Hagar is the woman some commentators think treated Sarai with disdain, while others view her as the victim of Abram and Sarai’s impatience and disobedience to God. In this paper I will review each commentators thought on Hagar in Genesis 16, and my opinion on their observations. This paper will be broken into four sections: Harsh criticisms of Hagar, Hagar as the victim, unbiased of Hagar, three different points of view, and the conclusion. Hagar is a maidservant, and therefore is only supposed to be treated like such. This is the impression I received from the book, Abraham and All the Families of the Earth by Gerald Janzen. Janzen opens the commentary expressing, “Male and female are called to help one another. Abraham and Sarai are peer …show more content…
Bergant uses her title as a slave to further portray her life was not her own. The reading goes on to say, “Without being asked, she is given to a patriarch in order to produce a child that will not even be considered hers.” (Bergant 64) Furthermore, it says the child will be adopted without consent. Through Hagar’s eyes, she has no choice in the matter, and she is a slave to her …show more content…
In these sections some authors were fair in their conclusions and other authors were a little more harsh and biased toward a certain character or two. Through reading these commentaries I’ve learned that each person has their own view on Hagar, and more importantly, the way the text is written depicts how the character will be portrayed. The way a woman is portrayed in the bible is dependent upon the author and their bias. Hagar may be the selfish one in this situation, but she could also be the victim of Abraham and Sarah’s impatience with God. It just depends on how you read
He presents the themes and elements of the pre-Islamic society, including its tribal culture, economic culture, religious background, prominence of poetry (how the Qur’an situates itself in relation to the poetry of the “Jahileen”), and discusses gender issues (particularly infanticide of daughters). Moreover, he introduces the connection between Abraham and Muhammad which is identified as the “cornerstone to the Islamic tradition” (84), situating it relative to other monotheistic religions. Through these elements Safi notes that pre-Islamic Arabia shaped the ways in which “Islamic discourses and practices expressed themselves” (53) thus providing the “the context of Islamic practices”
She obviously wasn’t acting like a normal person when she tried to kill Milkman, but I think by the end you get a better feel for why Hagar acts the way she does. Her behavior doesn’t always seem to be entirely her fault, as Pilate and Reba somewhat enable her when it comes to being spoiled. I find it interesting that Morrison decided to kill Hagar off, but keep the reason for her death slightly ambiguous. We’re probably supposed to assume she died of a broken heart, as her death seems to happen in a fairly short amount of time. But I think this always has to do with the mythical aspect of the book, as the way Hagar handles herself is fair from realistic at times. But her materialistic way of thinking that new clothes and a different hair style will help her out in any way is somewhat more realistic. There’s people in real life with this kind of view and just like Hagar they wind up with nothing. Hagar’s shopping spree and death in the end of the book just goes to show how completely out of touch she is with how Milkman really feels about her and how she chooses to make herself happy. Putting more meaning into relationships and your own self-worth will always be much more significant that trying to treasure material
“The Coming of Lilith” is a powerful retelling of the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It is an intriguing retelling that combines the characters we know and has them interacting in ways that we would never have imagined. Judith Plaskow tells the story in a way that is skeptical of the patriarchal society that we live in as but provides empowering role models for women in the independent versions of Eve and Lilith. This story is a prime example of Midrash and the ever-continuing efforts of women to find their place in male dominated
Independence is something most humans strive for, although some are not lucky enough for it to be an option for them. When a person loses their independence they lose the faith in themselves that they are even capable of being independent. Once the right is taken away, a person will become dependent on others, and unable to function as they used to. Most people would sit back and let their right be taken, but not Hagar Shipley. Hagar loses her independence as most do, because of her age. Doris confronts Hagar about an accident she had when she wet the sheets, and Hagar begins to feel the vice slowly closing down on her already tiny slice of independence. Feeling threatened, Hagar snaps, “That’s a lie. I never did any such thing. You’re making it up. I know your ways. Just so you’ll have some reason for putting me away.” (Lawrence 74) As if Hagar wasn’t having a difficult enough time wat...
In comparison to these epics, are the stories told in the Old Testament of the Bible. As with the epics, these legends offer a spiritual idea of the beginning of time and the accounts of early man. Evaluating the stories and characters of the first epic, “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” with the first chapter of the Bible, Genesis, many similarities and differences are recognized. “To explain these parallels scholars have suggested that either one narrative depended on the other or both of them depended on a common source” (Njozi 303).
My essay will challenge the comparison and differentiation between a scene from the sacred text in The Hebrew Bible and The Yusuf Sura of the Koran. The scene I will be focusing is the one in which Joseph is seduced by the king’s wife. More specifically, I will be demonstrating that in the Koran good and evil are made explicit in the world of the story and for the reader, while the Bible suggest that you should identify good and evil for yourself.
Although Hagar flaunts her pregnancy with Abraham in the face of Sarah who is barren, Sarah is ultimately responsible for generating trouble in Abraham’s household. Through Sarah’s decision to give Hagar to Abraham, Sarah’s jealousy and anger towards Hagar’s reaction to conception, and also Sarah’s harsh treatment of Hagar, we are able to understand why Sarah is truly the one accountable for the negative circumstances throughout her relationship with Hagar.
In the first chapter of God Behaving Badly, David Lamb argues that God is unfairly given a bad reputation. He claims these negative perceptions are fueled by pop culture and lead many to believe the lie that the God of the Old Testament is angry, sexist, racist, violent, legalistic, rigid, and distant. These negative perceptions, in turn, affect our faith. Ultimately, Lamb seeks to demonstrate that historical context disproves the presumptuous aforementioned. In addition, he defends his position by citing patterns of descriptions that characterize God throughout the Old Testament. “Our image of God will directly affect how we either pursue or avoid God. If we believe that the God of the Old Testament is really harsh, unfair and cruel, we won’t want anything to do with him” (Lamb 22). Clearly, they way Christians choose to see God will shape their relationship with Him.
Hagar’s duality and ambivalence towards Manawakan values is revealed as she simultaneously seems to flout as well as continue those. It gives way to the development of her complexity as a character that remains with Hagar throughout her life and affects her relationship with others. She finds herself unable to express herself to either of her brothers. She wanted
Because of this, Hagar found her answer elsewhere in the form of her cousin Milkman, initiating an incestuous relationship between the two that would last for a few years until Milkman, once obsessed and in love, decides to end the affair for good, equating her to the “third beer...the one you drink because it's there, because it can't hurt, and because what difference does it make?” (Morrison 91), and completing the action through a written letter sent to her door. Upon reading the letter, Morrison writes that the termination “sent Hagar spinning into a bright blue place where people spoke in whispers or did not make sounds at all, and where everything was frozen except for an occasional burst of fire inside her chest that crackled away until she ran out into the streets to find Milkman Dead” (Morrison 99). If Hagar did not express any signs of psychological damage before this act, there is no possible way that would continue to hold true. When Milkman ended things, Hagar, for the first time, was denied what she wanted and forced to deal with the outside world and its true weight. In this instance Bakerman, in his proposed theme of failed female initiation, asserts that “when it is time for
The society that is described in Beowulf, is to be one that is Male dominated. There are many aspects of the story that reflect Male domination in its society. The first is that all main characters that play a role in the story are males. Men are involved with all events, and actions that take place in the story. The females seem to play a passive role in the story, where they are probably staying in their homes or within the village. They are viewed as an item to men in Beowulf. Hrothgar’s wife, Wealhtheow is beautiful, respectable, and has a gentle character. Hrothgar being king, expects this from her because she is a representation of his status. In Beowulf, men of status all seem to have a female of desirable characteristics that they show
In the story, a women’s status is clear. Women are deemed as less important and less powerful compared to men. However, they are important and powerful characters that drive the story with their feminine qualities. Men often use women to gain for themselves, regardless of the outcome for the women. One of the women mentioned at the beginning of the story, “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” is Shamhat, a harlot taken to seduce and tame Enkidu, by the hunter who discovers Enkidu. Shamhat is told to use her womanly ways to seduce Enkidu, dragging him away from his wild beast life. “Treat him, a human, to women’s work” (The Epic of Gilgamesh 104), There was no concern whatsoever to Shamhat’s well-being or safety. Yes, she was a harlot, but she was put in serious danger when she was used as bait to lure a wild man away from other wild beasts.
The topic I found interesting, in this week’s reading material, was the role of women in 1 Samuel. The Book of 1 Samuel contains the following, “constructing history from narratives, dialogue, focus on individual and family relationships, and cast in the ideological perspective of the Deuteronomistic Historians” (Coogan, 2011, p. 202). The head of the house was of course the father, or eldest male, that ruled over his family and property. “Life for women was much as it had been during the days of the confederation and as prescribed in the ancient legal codes” (Coogan, 2011, p. 203). The women were considered property of their father and husbands. However, the women also consider ‘spoils of war’ (Coogan, 2011). During this time period, it was not usual for men to have several wives, practice of polygyny. I could definitely understand how this could cause jealousy and rivalry amongst the wives (Coogan, 2011).
The knight bases his decision off of information he learns in the beginning of the tale; that “women desire to have sovereignty as well over their husbands as their loves, and to be in mastery above” (Chaucer WBT 1038-1040). With this information, the knight voluntarily decides to give the hag control over his decision, given that a woman’s greatest desire is to have control. The hag rewards the knight’s decision by becoming “both fair and good, as will be plain” (Chaucer WBT 1240). This reward allows the knight to understand that it is beneficial for the hag to have authority in their marriage, as events will end favorably for him if he continues to give her the
After the wedding, Hagar becomes determined to change the way her husband behaves. His manners are rude and unexpected. This only embarrasses her. Later on in the novel, Hagar realizes that she herself is he embarrassing one, having humiliated people like her son, John or her daughter-in-law, Doris.