Gilgermesh Essay

452 Words2 Pages
Paper Topics: Compare Gilgamesh to the Monkey King Choose one of the following questions to answer. 1. What does the Handsome Monkey King have in common with Gilgamesh? Why are these similarities significant, and why do they make both figures “untypical heroes”? Do the similarities mean that both stories are about some of the same issues? Which issues do they share in common? Explain, using quotations from both stories. 2. Examine the following verses of Lao-tzu from your handout: verses 16, 28, 29, 36, 42, and 81. Choose any one of them and discuss how that poem explains the lessons learned by both Gilgamesh and Monkey in the course of their respective journeys. (Do not combine lines from different poems. Discuss one of the poems as written, as a whole lesson.) Again, use quotations from both stories to defend your interpretation of what the hero learns. 3. Compare the goal of Gilgamesh in his second journey to the goal of Monkey in his journey to the West with Tripitika. Superficially, it seems that each has only one goal and that these goals are completely different. But can you think of other goals that have hidden similarities? If so explain them, using quotations from both stories. (If not, then don’t choose this question.) 4. Compare/contrast the figure of Humbaba in Gilgamesh to the Bull Demon in Monkey (see pages 149-185). Both bulls talk, for example. Do they say similar things? Neither bull can be trusted. Is it for some of the same reasons? Both bulls are supposed to be evil, yet many readers see them sympathetically. Why? Again, use quotations from both texts to explain. Also: What does each figure have to teach us about the meaning of the worship of bulls in cultures all across the world? 5. Compare/contrast Pigsy to Enkidu. In what respect are
Open Document