The Word, Slave

Before I began to read the Slave Dr.Sexson told us that one good paper topic might be explaining why the novel was entitled, the Slave. I thought about this and decided I would try to investigate this notion. So upon beginning to read the novel I had a pencil by my side and every on every occasion I saw the word "slave" I underlined it. I was surprised to see that the word did not appear as often as I thought it would, perhaps less than two dozen times. I have yet to total these numbers up. However just recently as I was looking over my markings in the book. I noticed an interesting pattern emerging. I feel that Jacob never ceases to be a slave at any point in the story, he merely becomes a different kind of slave. Another notion I started to pick up on during this process was how Jacob's life in this book is very similar to a Dark Romantic Quest. For my capstone with Dr. Morgan this is the major theme we are dealing with as it occurs in texts such as the Hobbit, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Harry Potter. In any case the quest has several elements that I found to exist in Jacob's journey in the course of the novel. One being that the quest must be an impossible one, one where the quester would not succeed without the intervention of a supernatural force. Another aspect is overcoming death, or in Jacob's case a great loss. The most important element of the Dark Romantic Quest, is the sense of inevitable and irreplaceable loss that characterizes the end of the journey. I have found all of these elements or at least similar comparisons in the novel, and I feel my paper will be about one of these two ideas, either the word the slave or Jacob's quest as a Dark Romantic manifestation.

Furnace Script So Far

-Furnace
Scene One opens with Jacob and Job running away from Cossacks they have torn clothes and are dirty
Jacob: “What will I do now we just escaped, from captivity?”
Job: “We are merely runaway slaves, we have lost almost everything”
Jacob: “My wife is dead and my son has been taken away, I have nowhere to go”
Job: “My wife still alive we can try to get to my house for refuge”
Jacob: “God willing we will find salvation there”
Job: “Before I was taken away, we had a prosperous house with many servants we can recover there”
Jacob: “It's good to warm my bones beside the fire”
Job: “Let us make way to the woods, our journey will begin there, come quickly”
Jacob and Job stumble off stage into the forest
Scene Two Jacob and Job are wandering in the Garden of Eden they see Eve and Adam under the tree of knowledge
Job: “Hello good people have you any food?”
Jacob: “We have been traveling many miles and are hungry”
Adam: “There is only the tree of knowledge, but its fruit is forbidden”
Job: “Why is it forbidden?”
Eve: “God has demanded so”
Jacob: “Does not want us to prosper? We should eat of it.”
Job: “We should obey God’s word be has provided us with so much to disobedient would be heresy”
Adam: “Job is right to say so”
Eve: “The serpent told me that we would be equal with God if we ate of it”
Jacob: “If that is true eating the fruit would make us stronger and we would no longer suffer.
Job: “Everything God has created so far has been great, is this not one of his creation also”
Adam: “This is right to assume perhaps we should eat of it”
Eve picks up the pomegranate: “Thanks be to the Lord” and takes a bite, passes it around and all eat it
Adam: “I feel different now” looks at Jacob and Job “I know everything from Alpha to Omega”
Eve looks up wide eyed: “Ma ma lou jo”
Jacob turns to Job “These two now seem changed, perhaps we should go by a way in which there is NO ecstasy” they leave

A Furnace Inside

With the presentation date coming closer everyday, I prepared for my group meeting by reading the Fourth Variation: The Furnace in Frye's book. At first I was a little overwhelmed, mostly by all the allusions he makes to numerous texts. I had a hard time following his train of thought as he referenced a diverse amount of works. So initially I skipped to the second section of the chapter where he begins to talk about the imagery related to the furnace. He characterizes it as having two different qualities a one and a negative one. I agreed with this notion because as I see it a fire can be both destructive and creative. The positive image of the furnace he illustrates to be, "purgatorial, a crucible from which the redeemed emerge purified like metal in a smelting operation." The negative is, "the traditional hell which is a furnace of heat without light." I think that both of these sides of the furnace can be analyzed in the light of Job. Arguably like metal, Job had to experience the heat and pain of the furnace in order to emerge as a purified person. I think that the positive is that he learned about God's ways and became a more humble person as such. And yes I do think that the negative is essential to this transformation. Job was able to experience the light in a more profound way because he was deprived of it for so long. So like a hot piece of metal being taken out of the darkness of the furnace so Job is taken out of his suffering by God and shown the light.

Prodigal Son

My notes from class last week read, verbatim...

"Good Stories violate you
attack on your structure of explanation
Parabole

BE INSPIRED

Prodigal Son"


I have recently had some time to reflect on this notion of being violated from a story, yesterday I posted up in my room for an hour and a half just to finish "The Slave." In certain respects I felt violated and asked myself why did Sarah and Jacob have to die at such times in their lives. Sarah during after child birth, Jacob on his return to Pilitz. I felt violated because so much could have happened differently to make it a happy story. But in some respects it was a happy story, the love Jacob and Wanda had for each other was nothing short of inspirational. The fact the Jacob was able to raise his son to become a prosperous man, was simply fantastic. But why the suffering? That might be cause for some inspiration too, the fact that they had to endure so much yet were able to come back from it stirred something in my being. I in a sense reflected on my life thinking. If I could have loved and been devoted to something as much as Jacob was, to Wanda and his religion, then I can do the same in my life and receive a kind of unmatched satisfaction.

I'll now switch gears to talk about the last line of my notes from class I have posted. "Prodigal Son" is a song by the Rolling Stones, which appears on their 1968 album Beggar's Banquet. I listened to it again and pulled up the lyrics, and sure enough it was about chapter 15 in Luke. Each part of the song's verses end with either the line, "And that'll be the way to get along" or "Cause that is no way to get along" This kind of commentary gets at the notion of being violated. It almost seems to ask which is right and which is wrong, in the case of the story it is what is wrong that occurs, and that's what make it a good story, because it attacks us and complicates things, making us question the world, like we should.

Here is the complete lyrics for those who are not familiar.

Well a poor boy took his father's bread and started down the road
Started down the road
Took all he had and started down the road
Going out in this world, where God only knows
And that'll be the way to get along

Well poor boy spent all he had, famine come in the land
Famine come in the land
Spent all he had and famine come in the land
Said, "I believe I'll go and hire me to some man"
And that'll be the way I'll get along

Well, man said, "I'll give you a job for to feed my swine
For to feed my swine
I'll give you a job for to feed my swine"
Boy stood there and hung his head and cried
`Cause that is no way to get along

Said, "I believe I'll ride, believe I'll go back home
Believe I'll go back home
Believe I'll ride, believe I'll go back home
Or down the road as far as I can go"
And that'll be the way to get along


Well, father said, "See my son coming home to me
Coming home to me"
Father ran and fell down on his knees
Said, "Sing and praise, Lord have mercy on me"
Mercy

Oh poor boy stood there, hung his head and cried
Hung his head and cried
Poor boy stood and hung his head and cried
Said, "Father will you look on me as a child?"
Yeah

Well father said, "Eldest son, kill the fatted calf,
Call the family round
Kill that calf and call the family round
My son was lost but now he is found
'Cause that's the way for us to get along"
Hey

Jacob, The Slave?

Having just got through the first section of the book, entitled "Wanda", I'm contemplating this notion of Jacob and his existence as a slave. Obviously he was a literal slave in the beginning of the book until the Jews ransomed him back and took him to Josefov. But I question his underlying feelings and actions as he farms and herds for the village. He loved what he did he even loved his lust for Wanda, waiting to see her come over the hill. He admired her in a way only unconditional love could accurately describe. I think an important aspect to notice is how Jacob is a slave to himself in the light of his worship. There are many instances when I was getting mad at Jacob for being to helpless. He seemed to attribute all occurrences and feelings in his life to the creator not his own humility. In these ways he became a slave on his own accord, the village had nothing to do with his mental enslavement. He comes across to me as a very intelligent and thoughtful man, but not when it comes to Wanda. He seems to put too much faith in his religion and not love. When it is clear to anyone reading this Wanda has nothing but love and admiration for Jacob. The fact that he did not wait to hear if his family had been killed before lying with Wanda illustrates, I think, his recognition of the love they share for each other. And going back to his place in Josefov showed him what an empty existence he had before he loved Wanda. He literally could not function right without her. At times he felt repulsed by his previous actions regarding her, but through it all she never left his mind. I think one line can sum up how Jacob should think of Wanda and all other characters in the book alike. "The evil ones destroyed, the Jews created." This thought comes to Jacob as he sits waiting to meet the woman who many become his new wife and he looks around the new house that has rebuilt. He should see that Wanda is not evil but like a Jew, in that she helped create so much when she was with Jacob, she helped him learn more about his religion and its values. She made him a better Jew and he made her a better person. Now that they have just run off together I'm curios to see what this relationship will develop into.