Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Response to Question #1
Gilgamesh loses his innocence once he realizes that nothing is immortal. He accepts the end of things, including his own life. Once Enkidu dies, his world crumbles. He had finally cared for someone besides himself in his life, Enkidu was his best friend. Losing him made him face the reality of mortality. I would say a time of losing childhood innocence would be when my mom’s friend died. I was still a child, about five years old. I couldn’t understand why she was crying or what was happening. Seeing her cry made me cry, but I still didn’t understand why she was so sad. She then explained to me that people die all the time, sometimes the ones you care about. It made me face the reality of death. I was able to understand the mortality of everything around me, shedding that innocence along the way.
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Thanks for sharing this, Maria. You were pretty young when your mom explained this to you. Some parents might have wanted to hide this reality from their kids to "protect" them. If you were a parent, when would you tell your kids? Also, keep in mind, Gilgamesh knew about death. He knew he could die on the battle field as he sought glory and fame. I think he was taken aback by the fact that Enkidu just suddenly up and died. That's the painful part, I think--the reality that you really don't have much say in when your time is up.
ReplyDeleteForgot to add: your entry would benefit from a little more elaboration. You don't say what you thought when your mom explained this to you. You don't say how you changed, so how do you know that you lost your innocence? Normally some sort of change in behavior or habit is the sign that you've changed. If that happened, describe it.
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