Book of Job vs. JB
Since the beginning of time, man has turned to God for help in facing difficult problems in life. The Book of Job, a story presumably written in the sixth century BC, focuses on a man who remains faithful despite terrible suffering. Archibald MacLeish's JB, written in 1958, is based on The Book of Job. Although both these stories depict man's relation with God, certain narrative elements cause JB to be more focused on looking for comfort in loved ones during suffering.Many similarities exist between these two stories, simply because one was based on the other. In both stories, God is the almighty Being who controls everything. The characters are also similar: in both stories Job is very faithful and rich, the wife and Sarah both try to make Job curse God, and Satan, the opposite of God, tries to make Job and JB hate God. Both Job and JB suffer, losing their children, possessions, and health. And both of them struggle to understand why they suffer, questioning God and not knowing what to do with their lives. Three comforters come to both Job and JB, trying to answer their questions but in result worsening their suffering. In each story God, appearing as a whirlwind, becomes angry by Job and J
Furthermore, many symbols and figures of speech in the plot are used to emphasize the different themes of The Book of Job and JB. In the The Book of Job, symbols like giving a horse its strength and lifting a whale refer to God's almighty power and Job's insignificance, almost all of which God uses when talking to Job through the whirl-wind. In JB, however, symbols like staring stars describe man's ignorance in understanding suffering, in other words, man being unable to understand suffering. Similarly, symbols such as Nickles's song, "If God is God He is not good, if God is good he is not God" (MacLeish 11) stress the idea that ordinary men would conceive in JB's situation. In The Book of Job, however, no other interpretation of suffering is presented than Job's "stay faithful" frame of mind. Also mentioned very often, forsythia and green leaves make rebirth and the end of suffering a major part of JB's theme. The coal of the heat, the only thing people have for each other when God is nowhere to be found, makes love a major contributor to the theme of JB, something which is not even touched at all in The Book of Job. As similar as these two stories seem, Book of Job focuses more on man staying faithful when suffering, while JB, through differences in narrative elements like characters, plot, setting, and symbols, focuses more on man turning to loved ones to survive suffering. In JB, MacLeish describes suffering
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Approximate Word count = 965
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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