will allow me to resubmit the assignment for being grade after shes done grading this one.
Thanks,
Sorry for any inconvience.
The Essence of Being
Some things people are born into and other things people choose to become that is the essence of being. The process of being is growing to know, accept and loving one's self through all that the person is born into and then becomes to be something is to become that thing and that something is what makes the person unique. It is just being yourself and being shaped by the environment and people around you. In the book The Epic of Gilgamesh, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, and A Thousand Splendid Suns, the main characters are born into environments and culture which predetermine their lives but yet they all still struggle with the process of how they came into being. A person's status only constitutes a small part of whom they are; it should not define the person. It is the process of becoming, the essence of being, and the effects of the environment and others surrounding them that determines the uniqueness and true self-being each individual.
In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh is the king of Uruk who tyrannizing his kingdom and shapes his virtues and personal existence through power of being one-third human and two-third god. Citizens in Uruk would consider Gilgamesh an evil king because he has sex with virgins and usually offend the gods. He is a ruler whom everyone fears and a ruler who forces the people to respect him through his manner and nature. After the encounter with Enkidu, who is sent by heaven in order to stop Gilgamesh from terrorize kingdom Uruk, his state of being at the end of the book completely change from his arrogant beginning of the epic.
In tablet five of the book translated by Andrew George, Gilgamesh decides to changes the views of the people in Uruk and make himself a better person by slaying Humbaba of the Cedar Forest with the help of Enkidu. Gilgamesh's cruel actions in the past cannot be changed but his self-being can always be altered with great deeds that would eventually enable a drive for respect from his people. Another distinct reason, which helps Gilgamesh to change his way of being, is that he becomes soft and we see more of a human side of Gilgamesh in order to make Enkidu happy. These two love each others as much as they would love women but it is not necessarily sexual because it just a way to describe deep friendship between these two men at that point of time. What points in the book prove this theory? In tablet five, after arriving to the forest of Humbaba, they created a shelter together, and cuddle together to keep each warm and lie down and sleep together. Also, in tablet eight, Gilgamesh is crushed because of the loss of Enkidu. He mourns for days and nights and finally set out on a journey to find immortality, trying to bring Enkidu back to life so that he does not have to endures the loneliness. Gilgamesh learns to love and appreciate the existence of not only his being but also the well-being of the others especially Enkidu.
In the book Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza written by Gloria Anzaldua, she discusses the reality of her life as it is; a woman who not only is a lesbian but also a "new mestiza," which means that she inhabits multiple worlds because of her gender, sexuality, class, and spiritual beliefs. The way society has been shaped through social institutions gives evidence to the fact that men are superior to women, placing women below men. Additionally, she is not fully white therefore she is placed even lower on the hierarchy model and to make matters more difficult for her she is also a lesbian, further lowering her status. In many sense, others who are fully Mexican may believe that she has stepped up in her status ranks but in fact she feels as if she has not. She considers herself a Mexican-American who happens to live on the border of the United States and Mexico but on the United State's side.
She describes the border as a mere invisible line separating two cultures from one another through barbwire. The border divides the gringos who are the Americans from the people of the other culture unfamiliar to them. She compares the ocean to the Mexican-American border. The ocean is a natural, vast and uncontained area whereas the border is something unnatural created by humans and a separated entity from each other. She also describes the border as being one-sided to keep the Mexicans out because the Americans can easily travel back and forth but a Mexican traveling back and forth must live in fear and through this their dignity is lost. The border has also pushed the inhabitants of the country where their ancestors lived into a confinement and has given them a second-class status to their white superiors.
In order for her and people like her to survive in this type of nature they have to be able to be flexible enough to switch from English to Spanish and vice versa at a moment's notice. To show that she's able to do this she switches from the two languages in her writing. Moreover, she has understood the different ways of being and unspoken cultural codes that are relevant. She has two cultural identities and merges the two together to make one solidified identity for herself, one which is sometimes more dominate then the other depending on the context. Anzaldua writes in her book,
"To survive the borderlands, she needs to learn how to be wise enough to defend herself. Otherwise she will be an easy prey of "the mill with the razor white teeth [that] wants to shred off/your olive-red skin, crush out the kernel, your heart" (Anzaldúa 217).
She states that if the person is unable to be flexible in this situation that the consequences of not being able to do so would result in a chokehold that the person is unable to break free from.
In the book A Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam is female that lives in a society where men are dominating women. But throughout the novel, she demonstrates ones characteristics can be developed and change during ones life through powerful actions. Mariam is a strong and hardworking child who is always depending on herself and no one else because she is the bastard daughter of a rich businessman, Jalil, who distastes in her and do not acknowledges her as his daughter. And so beg taught and raise in an environment where she belongs to the one of the lowest ranks in her society, Mariam shows lack of self esteem and confidence but her self-being yet was altered by an individual, Laila, who inspires and encourages her.
Mariam does not like Laila in the beginning but one day, her views of Laila changed after Laila defended her while Rasheed was beating her up. After this instance, Mariam then care for Laila and her daughter, Aziza, as if they were one of her own. "An unguarded, knowing look. And this fleeting, wordless exchange with Mariam, Laila knew that they were not enemies any longer." (Hosseini 224). Her loves for Laila and Aziza shows the sensitive and selfless side of Mariam. She would protect them from getting beat by Rasheed and often go find food for the baby and Laila to eat. Although Mariam almost die many times trying to protect Laila and the baby, the incident that eventually sparks fire within her and show her true self-being and gather all the courage to run and grab a shovel which she used to murder her husband after Rasheed was beating Laila and shoving his gun in to Laila's mouth. She showed extreme courage because women who were living in this society at this era would be too scared to do anything to hurt a man.
Gilgamesh, Anzaldua, and Mariam were born into predestined statuses and positions but through inspirations of others they were able to stop being who they were supposed to be and became who they were meant to be. Through the process of becoming they have now found their sense of being. In essence through the process of being they have learned how to love and accept themselves in their own way and have established their being.
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