Jacob's critique of Pandora's Box

Pandora's Box

Pandora's Box is a classical Greek Myth. Its original author is unknown. In the past, many people have retold this myth. This one was retold by Lori Verstegen. Interestingly enough, some later versions have the box containing all the blessings of life and when Pandora opens the lid all of the blessings fly away leaving the earth a desolate place. The setting begins in heaven on Mt. Olympus which is home for all the major Greek gods. It then shifts to the ravishing green earth when lovely Pandora is given away.

In the story, the main characters are Zeus, Pandora, and Epimethius. Zeus, king of all the Greek gods, finds himself irate at Prometheus. Cunningly, Zeus constructs the first woman, Pandora, in order to bring sin and sorrow into the world below. Zeus created Pandora to be exceedingly beautiful and verily gifted. He also fashioned her character with foolishness, mischievousness, and idleness. His scheme was to give her to Epimethius, the brother of Prometheus, a stubborn and weak man, so his plan could be carried out.

The conflict of the story begins with crafty Zeus plotting revenge. He feels indignant because Prometheus stole fire from Mt Olympus and brought it down to earth. Zeus created Pandora irresistible to draw in the foolish Epimethius. Smoothly, his plan works. However, before Pandora leaves for earth, she is given a beautifully decorated box by all of the gods. Tantalizing her, they sternly warned her not to open it. Not even a peep! During the course of the next day, Hermes takes Pandora as a gift from Zeus to Epimethius, who on seeing her beauty and believing himself to be fortuitous, immediately takes her into his home. Prometheus had warned him about trusting in Zeus, but to no avail. He had to have her. Hermes boldly bade both of them never to open the adorned box.

The climax of the story occurs when Pandora's curiosity takes over and she opens the forbidden
box. Epimethius was standing in the doorway like Adam did in the garden. Curiously, he did not stop her, but scrutinized with excitement because he to wanted to know what was in the box. As soon as Pandora opened the lid just a hair, all of the sins an sorrows spread throughout the land. It satisfied Zeus. Tragically his revenge on mankind was complete. The theme of this story is that curiosity can lead to disobedience, and disobedience can lead to harm, and harm can hurt others.

The story cleverly reveals the nature of man and the nature of sin. For example, when Pandora's curiosity takes over her self-control and she examines the contents of the box, the reader identifies with the desire to know what is in it also. Pandora was strictly warned not to open the box, but Zeus understood the nature of man's lack of self-control and knew she would disobey, causing sin to enter the world. The reader clearly understands the dangers of curiosity and the harmfulness of disobedience.

Jacob's critique of "The Monkey and the Fox"

THE MONKEY AND THE FOX

The Monkey and the Fox is an Aesop fable retold by Eric Carle. It was published by Orchard Books in 1988. The setting of the story opens up in the steaming jungle with all of the animals gathered around. Tragically, the beloved old king of the jungle had died. Among the animals present, they needed to elect a new king as wise as the old one.

The main characters in this story are the Monkey and the Fox. The Monkey smoothly preformed as an imposter of the king, but had no sense at all. The Fox was very wise, not being tricked by the Monkey's impersonation of the old king, but he slyly served as a traitor to the new king.

The rising action of the story begins with the Fox earnestly desiring to remove the Monkey from his position because he was an unwise king. A little while after the Monkey became king, the Fox noticed a trap set in the forest and thought of a plan to get rid of the imperious Monkey. One day he slyly strolled up to the king and bravely declared he had spotted something strange in the forest. The nosy Monkey swooped off with the Fox to inspect the tantalizing curiosity which the Fox had talked about.

The climax occurs when the Monkey reaches for the banana in the middle of the net which falls over him. He was caught! The towns people, who had hidden in the bushes, jumped out, seized him, and carefully carried him to their zoo. During the next day, the Fox visited the zoo. Furiously the king exclaimed, "You traitor. You have betrayed your king."

"No." Sneered the Fox, "You have betrayed yourself."

The lesson of this story shows that a king who falls for the first trap set for him can’t serve his animals well. And that is the truth.

Being opposite in character, the Monkey and the Fox, unveils for us the nature of humans. In this story the Monkey was foolish and the Fox was wise, but yet they were both proud. The Fox showed pride by thinking he knew what was best for the animals, but yet he was not loyal to his king. The same can be true with people. The Monkey thought he would make a exquisite king, foolish though he was. Being wise does not mean you won't make mistakes. We need to be careful not to think to highly of ourselves less we also become foolish. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise. Proverbs 12:15

Snow Fall

My mom has been wanting me to get these pictures up, so I decided to put them together into a movie along with some video clips we took. The music playing in the background is called "First Snow Fall." Hope you'll like it.

"His" mercies are new every morning...and evening!

Thursday evening found us finishing up the remainders of celebrating my 41st birthday, when the night took an unexpected and critical turn. After devouring a fantastic meal that involved shrimp (no we don't usually eat these bottom feeders!), Coy began feeling sick. A few hours later he forcefully expelled his dinner and we were hoping everything would then be okay, but that was only the beginning of what would be a long night. His throat began swelling and we knew he was having an anaphylactic attack. Bruce immediately rushed him to the emergency room where, much to his delight, he commanded center stage. Within 5 minutes he was stuck with an epiPen, hooked up to monitors, and made to "swallow" another set of pills. Thankfully, the med's helped him make a quick turnaround and we are pleased to announce he is still with us! Thank you Jesus our divine Healer!!