Job
Job, what a guy. J.B., also, what a guy. Both Job from the Bible, and J.B. from the play J.B. by Archibald MacLeish both portray a man who goes through much turmoil throughout his life. But who suffers more? Are we able to tell which of these men grieved more, or which one felt the most pain? Not unless we were there to experience the pain of both the men and lived it out with them. Another thing that would help us understand each man's pain would be a better explanation of what happened. Let me explain. Back in the day, around last year, I was playing with some gasoline. Which of course was not the right thing to do in the first place. But my curiosity got the best of me. What I did was put some gas into a 2-liter bottle. I was trying to light the end of a string that led into the bottle, but it didn't work. I then got a little impatient, and decided to light the bottle when I turned it upside-down and let a little of the gasoline spill out. What I did not realize was that that some of the gasoline had spilled out onto my hand. When I lit the bottle, the gas ignited inside of the bottle, but the flame had no where to go, so it shot out of the bottle and onto my hand, which lit the excess gas that was
on my hand. It was a quick burst, but it successfully burned all the hair off of my hand and gave me an intense second degree burn which left a huge blister an inch long along the bottom of my index finger. The pain was unbearable. But how are you guys going to know that? If any of you have ever burnt your hands, you would know what I am talking about. But those of you who have not, you do not feel my pain as much as those people who have burned themselves. And even for those people who have not felt pain like I have, my explanation may have been good enough for you somewhat relate to my pain. If I had simply said, "I burned myself," it would be rather ineffective. This is the same for the characters of Job and J.B. If each of these men were going through something we have experienced in our lives, we would better understand what that man would be feeling and we would understand their pain. More recent events are things we can relate to better, and we will be able to grasp them, because they are more up to date, and can be explained with more detail. The play of J.B. is a more interpretive and modern version of the story of Job than the book of Job from the Bible, and this contemporary rendition enables the reader to sympathize with J.B. more than Job. The play J.B. adds more detail and more characterization to character Sarah than the Book of Job. This allows the author of J.B. to attach more modern affairs to the story, which lets the reader become more familiar with the situations and feel more connection to the characters. In the play J.B., Sarah leaves J.B. but later returns to apologize, and explains what was going on through her mind. She says, "I thought there was a way... Water under bridges opens" (Archibald MacLeish, pg.152). This talks about how Sarah felt when she had nothing else to hang onto and was about to commit suicide after she left J.B. J.B. also explains how he was feeling when she left, which was also expressed in a very sad tone and helped us understand his thoughts. In the Book of Job, Sarah leaves after she tells Job to curse God and die, and that is all we hear about Job's wife Sarah. In the play J.B., Sarah returns to J.B. Today, people understand divorce a lot more, and they can relate to situations where loved-ones leave because of some discrepancy. This is what the author o
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Approximate Word count = 1578
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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