What kind of king was Gilgamesh?

Gilgamesh was the king of Uruk, in The Epic of Gilgamesh.  Gilgamesh was a very arrogant man. He was Extremely Apathetic towards others. The only thing he was ever concerned about was himself and what pleasure and things he could get out of other people. Although Gilgamesh was considered a hero, his actions made him seem like a villain. Gilgamesh was so into himself he wasn’t into anyone else, meaning that he didn’t care what anybody else thought about anything. An example of his arrogance and villain-like qualities is he claimed the right in, the town Uruk, to be alone with any bride on her wedding night before the groom did, and the groom had no say in what Gilgamesh did with the women. Through the first two chapters, we learn that Gilgamesh is a heartless and selfish man. 

We can learn from Gilgamesh, not how to be like him but how to be the opposite of him. He was all about himself, and by reading the book we know that he was disliked by most people. He did have one friend named Enkidu, and maybe he had other friends that were not spoken of, but anyone that liked him probably liked him because of his wealth and power because he was a king. When kings are rich more people like them for their wealth rather than the actual person themselves. So, the biggest lesson we can learn from the first two chapters in this book is to care about others more than yourself, otherwise you most likely will be conceded and disliked. And the second lesson is never like someone just for their wealth, fame, power, etc. Like someone for who they are.

In the book Cold Mountain, a man named Inman got wounded and as he was dying, he was in Ada’s arms, and he dreamed about a very strange place. This place had all of the seasons in one, and there were dancing cows. Nobody really knows why he dreamed this but the author.

I’ll tell you why I think he dreamed of this particular situation. I don’t know what people’s minds go through when they are dying, but this is what I think went through Inman’s mind. 

Inman was in love with Ada and never had his dream-life with her, he was dreaming all of the seasons at once, that could mean that he wanted his life to change in many different ways, as for the cows they could mean different ranges of emotion, but based on what he dreamed I think the dancing cows meant that he had a good feeling about after he died like everything was going to be ok.

 I think he was imagining what he wanted his and her life to be like if he were to live longer, he was dreaming it because he couldn’t actually live it. We humans imagine fake situations that sometimes can’t possibly come true, but sometimes of them could, but we imagine them because we wonder what it would be like to live in whatever world we are thinking of, because we could never actually live in that imaginary world. Inman was having his very last daydream so he wanted his dream to be the one that meant the most to him, to make himself the happiest he could be before dying. 

 How different people think the government should work.

John Rawls was a democratic socialist. He believed that the state should be powerful enough to take earned resources away from people and use those resources to give advantages to other people. I strongly disagree with him because most people work hard for the money they earn, I don’t think you should take that away from any person. If other people want to make a good living they have to work for it just like the rest of us do. 

Robert Nozick was a type of libertarian known as a “minarchist”. He believed there should be so little government that it is very near to non-existence, but not quite. I agree with him to some extent. I think we only need the government to keep crime under control, because the government takes things away from us that we have worked hard to get, for example I don’t think we should have taxes, I think we should get the exact amount of money that we earn and they shouldn’t take any of it away from us.

Murray Rothbard was a type of libertarian known as an anarcho-capitalist. He believed that the very existence of the state government is evil because it necessarily violates the non-aggression principle. States, by definition, use aggressive force to do anything.

 He believed that societies manage everything more efficiently and more ethically, even keeping the peace, through voluntary contractual arrangements, without the state. I kinda agree with him. I think the government should not use violence or aggression to get their way, but I don’t think the government is necessarily evil.

I would put Nozick and Rothbard’s theory together, I think there should be less government than there is now, they should focus on keeping crime under control, and less on how much money they can get.

In part 1 of burning happiness, I talked about why it was wrong for the firemen in the book Fahrenheit 451 to burn people’s books, in part 2 I am going to talk about why they burned books, and also why people back then and now don’t ban worse things. Firemen burned books because they were illegal to read, they had bad meanings, mind changing stories, and weren’t for all ages. Books aren’t always good stories, books can be very twisted, they can make people think things that they never would have before, and that can mess up their whole world view. I have read things that make me think differently about life. Some things I read I wish I never had because some things you just can’t forget. Why don’t the firemen take away worse things? Books can persuade your thoughts and emotions very easily, sometimes your thoughts can make you have different emotions in just a few seconds, books get into people’s minds and can change them, but so can other things, so why didn’t they take away other things. People should be responsible for their own actions, if you know something can harm you physically or mentally don’t do it or read it. Everyone reads books, that’s why I think they burn them and not things that could kill you over time, because if everyone reads books it’s likely for more people to read the bad ones.

  It’s the little things!!!

In the book Fahrenheit 451, the firemen were not like firemen these days; they did the opposite of what firemen are supposed to do. They started fires instead of preventing them. The firemen burned people’s books, and sometimes, if the people felt too strongly about keeping their books, the firemen would burn their houses too. As a result, some people would die because they did not want to come out of their houses. This was a very wrong thing to do because, sometimes, books are the only things that keep people happy. Books bring people to a place other than our crazy, messed up world. I am not a very big fan of books, but there have been books I have enjoyed very much. I know the feeling when you are reading a good book. It’s like you’re zoned out of the noise and distractions of the world, and you really feel like you are a part of the book. In my opinion, no one should ever take away something that means so much to someone, even if it is their job. Is it okay to take something from someone even if it makes them happy? No, it’s not okay. I can understand if they were taking it away because it was physically harming them, but books are people’s choice to read them or not. I see books as a way of reading a dream. They are most of the time made up from someone’s imagination that most people don’t have that broad of an imagination. So, some people want to read scenarios that they could have never thought of.

In the book The Old Man and the Sea, there is a resemblance between people and the sea. I am going to tell you about my perspective on how humans are like the sea. 

There is a lot in the sea that Santiago just couldn’t see. When he looked at it, he saw the beautiful blue water and the sunset behind it. It all looked great from the outside but there’s a lot happening on the inside. Just like us humans. We look just fine on the outside and we say that we are fine, but no one sees what’s on the inside. Santiago had to really pay attention to guess what was going on under the surface. If he took time to look inside the sea, he will find what really goes on. He had to fight the waves and had to deal with the problem’s inside. If you take time to figure out what really goes on in someone’s heart you will find a lot of bad problems and bad feelings that some people don’t care enough about to help someone feel like they belong or just make them happy.

In the sea, the waves can get pretty rough and scary. Sometimes our lives get rough and scary, but we calm down just like the waves do. Some parts of our life go up and down but when it’s calm, we just need to enjoy that moment. When the waves calm down, that’s when we enjoy being in it the most.

Is it wrong to love a slave?

In the book Cold Mountain, a man named Odell loved a black slave, but is it wrong to love a slave? Odell was a little different from his family, his family bought slaves for house and fieldwork, and they were very much against Odell loving a slave. Odell first saw Lucinda “the slave” in their kitchen, and I guess you would call it love at first sight. Odell never met or saw Lucinda before but instantly fell in love with her, and at that moment he wished that his wife was dead. I don’t know why they thought it was so wrong to love a black slave but it was to Odell’s father. It might be because she is black or because she is a slave or both, but no matter how wrong they thought it was, they were more wrong because nobody chooses what color they are or what family they were born into. 

If you were to go to prison for years paying the price for a murder you didn’t have anything to do with, that would be really wrong and unfair. It’s the same concept, being put to work and not being able to choose a life that you want just because you were born a different color is a horrible thing to make someone go through. You should love anyone no matter what color they are or where they came from. Next time you think you don’t like someone because they look different just think to yourself did they get to choose what they look like. Treat others as you would want to be treated, I know you hear that a lot but it is so true, you need to put yourself in other people’s shoes, if you could literally do that you would feel and know how badly people get treated for reasons that they’re not responsible for. 

If someone was blind and didn’t know what color anyone was, would that stop them from making friends, probably not, and you know why because it doesn’t matter. Odell was not wrong to love Lucinda, yes she is a black slave but it’s just a color. The color of your skin is not what makes you who you are, it is your personality your heart and how you choose to live your life.

Why does Inman walk out of the hospital? Why is this choice dangerous?

In the first chapter of Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain, Inman leaves the hospital because he doesn’t want to return to war. When he felt well, they would send him to war, and his legs felt strong, which scared him because it meant he was recovering. This is a dangerous choice because he still has a big wound and it is not fully recovered. When Inman goes out with that big wound he might not have the right stuff he needs to heal the wound, so it’s dangerous because he might get worse instead of better without a doctor’s help. If Inman doesn’t rest like he needs to, he might get weak again.

Swimmer was Inman’s friend, and they went fishing together and Swimmer would talk endlessly to Inman, and Inman wouldn’t mind. In the hospital Inman would just sit there thinking, and I’m sure once and a while he would think of Swimmer and how they used to do a lot together, and I think he missed that, so he didn’t want to go to war and possibly die when he misses all of the times he had with Swimmer and he doesn’t want to miss anymore good times like that. So I think Inman left for his own freedom, and was he right to get up and leave? I don’t know, because it is dangerous to just get up and leave but if leaving is what is going to keep him alive and make him truly happy then I think he should do whatever he wants.

Although you will still understand what I’m going to talk about if you haven’t read part 1 of my essay on Man’s search for meaning, I recommend you read part 1.

The book man’s search for meaning discussed how people in concentration camps try to live through suffering and find their meaning. Hopefully, the book can be helpful to you or someone out there who is searching for meaning.

 In my last essay on Man’s Search for Meaning, I put in a quote by George Elliot, and I will try and elaborate more on the quote, “It is never too late to be who you might have been.”(George Eliot Quotes) Even though the quote is very simple, I want to stop to think about its deeper meaning. You may have unique talents as well as very common ones, but if you don’t use them, you may have difficulties pursuing your dreams. let’s say you could have two lives, as you in both lives, and in one life you work as hard as you can to use your talent so you can do what you love and what you’re good at, but in the other life you have a talent but you don’t use it and end up doing something less enjoyable in the future. 

This is where the quote comes in, it is never too late to be the one who works hard and uses your talent to pursue your dream. If you are a person who does not use your talent then it’s not too late to start and be what you might have been much earlier in life. You should use your talent as early as you can so it’s easier to use it and love it later in life, but if you do happen to have a later start it’s ok, it’s never too late. Never forget that God was, is, and always will be the reason for life even when you feel your life has no meaning.

I hope you found this essay interesting and that it helped you or someone else. Don’t forget that you have a purpose in life, maybe you haven’t found it yet, but you do, and I believe that. The fact that you are taking a break from finding your meaning does not mean you are quitting. It simply means that you’re human, and everyone needs a break now and then.

Works Cited

“George Eliot Quotes (Author of Middlemarch).” goodreads, http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/173.George_Eliot. Accessed 29 Jan. 2023.

Man’s search for meaning is a book about people in concentration camps, trying to live through suffering and find meaning in their own life. As well as helping you understand how people suffer from sickness and depression, this book focuses on hope and love.

Sometimes you can feel that you don’t have meaning in life and it’s hopeless. Can you still have meaning when everything meaningful is taken away? It’s kinda hard to tell you what the meaning of life is because I’m not very good with words and it’s a very big subject to try and explain. My answer isn’t going to be perfect because I still wonder about it sometimes myself. Most people think at one point or another that they have no meaning in life, but would God have made you if he knew you would not have any meaning at all? God made everybody unique and different so everyone has a purpose. There is always someone around you that needs help or just needs a friend. As long as there’s still a world to live in there is going to be meaning for everyone. Let’s say that everything meaningful is taken away from you, it’s like starting over in life. As a baby, you don’t know what’s going on around you and you have to grow and learn from the people around you to know about life, so you can always learn from people around you to see what you need to do to help others, and find you’re meaning. I know sometimes you need someone to tell you how good you are at something to help you to be confident. If you want to find meaning you need to do what you love and never stop believing in yourself. So if your trying to find meaning, it starts with you, your life is whatever you make it. “It is never too late to be who you might have been.”- George Elliot

Read Part 2 in my blog.