Author Archives: jajawoods

The New Testament; The Koran

1.  Islamic perceptions of Heaven and Hell differ from those of Christianity and Judaism by their beliefs of what they are and their beliefs of how a person gets there. In the Islamic religion, it is a process for getting to Heaven and there are certain stages that one must go through. Good deeds and bad deeds are factors in which a person goes to Heaven. Islamic people believe that it is a place for spiritual pleasure and that all their needs will be met. With Christianity and Judaism, one must believe in one God to enter Heaven and there is one Heaven that people go to. Christianity teaches that a person is redeemed a sinner to enter Heaven as well. The right to Heaven is determined by what you did in your life and how much faith you had. Here, the need for food and water and other luxuries do not exist because Heaven is a place where the physical needs don’t exist.

2.According to the New Testament in the Bible, there are four Gospels that explain the story of Jesus. Each were different but weren’t contradicting. The Nativity Scene with the manger, a barn, animals, angles, wise men, Mary and Joseph are not mentioned in this way in any of the books. There are opinions that this event was created by other writers and is considered a “wordily” depiction of the story. Therefore can be considered to have pagan origins. Pagan audiences were used to dealing with Gods. Anything from the nativity scene to the sacrifices of Gods were used in pagan’s literature.

3. In Christianity, human repentance is the most important thing. Every man is a sinner and shall admit it to God through Jesus. Jesus is the only one that can forgive with his divine mercy. The only way to Heaven is through this divine mercy or forgiveness that only Jesus can give to man. The divine human relationships that were emphasized in Gilgamesh and the Iliad were that you must do good deeds and this alone would put you in good relationships to the Gods.

Week 4

1. Medea is first portrayed as a victim of fate. She stands by her husband, Jason, when they are exiled to a foreign country, she even kills her own brother in the process. In return for her loyalty to Jason, he deserts her and their two children. He seeks to marry Glauce, the daughter of the King of Corinth, Kreon. Corinthian women sympathized with Medea and admire her and believe she is the avenger of all women, after she tells them her plan for revenge. She devises a plan to kill Jason, Glauce, and Kreon. Medea sends a poisoned dress and corset to Glauce which kills her and then kills Kreon also. Medea shows the beginning of her evilness when she wants details from the messenger on their painful death. As if this wasn’t enough, to add even more pain and suffering to Jason, Medea commits the most unspeakable, unmoral act of killing her own two children. The difference between her character and that of Achilles is that he was a hero and Medea was a hero to villain. Medea was pride driven and took her own blood’s lives for revenge int the end. Achilles was a hero in that he fought for those he loved and for the city. Achilles would never bring harm to his own family, but only harm to those who harmed him. I do no feel that Medea was a hero because in the end she let her own personal revenge lead her to killing her own children.

2. Job was virtuous, he did obey God. When satan and God discussed a plan to prove Job’s faithfulness to God, God allowed satan to cast bad events in Job’s life and Job continued to be faithful. Job’s friends told him that he had probably done something to upset God or did evil things and God was punishing him. When God spoke to Job in a whirlwind Job asked why God had let these bad things happen to him. He asked why good thing happen to bad people and why bad things happen to good people. God told Job that people should not discuss divine justice since God’s power is so great that humans cannot possibly justify his ways. Because of Job’s faithfulness to God, he didn’t need anymore explanation. God blessed him with twice as much as he had had before. He was satisfied because he knew that God gives all of his faith people what they need. I believe that the end of the dialogue is satisfactory because I have faith in the unseen so I can relate to Job’s acceptance of God’s reasoning.

The Iliad

1. Achilles and Hector were both the greatest warriors of there respective armies. Achilles for the Achaeans and Hector for the Trojans. Hector is loved by his people, he shows a sincere love for his wife and children. He makes some costly decisions in the war that costs the lives of his people but he stands up to Achilles even when the odds were against him. Achilles has deep character flaws and this effects his ability to act with nobility and integrity. Because of Achilles’ pride he turns his back on his own and prays that the trojans will defeat his fellow men. In the end they were both killed by the same person, the Ajax. A deal made by Hector and Ajax to have Achilles killed was the deal and after that was done Hector did not come up with his part of the deal so Ajax killed him too. One difference between the two was that Hector was born into a royal family and was raised to be the king of Troy. Achilles was raised to be a great warrior and was asked to be king of Greece but denied the offer. The greatest difference between them was that Achilles fought for death (personal pride) while Hector fought for peace (for his people).

2. After Achilles berserk episode, he came back to balance from Hectors father Priam. Priam wanted to give his son a funeral and to be let go of with respect. Priam begged Achilles to release him so that he could do that. Through their mutual suffering, Priam and Achilles, have a human understanding. Achilles seen how his own father would be if he was killed so that made him understand what Priam was going through, so he gave Hector’s body back.

3. The Warrior code and the Familial code are not mutually exclusive. Throughout the entire poem, it is showed over and over again that the warrior puts honor, bravery, noble, and glory over family life. It is much more noble to fight for your people than to be with your family. Both Achilles and Hector chose to fight in the war. Achilles choses to fight rather than spending time with his aging father and Hector choses to fight risking orphaning his son because he knows in the end it will bring his father glory.

Gilgamesh

1. I can  identify the stages of the Hero’s Journey in the story of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh was the first written epic, making him the first epic hero recorded. He possesses many qualities traditionally associated with epic heroes. He was born in unusual circumstances and also has supernatural power which assisted him along his journey. With this power, he became careless with it. Gilgamesh was challenged by the gods, in which he had to overcome. Some obstacles were giant scorpions, and a women that tries to lead him off the path. He is also tested by the wise flood hero.

2. I think that the four functions of mythology are present in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Throughout his journey, you can see an obvious transformation of his character. When death was around him, he went on a journey to fight and overcome death because he knew had a lot to learn. During his journey, Gilgamesh learned to appreciate life and how you can’t be so arrogant. Gilgamesh is easy to relate to because like everyone in the world, we go through struggles that we must face and overcome resulting in making us stronger. Gilgamesh changed for the better and became a stronger person overall at the end of the story even though it was a failure.

3. Although it seemed as if Gilgamesh failed at the end, i believe it can be viewed as a success too. He achieved love, brotherhood with Enkidu, wisdom, eternal glory and a legacy that exceeds all others. Gilgamesh was trying to live forever, but in the end he realized that that wasn’t possible for him. It was a journey in finding himself and who he could be. At the beginning, he thought he was above all others and that he had no equal. His love and compassion for Enkidu shows his growth as a man who learns the greatest thing in life and death the biggest unhappiness there is.

The Hero’s Journey

1. After reading about “The Hero’s Journey,” one particular movie comes to mind and that is a Disney movie of course: Finding Nemo. In this movie, Marlin is set out on a journey to find his son caused by a fight between the two. Resulting in Nemo getting taken by a couple of divers when his class goes on a field trip during the first day of school. The first challenge he faces is when he must go out in the open ocean and find his son, which Marlin is afraid of. Along the way, Marllin is faced with difficulties in which he cannot overcome without the mentors that help him. Dory, which is his first ally, helps Marlin get over the fact that he is scared. Since Dory has trouble remembering things, she must go about life by living in the moment. This enables Marlin to overcome fears that he would not of without her help. Another character that helped him along the way was Crush, a turtle that he met in the current. Marlin and Dory are shoved in the right direction in order to find his son. There were also set backs that Marlin and Dory had to get through. For example, they ran into sharks in which they thought were there friends but ended up chasing them and trying to eat them. Also, Dory tries to ask a whale for help which resulted in them getting swallowed forcing them to find a way out.

During this journey, Marlin was faced with a lot of challenges and obstacles in which he had to overcome to get to the prize which was his son. Knowing Nemo was out there somewhere, this gave him the courage to go out and search the ocean for his son. I believe that this movie follows “The Hero’s Journey.” In the end, Marlin learned that he has to let Nemo grow up on his own and know that everything will work for the better. Marlin was taught lessons during his journey, which also led him to become a better dad for Nemo which he knew was the ultimate achievement.

2. I do not  believe current cinema meets the human needs expressed in the four functions of mythology. In order to stay within these four functions, I think the movie needs to written from a piece of literature. Movies today are so caught up in what people are in interested today, which is why they get the ratings and popularity that they do. If a movie were to go off of mythology, it would have to stray so far away from the original story because people just aren’t that interested in it and that is why it is not going to do well. This is also why you see so many reoccurring themes in all the movies. They are too focused on giving the people what they want (like sex, drugs, horror, etc in order to make money) instead of writing movies about the human needs of belonging to a society.

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Justin Woods and I am a 20 year old sophomore. I am a student athlete here at UAF hoping to get better on the ice and in the classroom everyday. I am born ad raised here in Fairbanks. I’ve lived in Fairbanks 18 out of the 20 years I have been here, moving away to go play hockey in other states. I am a business major and I plan to become a sport agent when I get done with school.

Traveling is a pretty big part of my life so I have gotten to see a lot of the world and the different things every place has to offer. Usually, every place that I have been to has a certain aspect or trait that makes that place unique. I think this will help me in the class when it comes to finding the different qualities each piece of writing has and applying it to others.

This is the final English class that I must take to graduate, hoping to gain as much knowledge as I can so I can become the best writer that I can be. Although reading and writing are not my strengths when it comes to the classroom, I am looking forward to doing every assignment to the best of my abilities.