Lakunas

I have thought often about the ideas of lacuna's this semester. It has often been a topic of conversation within the confines of the classroom making it a subject of curiosity to me I have come to the realization that all books have lacuna's. The lacuna's can be small like in the Iliad or they can be huge such as the ones in the Bible. These lacuna's make stories fluid and dynamic within the minds of the readers and/or listeners. Sara's presentation in particular addresses this idea of lacuna. She proved that sometimes the lacuna's are the truly interesting part of the story. These parts allow the reader to insert images that relate the story to the reader's personal life thus making the story more interesting.
The Slave has several different lacuna's that have caught my attention in the past few months. But one in particular is the time period of when Jacob takes his son and runs and the time between him coming back to fetch his wife. What exactly happened to him during this time? Who did he become? We get to see the end result of his life but we do not get to see what shapes him into that? Was he a good father? Did he find out the answers to all of the questions that he often asked as a teen or ones that he tried to answer for Wanda/Sarah? The author gives us some ideas to where he wants us to go but allows us to fill in the cracks with our own details. Sometimes this seems almost like a professor giving guidelines and then expecting the student to go and write the paper from the prompt. Every time that I consider the answers for the above stated questions, I come up with a different answer. This ability of changing my answer is the greatest thing about lacuna's. Lacuna's allow all stories, fables, and mythologies to live in the imagination as a malleable entity.

Final Paper

            When considering why Isaac Singer titled his novel The Slave, there is the apparent reason that Jacob was a slave to peasants. This bondage caused him to meet Wanda and led to the repercussions from their union. However, the true meaning is much more in-depth than just a mere physical enslavement. A slave is “someone who is entirely under the domination of some influence or person” (Webster). Jacob is not under the physical dominance of another person throughout the entirety of the novel, which would make the theory that the title of the novel is inspired by his servitude to peasants almost ludicrous. Upon closer inspection, the theme of a slave becomes apparent even though it is not the typical form of slavery. Within the context of this novel, love, obsession, and forms of escape become Jacob’s bonds of slavery. These forces imprison Jacob emotionally, physically, and spiritually just as they imprison people in real life.

The Slave is enlightening because it brings to light that all people are enslaved to something, even if they are physically free. The parallels that Singer draws between Jacob and the audience are undeniable and almost like a slap in the face in pointing out the shortcomings of humans. However, one main parallel stood out, which was the issue of being a slave. Jacob considers himself to be a slave to God; at one point Jacob states that “We are all slaves” (Singer 90). This is deeply significant because not everyone will be a slave to God but will be a slave to their own personal god. That god may be religion; that god may be work, alcohol, drugs, school, or anything else that exists in our world. Often people are slaves to more than one thing or one person at any given time. This type of slavery is a fluid and dynamic entity. A person can be a slave to something or someone for a certain amount of time and later change their loyalties or priorities and become enslaved to another thing. This idea of fluidity is one of the points that Isaac Singer was trying to make with his novel. Jacob is not just a slave to God but also a slave to tradition, to his work, his body, and a slave to Wanda. These are just the main masters of his life.  

Jacob goes through phases of being a slave, just as everyone does. He is a captive of God throughout the entirety of the novel but his other masters change as he himself does. The concept of changeability of personal values is an important aspect to consider when reading The Slave because it is an essential correlation between real life and Jacob’s life. As children, humans as a whole are prisoners to the changes that are happening in their bodies. The other master of childhood is the societal pressures of learning how to behave in society. Singer points out Jacob’s obstacles in conforming to society’s expectations when Jacob reminisces about his first marriage and the difficulties that arose from being married without being fully developed mentally, physically, or emotionally. To be able to deal with the stress of being married as a child, Jacob immerses “himself so deeply in study that he forgot the outside world” (Singer 52). At this point in his life, Jacob has two masters, God and his studies. Most children, when they are the same age as Jacob was when he was married are obsessed with playing games, making new friends, and living in the moment. The point that Singer is trying to make here is that even at a young age, everyone is a slave, even if the master does vary from person to person. 

As anyone who has gone through the torment of the teen years knows, teenagers are questionably subject to their hormones. The masters of the teenage years are hormones and the quest to find the reason for existence, whether this is on the individual level or the universal level. During this stage of life, Jacob’s primary master was still God but it was also the quest to find the meaning of existence and to comprehend the ways of God (Singer 54). In the respect to the questions that he asked, Jacob wondered the same things that are often thought about by today’s teens. Jacob asked the same questions that have been asked within the confines of the Bible as Literature classroom at Montana State University. One of the main questions that have plagued these students this semester is “Why had He [God] found it necessary to have pain, sin, evil?” (Singer 54). This question would continue to burrow in the back of Jacob’s mind for the rest of his life, as it has burrowed in the back of people’s mind for centuries, creating one more link between the reader and Jacob because both are a slave to wishing to know the answer to this question. However, this is one master with bonds so strong that the chains will never be broken and no answer will ever be forthcoming.  

Young adults are slaves to aging bodies and the social pressures to figure out their lives, get married, and have children. This part of Jacob’s life is much more complicated, which again parallels real life. In this portion of Jacob’s life, he becomes imprisoned to his most powerful master besides God. This new and mighty master is not physically his wife Wanda, but his own emotions that tie him to her. His subjection to her increases with time until “a voice within him called out constantly for Wanda” (Singer 86). She would be the focal point of his life for over twenty long years. He becomes not only a slave to his desire for her physically but his desire for her emotionally and spiritually. This is the first time in the novel that Jacob’s body, heart, and soul served the same master against his will.

The most intriguing part of Jacob and Wanda’s mutual slavery is that neither wanted to be imprisoned by the other or more specifically by their feelings and need for the other. Both of these people literally had no choice but to serve the other. No matter what Jacob did to try and drive her out, he could not; “she had taken up residence within him and he could not drive her forth” (Singer 112). Once again, Singer creates a situation for Jacob that will allow his readers to realize that they too are slaves to their own emotions. Many of Singer’s readers will have probably at one time or another felt the bond of emotions that they could not control, which tied them to another person. Put into this context, love becomes not a positive emotion but a bond with chains strong enough to rival those that are put upon people by their religion and God.

The final pages of the book show the circular pattern of life and how everyone reverts to having similar masters as they did as children. In fact they are once again learning how to live within the moment and how to control their changing bodies. The reasons for these changes are vastly different than childhood but produce the same results of uncertainty. This is the time “when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened” (King James Version Ecclesiastes 12.3). Jacob experienced all of these difficulties at the end of his life; he could no longer see, eat, or lift his bag that had once been light. He was a slave to the limitations of his body as is everyone when death approaches. It seems a hard concept to grasp that the body could be a master of the soul until the time arrives when it actually happens. For most, this time only arrives shortly before death, as it did for Jacob. However, by expressing the concept of the body as a master, Singer brings to focus the issue and the reader must consider when they will reach that point in their life, even if they only do so subconsciously.

Jacob shows us how he completed each of the main phases of life and what his gods were at each phase. Jacob was a character that allowed the reader to place themselves within his mind and experience the trials that he went through. When reading this novel, the reader is able to imagine himself experiencing the changes of childhood and adolescence, of questioning God, of going through the pain of having some other person become the focal point life, and then facing the failing of the human body as it ages. Jacob proves that even if humans are not physically slaves to another person, everyone is a slave to something in this life. By naming the novel The Slave, Singer allows the reader to decide to what Jacob was truly a slave and then question their own freedoms physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  

I have no idea if I am reaching with the idea I am about to present so I would greatly enjoy feedback from my classmates and their ideas. All right here I go. Today in class, one the my classmates (I can't remember who exactly) talked about the true forms of Satan as his presentation. During his presentation, this student drew on the board a type of chart which had God on the top and then two branches below it with Satan on one side and Jesus on the other side. While looking upon this drawing a random idea struck me. Could Satan be the prodigal son of God? As within Jesus' parable, the two sons are complete opposites of the other. Let me list the similarities between Satan and the Prodigal Son.

• They both took part of their inheritance
• the Son took money
• Satan took 1/3 of God's angels
• Both went and caused mayhem in a different place
• The Son went to a far country and "there wasted his substance with riotous living"
• Satan was cast to Earth where he influenced Eve to sin
• Both became associated with looked down upon animals
• The Son was forced to feed pigs
• Satan is often compared to snakes

There are similarities too between Jesus and the other son.

• Neither transgressed against their father
• Both will receive a great inheritance from their father
• Both are always with their father

Now this next part of my theory is an even bigger stretch than just imagining that the parable was based upon Jesus and Satan. Will Satan be like the Prodigal Son and come home to repent to God? This question is more towards the theological aspect of the Bible. The ironic part of this parable if this connection does actually exist is the it is the other son (Jesus) telling it as a lesson when he is the son that is shown in a poor light for not being forgiving. Does Jesus use his own foretelling of his faults to teach a lesson to his followers?
When I first started considering this aspect of the Prodigal Son Parable, I searched for more information on the Internet. I did not find any information linking Satan as the Prodigal Son but I did find articles and websites saying that humas are the Prodigal Son.  
I did find an interesting site that states that the character Pinocchio is based off of the Prodigal Son. It is amazing to me how much of the Bible shows up in everyday media. Here is a link to read the truly interesting ways the Pinocchio relates to the Bible specifically this famous parable. http://www.prescottumc.com/Sermons07/0715.htm.

Should children be told complete Biblical stories???

While considering what to write about for my final paper and in-class presentation, I thought about several topics that have interested me this past semester. I did not write about the following topic; however it has interested me so much that I feel compelled to blog about my alternative paper subject.
It has often been discussed in class, whether or not children should be told complete Bible stories. How much is truly too much for a child to comprehend? I am going to do the best to answer this question. I believe that children should be told entire Biblical stories. Obviously they do not need to know the graphic details of the maiming of people but you can give children the general gist without mentally scarring them (heck some of the details have even scarred me mentally and I am 20 years old!).
The reasoning behind my opinion is purely personal. I grew up in a Christian household and attend a private Christian High School. Through both of these types of education I did not know the in-depth details of some Biblical characters that I admired, at least not until I read the stories for this class. When I did read these stories and learned the truth, I felt affronted and tricked. These Biblical heroes were not what I had always been taught to understand that they were. I finally got to realize that these heroes were human because they had faults which makes them even more of heroes because they had overcome these faults and done something wonderful with their lives. The two main characters that I felt I had been misled about were Sampson and David. I was so upset upon first reading the story of David myself that I blogged about how horrible of a person he was. As Professor Sexson later explained in class, this was a superficial reading and he was completely right! During that class, I had one of my first epiphanies. The point of literature is not to present perfect people but to showcase simulations of how people truly live and how they can overcome the obstacles in their life. The overcoming of obstacles is what truly makes a hero. So if we are to teach children what truly makes a hero and choose to use Biblical characters to do this, then we need to allow them to see the faults of said characters. By not allowing this, we are skewing children's views of real life and what a true hero is. Thus it is my opinion that children should be allowed to know the true (censored) stories of the Bible and then decide for themselves if the person is a hero because of what they overcame, not because they had a perfect life.

What does not kill me will only make me stronger!

A few weeks ago, Professor Sexton asked us to have one bad day. However, I was not able to accommodate the assignment at the time but I did make up for it by having a bad week last week. Last week, it felt like that anything that could go wrong in my life did go wrong. I would call my grandmother to visit and the first thing she would say was "What happened now?". I will not go into detail about all of the things that happened to me last week but most of the time I did not know whether to laugh or cry. I remember that Job often asked what he did to deserve the things that were happening in his life and I often did the same last week. Even now just a short time later looking back I realize that I learned nothing when I was questioning why things were happening and I started focusing on what bad thing was going to happen next. By focusing on the bad, I allowed myself to perpetuate the cycle. I might not have been able to change what things happened but I could have changed how I reacted. This was as close as I got to an epiphany. I don't think it was an actual epiphany but just a mere realization and affirmation of things that I had previously learned and forgotten. I think that everyone needs to have these realizations & affirmations because without setbacks in our life, no one can go forward. As humans we need to have failures in order to fully appreciate our successes. Job realized this when he said "he destroyeth the perfect and the wicked". This quote relates to many, if not all creation stories, because humans are not perfect and without these bad days or weeks, we would as a whole forget this concept. We would forget the concept of our own imperfections because we become so wrapped up in our own world and often try to place ourselves as gods of our environment. The bad days is the cosmos' way of giving us a reality check and as much as I hate my own bad days, I realize now that I need them.

The Creation Story: Seen in a New Light

While reading Folklore in the Old Testament, I came across an interesting passage that states that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was truly the Tree of Death, the counterpart to the Tree of Life. I had never considered this before even though it was essentially the tree that did allow us to die. The author says that "that the forbidden tree was really a tree of death, not knowledge, and that the mere taste of its deadly fruit, quite apart  from any question of obedience or disobedience...sufficed to entail death to the eater" (Fraser 48). I personally have to disagree with some of the things that Fraser said. Why does it have to be one or the other? Isn't death a form of knowledge? I have no clue what people learn when they die but I do believe that they do learn something. I do not even particularly mean the afterlife but the moments leading up to a person's death, there must come some kind of epiphany about their life or life in general. Now I am definitely not in any hurry to experience this particular epiphany for myself but I do think that is how life works. So I believe that Fraser had some good points but was very mistaken when saying that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was in all actuality a Tree of Death. These two things can be synonymous in the proper context, such as the Creation story in the Bible.
In the same area of his book, Fraser discussed how the Bible did not specify whether humans were immortal or mortal until after Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden tree. I had never truly considered this idea before either. If Adam and Eve had not eaten of the tree, would we still be immortal? Because if they had not eaten of the forbidden fruit they would have had to eat of the tree of life thus making them immortal. But didn't they probably eat of the tree of Life before eating the forbidden fruit, so did the forbidden fruit's effects out-weigh the effect of the Tree of Life. Obviously it did but isn't it interesting that even as immortals, humans were still destined to fall from God's grace. Depending on how a person is reading this story, whether literal or as a moral story, a person can get many different lessons from the creation story. The lesson that I am taking from this time's rereading of the Creation Story is that no matter how many good choices a person makes before making a bad one, those choices can never protect you from the consequences of the bad choice. I am sure that I could probably find a deeper meaning from this story but right now I am happy to have gained a little in-sight into Adam and Eve. By realizing that Adam & Eve probably did make good choices before messing up, makes me realize that I can't just consider Eve to be either a curious woman or a gullible woman but I have to realize that she was probably a bit of both and so many more things that I am not given enough background information about her to infer.

The Slave

I personally had a hard time reading The Slave at first. I literally had to force myself to read just a few pages in this novel; however, last night I flat out told myself that I needed to finish this book by Thursday. I do not know if it was my determination to finish this book or that after reading more of the Bible I could recognize various references to the Bible. This book is very inspiring to its readers as well as illuminating when considering the struggle of various religions that depend on the Bible for instructions. The fight between not only Judaism and Christianity but between all religions and atheism. Many of the questions that Sarah asked reminded me of questions that Atheists have asked me before when they learn that I am a Christian.
One of the things that puzzled me most about this book was that the character's name was Jacob. I understand the love story of Jacob and Sarah and how it related to Jacob and Wanda but I also felt that part of Jacob channeled the story of Job. I saw various quotes that come from Job and the questions that were often asked by many people were very reminiscent of questions Job asked God. I almost felt at time that this combing of characters from the Bible was like how Singer combined many different religions. They all somehow contradict and complement each other until it is hard to say what truly belongs to one religion or to one Biblical character. I think that this may have been the point of The Slave; there is no way to choose what religion is correct because they all are intertwined at fundamental levels and no matter which religion a person belongs to there are always going to be questions that haunt us that we will never be able to answer.