Macleish's J.B. Vs Bible Job

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MacLeish has written an amazing play based on extremely old story from bible and transferred it in, quite a modern setting. Though the idea of events are the same, digging deeper into both main characters of stories we can see how they are related but also see few major differences. Starting with most obvious comparison of Job and J.B. is who they are. J.B. is a millionaire who lived in New England after WWII, while Job was a wealthy man in Uz, millennium before Christ. Both Job and J.B. had wives named Sarah and lots of children. We din out a bit J.B.’s children as we are introduced to them in beginning of the play, but all we know about Job’s children are the number of them and small abstract facts. Job keeps on giving sacrifices for his children incase they have sinned, while J.B. encourages good thought about God to his children at the dinner table. In this case I find J.B. closer to his children than J.B. The main point would be, that you cannot always be careful for others, you should teach them to think right and do good, after all there is a saying: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. The main similarity between Job and J.B. is their attitude towards God. The both agree that God doesn't have a reason to take away good. If God gives, why wouldn’t he have a right to take away? Job even speaks these words: Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised” (NIV Bible, Job. 1.21). Both Job and J.B. stand for their opinion when their wives tell them to curse God, but start doubting themselves weather they are as innocent as they think when their friends “come to help”, that’s when the main difference occur. While Job keeps on believing that he has done nothing wrong and is completely and absolutely

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