The Book of Job offers many complex and abstract ideas. It can also be looked at in a simple fashion, taking it as a folk tale trying to explain the unexplainable forces of fate and chance. The story is often interpreted as another strange episode of the Almighty Yahweh requiring blind faith in the midst of overwhelming and sadistic trials. A picture is painted, at first glance, of a cruel and uncaring God who is most interested in His wager with Satan on the reliability of His faithful follower Job. The ending is often overlooked in the larger picture. The trial that he suffers is for his betterment, and like the aborted sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham, it reveals the true character of God.
The first chapter tells us that Job was very conscientious in his worship, even being recognized as ëthe greatest man in the Eastí (Job 1:3). It is apparent that Satan recognized this, asking for permission to assault Job straightway. After the initial test in the destruction of his child…
Rudyard Kipling’s The Man Who Would Be King
Rudyard Kipling’s “The Man who Would Be King” deals with man’s ability to rule. The character Dravot’s success and failure in ruling derives from the perception of him as a god, instead of a king. Kipling uses the perception of Dravot as a god to show that though a king can rule as a god, he becomes a king by being human.
Dravot gains kingly power by being perceived as a god. The perception of him as a god occurs through his actions and luck. After helping the first village Peachy and he find in Kafiristan, Dravot takes power from the former leaders. He becomes more than a leader to the people, however, as “every morning Dravot sat by the side of old Imbra, and the people came and worshipped. That was Dravot’s order” (92). By ordering the people to worship him as a god, Dravot influences the natives into seeing him as a king-as-god, meant to be followed because of power, not decisions. Similar techniques are used with success throughout villages in the area, as now Dravot has “the whole country as far as it’s worth having” (94). Although all of the natives don’t initially view …