The Flood Literary Analysis: Noah And The Flood

Soo Hun Yoon

Dr. McCracken and Dr. Willerton

BCORE 340.06

April 24th, 2014

Noah and the Flood: An Often Misrepresented Biblical Narrative

A well-known but often inaccurately portrayed Biblical story present in today’s society is the story of the Flood presented in Genesis. There is not a single form of media or literature that presents the story of the Flood as depicted in Genesis completely accurately. These different forms of the story do carry many of the major themes presented in the narrative. However, the details and depictions of the narratives are altered for the sake of the consumer. By consuming these forms of media of the Biblical narrative, the audience becomes a victim of a non-biblical story. The paper sought to analyze two different mediums depicting the story of Noah and the flood, comparing and relating the stories to the Genesis version and thus analyzing the impact of such misrepresentations. The first medium to be analyzed is Noah and the Ark from The Beginners Bible, a children’s book containing about 90 biblical stories, chosen for its popularity. The other medium is the movie Noah (2014), a movie depicting Aronofsky’s interpretation of the story chosen because of the controversy it stirred. Both books were chosen for its popularity and the impacts it had on its audience.

Before going any further, the story of Noah and the Flood will be summarized according to the book of Genesis in order to be able to make the comparison later in this paper. The story begins in Genesis chapter 6 describing the then current state of “wickedness.” The descendants of Adam and Eve grew in number and many of them intermarried with anyone of their choosing. God saw in them great “wickedness” and most people only had evil in the...

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