Critical Analysis of Four Short Stories - Essay Example

? Analyses of four short stories The blind men and the elephant In this fable, we find few blind men examining different parts of an elephant, and later when they began to discuss their experiences, none could agree with the other.  Each insisted that his perspective was correct, and soon a fighting ensued, in order to establish as to whose version was correct. Here, we find an interesting dimension, where we cannot disregard any of the blind men’s views. The elephant does indeed have a body that seem like walls, its ears are shaped like huge fans, its trunk akin to that of tree trunk, and its feet indeed resemble the pillars of a house or a temple. So each man was correct from the own perspective, yet each were also wrong, in insisting that his was the only correct version. As the village wise man said, “Each one of you is correct; and each one of you is wrong.   Because each one of you had only touched a part of the elephant’s body.  Thus, you only have a partial view of the animal.  If you put your partial views together, you will get an idea of what an elephant looks like.” Thus, here the story relates to our daily experiences, where we tend to see things exclusively from our own viewpoint, while failing to comprehend what others feel about the same issue. It is essential that we try to understand other people’s viewpoints, in order to get a correct perspective of a certain situation, with judge it with an open and unbiased mind. This is most relevant to the topic of the varying religious views, where all are in search of God, and each with their narrow perspectives view only a part, and fight with the other, about their varying notions. They fail to understand that it is the same God that they examine, only from a different perspective. Thus, instead of fighting like the blind men, men should work together, on solving the jigsaw puzzle. This would help them to understand God better, while also ensuring that there is peace in this world. Thus, the question that comes into the mind is that, in this modern world, when we see so much of religion related violence around us, is it not time that we stop behaving like the blind men and insist that only our way of viewing the elephant is correct? It is essential that we learn to tolerate and respect other people’s views, which would help to would ensure our happiness, while also giving us a complete perspective of the Supreme Being called God. The lost son The Lost Son, also known as the prodigal son, is one of the most famous parables of Jesus Christ, found in the Canonical gospels of the New Testament. Here, we find that a younger son after taking his share of inheritance moves to a distance land, where he wastes his entire fortune by squandering away the money (in Gospel of Luke, 15:11-32). After wasting his fortune, the son toils for some time and finally repents. On returning home he is lovingly welcomed back by his father, who says his younger son, had long died, but had finally become alive once more, and had come back home. In the end when the elder son questions his father, as to he who had been staying with him and obeying his instructions throughout, had never had a goat killed in his honour, yet, when the younger son who had abandoned his father comes back, he gets a loving treatment and a calf killed in his honour. Here, we can interpret that the elder son who has been with his father, always had received everything; while the younger son who had left everything to search for something better, had suffered terribly, and now was repenting his prodigal ways, and so must be welcomed back into the fold. Here the elder son views the situation in terms of “law, merit, and reward” (Arland , 2002, 70), while the father representing Divine Love refuses to be bound by any limits to his grace or mercy. Here, what stands out is that, all sinners receive God’s grace and love, as he repents for his actions. Thus, one can say, to err (or to sin) is human, while to forgive is divine, and any person who is repentant, becomes a part of God, by receiving his boundless divinity and grace. While reading this story one is bound to ask, as if God can forgive his prodigal son, then as human why cannot we forgive the mistakes of our fellow human beings? By forgiving an error, one can bring back a friend who is repentant and seeks forgiveness. A person who is repentant means that he has understood his mistakes, and chances are that he would not commit the same error later in his life. The Story of Prometheus Here we find Zeus punishing Prometheus for refusing to listen to his instructions and helping mankind to discover fire. For his actions, Prometheus was punished, and later hung with his hands and feet bound to a rock. At this time Prometheus helped the flying Io by revealing as to how she could save herself; and many years later he was finally rescued by Hercules, a descendant of Io. Here we find the aspect of tyranny (so common in many of our modern day state heads), in the rule of Zeus, who in order to consolidate his power did not wish to give mankind the power of fire. However, Prometheus who could foresee future found that mankind would greatly benefit from the use of fire, helped humans to find this element. Thus, here in Prometheus, we discover the first elements of a ‘hero,’ who is humane and who defies all threats of a despotic ruler, and rebels against injustice and misuse of power. In Pandora’s Box, we again see the despotism of Zeus, where he uses Pandora’s curiosity, to release all the evils into this world, thus directly avoiding taking the sole responsibility for causing all misfortunes in this world. Here, hope is also released from the box making us wonder as to whether hope is also a misfortune in disguise? In the scene where the bound Prometheus recognises Io who is in the form of cloud, makes us realise that an individual’s character and soul are different from his physical entities. So, here, we ask ourselves that, with changes in appearances, does one’s inner inherent nature also undergo changes? In the end, we find that it is the helping nature of Prometheus which ultimately works towards setting him free from Zeus’s punishment. The Quest of Medusa’s Head Here in this mythological story we find that Perseus, in order to save his mother from being forcibly married to a king, goes to kill Medusa. According to Greek mythology, Medusa was a powerful Greek goddess who was turned into an ugly creature by Athena, for defiling her temple. Though it was Poseidon that raped Medusa in the temple of Athena, it is Medusa who is cursed, thus revealing Athena’s partiality for male hierarchy, and actually symbolizing the male patriarchy amongst the Greeks, where Medusa represented intelligence (or feminine wily), which all men strove to achieve and often failed. Perseus, thus represented the male Greek order with the backing of all the Greek gods, in order to overpower the more powerful Medusa. Medusa, also had the power to turn men into stone (symbolizing castration or turning them impotent), which she retains even after her death, thus symbolizing her control over life and death. Medusa in Greek mythology is the symbol of mother earth, which has somehow turned vile and dangerous. Thus, Perseus must kill Medusa to keep his manhood intact, and to save all men from turning into stone. With the death of Medusa, the Greek male hierarchy is thus saved, and after Athena takes her head to mount it on her aegis, Medusa stops being the mother goddess, and instead starts representing the military power of Athena. Thus, as one reads the story of Medusa in details, one is forced to ask that was Medusa simply killed in order to preserve male hierarchy? Was patriarchal existent even in the antiquities, as we see around us in the modern times in some of the more conservative societies, worldwide? In another part of the story, we find that Perseus’ grandfather, a king of Argos had been forewarned that he would be killed by his own grandson. Fearing this, the king had tried preventing Perseus’ mother from getting married, failing which, he wanted to kill both the mother and the child. However, both escape death, and after many years return to their homeland. The king remembering the warning fled, only to be later killed accidently by Perseus. Thus, from this story we learn that there is no escaping one’s fate, however hard one may try. References Arland J. (2002).  The Parables of Jesus: A Commentary. New York: Eerdmans Publishing, 70. Read More