Paper

Eric Crouch

12/09/09

Lit 240

“But remember not a game new under the sun

Everything you did has already been done”

-Lauryn Hill

Although Lauryn Hill is not an artist that I particularly enjoy, I happened to catch this line while sampling a few songs on the internet. However, Ms. Hill rapped the central idea of what I was trying to capture for my connection with the Bible. Although the structure is somewhat confusing at times, the Bible is the most important collection of stories I have read. Although I have heard a few of the most common stories printed on the thin pages of the Good Book, I had no idea at how powerfully these stories have resonated throughout history. The classic story of Cain and Able has influenced countless writers and their stories, whether on film or on paper. Apart from valuable lessons and rules of early Hebrew life, the Bible encompasses prudential and skeptical wisdom which is abundant to those who seek it. My personal favorites were the Book of Ecclesiastes and Job; both of these stories have greatly influenced what I consider to be my favorite type of films. The Bible has been visible through many cultural outlets, such as sermon, film, and music. From John Donne's repentant sonnets and Milton's Paradise Lost to Nina Simone's Sinnerman, the Bible has created an ever-expanding foundation for every facet of literature and entertainment. In his book, The Great Code, Northrop Frye analyzes the tradition and role the Bible has played throughout the history of many cultures. Along with stories of wisdom, morality, and suffering, the Bible contains the most important and influential catalysts which continue to affect literature and film today.

The story of Cain and Able is not only found in the Hebrew Bible; Cain and Able exist in many religious texts as answers and examples for questions which revolve around the basis of humanity and morality. The National Geographic Channel's Cain and Abel: Brothers at War explained many common elements derived from the story of these two brothers. For example, the story of Cain in the Qur'an is basically the same except for the addition of a raven which kills another raven and then digs a hole and buries the dead raven under the sand. Cain proceeds to bury Abel; this is believed to be the origin of conceptual burial of the dead. This is just one of multiple adaptations of the Cain story. Many scholars featured on the show also believe that Cain's murder and denial also explain why God was so angry throughout Genesis. Cain repeated the same failure of responsibility just as Adam and Eve had. Also upon slaying his brother, he also destroyed the thousands and millions of people who could have descended from Abel himself. In theory, Cain destroyed more than just his brother, he killed everyone who would be created and prosper from Abel's blood (Cain and Abel: Brothers at War). After watching this program, all I could think about was one of the few passages I remembered from church: I am my brothers keeper. Are we our brother's keepers? After events such as 9/11, the holocaust and genocides that happen to this very day it is hard to believe so. Many people ask God why so many people suffer from these terrible events and all are left empty handed. If the story of Cain could be condensed to one theme, it would tell us that we are still our brothers keepers regardless of what has happened and it is not God's responsibility to fix everything, it is ours as brothers.

Even though the message of the first fratricide may be lost to most, Northrop Frye believes that the story of Cain serves yet another purpose. “...we have the story of the farmer Cain and the shepherd Abel. Disputes between a farmer and a shepherd are found centuries earlier in Sumerian literature, but there the farmer scores off the shepherd … But the Biblical writers tended to idealize the pastoral stage of Israelite life, in contrast to the agricultural stage...” (Frye 143). The writer, probably the Yahwist, believed that the pastoral way of life was beneficial or already had become beneficial to the Israelites. Frye also believes that Cain's offering was insufficient because God had already cursed the soil which Cain grew his fruits because of Adam and Eve's eating of forbidden fruit (Frye 144). Frye's analysis of the Cain story demonstrates how every story in Genesis was created from preconceived spiritual, cultural, and political beliefs. The story of Cain has been interpreted for many themes across multiple religions.

As for the character of Cain, recreations and remixes of his physical and moral attributes have surfaced in many works of literature and film. After confessing his sin, the Lord said to Cain, “When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth...” (Genesis 4:12). This passage defines an essential component to mythos; Cain is one of the first “stock” characters found in literature. According to Frye, the repeating character type of Cain is an archetype, “This quality of repetition is essential to myth in all its contexts. A society, even one equipped with writing, cannot keep its central myths of concern constantly in mind unless they are continually being re-presented” (Frye 48). The character of Cain can be seen in the earliest production of silent films to those that are being produced today. When I first read Frye's passage, I immediately thought of the Bourne Identity; films whose main characters are wanderers or fugitives are rampant among the American movie-going public. Cain's Machiavellian approach of prosperity and succession reminded me of the film There Will Be Blood; the outcome of the brotherly relationship Daniel Plainview falsely creates with Eli Sunday was extremely reminiscent of the fratricide Cain committed. The wanderer and fugitive archetype has surfaced throughout all outlets of entertainment and countless pages of literature. The story of Cain and Able is not the only one to surface to mainstream media; many other characters and themes have been reproduced and continue to circulate in many cultures.

Rules and Laws are plastered through most of the stories in the Old testament; however, wisdom can also be derived from these stories. There are two types of wisdom: prudential and skeptical. The book of Psalms and Proverbs are packed with prudential wisdom. Frye states, “Law is general: wisdom begins in interpreting and commenting on law, and applying it to specific and variable situations” (Frye 121). The application of law generally leads to production of tales and quick-witted sayings used in every culture. When I read this passage in Frye, I could not help but remember the quirky stories I was told in Sunday School. In the simplest form, these stories and tales such as Jonah and the whale and David and Goliath are to instruct faith to the young masses. Oddly enough the themes taught to young Christians are the same themes revolving around adult kinships. Prudential wisdom is plentiful throughout many books in the Bible and is intended for those who do not wish to dive deeper into the literal interpretation of the Bible.

Skeptical wisdom can also be found in many books of the Bible; skeptical wisdom reaches towards the true nature of human beings. Often times, skeptical wisdom is something not discussed at a kinship gathering. For me, the book of Ecclesiastes and it's glimpse into the emptiness human's often feel, offers skeptical wisdom at a grand level. “Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever” (Ecclesiastes 1.1-1.4). This powerful passage asks the question: What is the point of living and to have lived when everything under the sun will someday be gone and replaced with something new? This question and passage should encourage every person of faith to question their God or Gods. The people of earth, especially Americans do not like to question the validity and true purpose of their material belongings and faith while in Death's waiting line. The story of human life for every human is a tragedy, as we all die in the end. the skeptical wisdom of Ecclesiastes created the building blocks for the template of a true tragedy. Immediately after reading Ecclesiastes, I had flash-backs from the movie Crash. Although Crash focuses on racism, the film forces it's audience examine and question racism in their own life and the world around them. Watching Crash tackle's a real problem in our society and exposes discrimination of all kinds in our country and within our hearts. Although the raw power of the words in Ecclesiastes are superior on a basic level to Crash, no motion picture can recreate the struggle of the inevitable as Ecclesiastes does.

When read skeptically, the poetic book of Job attempts to explain the cause of human suffering. Even though all ends well for Job, the middle section of his story is bound with tragedy and suffering. Frye states that Job's narrative is U-shaped; Job falls into a world of pain and suffering and at the end is re-payed with much more than he started out with (Frye 193). Job's pain, suffering, and homelessness are all just a test from the Lord; Frye says, “One issue in the great test is that of identity or property: how much can a man lose of what he has before the loss begins to affect what he is? God had previously drawn a rough line between Job's 'life' (2:6), but here we begin to see what 'life' means for humanity...” (Frye 195). One can derive that Job's vanities have defined his life and their revoke has caused him deep pain. On the other hand, the story points out that Job had not committed any crimes or sins against God; retributive justice was served incorrectly for Job just as it was served for every member of the Holocaust and every child born born with terminal diseases. Suffering, as in Job's case and in the lives of billions of people around the globe today, often has no direct cure. The emotions surrounding the subject of suffering are often not portrayed in their raw form in American pop-culture. However, in my opinion, the best movies and stories are tragedies; forcing people to think skeptically about their lives and the lives of others is itself an art. The film Me and You and Everyone We Know bares a striking resemblance to the story of Job. Richard Swersey, the Job archetype, has nearly everything stripped from him when his wife leaves him. Although his Swersey is left with his emotionally detached two children, he struggles to understand how pain was brought upon him and how he can piece his life back together. Like Job's narrative, Swersey's story is also U-shaped; for me, the most touching and inspirational parts of the story are Swersey's attempt at understanding and coping with his suffering. In a sea of prudential-wisdom films, there are still many Job's struggling to surface to the front wave of entertainment.

Sadly enough, films and literature which recreate the Biblical foundations of human nature are rarely screened past New York or Los Angeles. Nearly every main theme or elements of modern entertainment can be directly related to the books of the Bible. From the recreations of original sin to the multi-million dollar misinterpretations of the Book of Revelation, writers on-screen and on the page will always have a story to tell. The Bible offers many different archetypes and steps to achieving wisdom, spanning from light-hearted talking vegetables to the darkest insights of human nature.