Blog #4

Blog #4

This week we focused on the Bible story of Abraham. Essentially this tells the story of a man named Abraham who was married to an older woman named Sarah, by the time both of them were very old Sarah was infertile and Abraham had no heir to follow him. One day God blessed Abraham and his wife Sarah with a miracle baby, Abraham named him Isaac. Abraham and Sarah loved Isaac very much because he was so valuable and precious to them. One day God instructed Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac in honor of God. Abraham knew what a huge sacrifice this was but his faith in God was strong and so he went up the mountain with his son in order to complete the deed. When Abraham had his knife poised to sacrifice his one and only son, an angel spoke to him and told him to halt the sacrifice. Abraham was relieved that he did not have to sacrifice his only son, and his faith in God was ensured. This story is present in many popular novels and movies that we see today. For example, in Memoirs of a Geisha the main character, Sayuri, sacrifices her father and home in order to show the faith that she has to Mr. Tanaka. She leaves her sickly father as well as the house that she has lived in all her life just to follow the man who she considers to be her savior figure. Sayuri makes continual sacrifices throughout the novel in order to please the saviors in her life. Near the middle of her story Sayuri sacrifices all of her time and money that she had when working as a maid only to start the grueling work of becoming an apprentice Geisha and eventually a Geisha. She also sacrifices the friendship she has with Nobu in order to ensure her successfulness as a full-time Geisha. This book is only one of the many popular novels and movies that have been created in the past hundreds of years. It is useful to know the background Biblical stories in order to fully analyze the meaning behind the stories.