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| Noah's Arc with all the animals |
The story “Noah and the Ark” written by Jonathan
Goldstein is a more comedic version of the biblical story Noah’s Ark. Goldstein
depicts Noah as a disgruntled old man who verbally and physically abuses his
three sons. He used this form of tough love to prepare them for the righteousness and hardships that life had for them. The world has changed for the worse in Noah's eyes. He does things
the old-fashioned way, and he believes that people should endure hard labor,
while the youth today have become lackadaisical. He found the new generation to
be lazy because they only worked two days a week and he thought the way they
lived was “ass-backwards and off the track” (Goldstein pg. 4). It is as if in today's time an
old man walked up to a group of hipsters in a local Starbucks. I could imagine taking my
grandfather to Starbucks it would consist of a lot of confusion and me taking a
couple of Advil. Noah raised his children teaching them the value of good hard
work. He wasn’t the only person who believed in the old-school way of doing
things, God himself also agreed with him. God was so disgusted of what his
creations had become he was going to flood the entire planet and start fresh,
leaving only Noah and his family alive. God then gave Noah a task through a
voice in his nose, I guess God does work in mysterious ways. He said to Noah “You
must build an arc out of gopher wood. I will guide your hand to choose animals
which you will place within the arc. There is going to be a flood. All will
drown except you and yours and the chosen animals” (pg. 9). I don’t know about
you, but I would be pretty freaked out hearing that come out of my nose. Anyway,
to me I thought the flood ruined what seemed like a utopian society already.
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| What I think Noah looks like in this story |
To me utopia is a place where everything
is perfect, there is no violence, no environmental issues or financial
struggles everything is peaceful and simple. In this story Goldstein doesn’t go
into detail about the pre-flood society, but he did write “Work, they realized,
was overrated. Two days of toil a week were plenty-and this way, they had time
for hobbies” (pg.4). This doesn’t mean there is no violence, or any issues at
all, but it seems like their lives were pretty peaceful and simple. As a
catholic I was conflicted reading this story because it was humorous to read
but it wasn’t depicting the story I believe in. This story depicts God and Noah
as the ones who destroyed a possible utopian society, while the message of this
story is almost the complete opposite as the one written in the Bible. However,
this is not going to change my beliefs and I still found it enjoyable to read. I was actually surprised to see that Noah and I have some
characteristics in common. We both believe in the value of hard work, and we
are both terrible dancer. The way that Goldstein described Noah’s dancing “people
would ask if he had just stepped on something pointy, or if he was in need of
the toilet” (pg. 4). That is exactly how I dance. Besides me having the same
dance moves as a biblical figure everyone has
different thought of what a utopia is and what it consists of. In this case I think
there was a utopian society before the flood, but others might not and they could say humanity couldn't
prosper if everyone only worked two days a week and sat around drawing pictures
of flowers all the time. Even if that does sound relaxing. Maybe this story proves
that in our world there can’t be a utopian place that everybody lives in because
not everybody thinks of the same things when it comes to a utopia. People are from places all over the world and were raised differently than everyone else. In our world where everyone has a different set of beliefs, morals, likes, dislikes can we all agree on what a utopian society would be like. If everyone can't agree on what a utopian society consists of then we all can't live in the same one.
Works Cited
Goldstein, Jonathan. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bible!" Goodreads.Web.
26 Feb. 2017.
Nick Y.
Word Count: 740
