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| The 1947 Hollywood version of Sinbad |
For Monday: Sinbad the Sailor and Sinbad the Porter (pp.113-162)
Answer TWO of the following...
Like “The Barber’s Tales,” the stories of Sinbad basically tell the
same story over and over again with slight variations. Why is this? What general theme or idea runs through all Seven Voyages of
Sinbad? Are these stories meant to be
rousing adventure tales, or are they allegorical, meaning that the stories have
symbolic meaning (which is why they’re repeated so often)?
2. Throughout the
tales, both Sinbad and the other sailors claim “that which Allah has ordained
must surely come to pass” (131). Do
these stories believe in the idea of a Divine Fate like the Greeks that cannot
be bargained with or avoided? Or does
Sinbad represent a contradiction to the idea of a single, unwavering destiny
for each man and woman? Discuss a
specific example to support your answer.
3. If Sinbad is the hero of these tales, what makes him heroic? Is he a moral, Allah-fearing man who always
does the right thing? Is he intelligent
and resourceful? Or just damn lucky? What qualities do you think the stories want
us to see and appreciate? Discuss at
least one example where we see this.
1 Allah was gracious and spared Sinbad’s life on his journey. These stories reminded me of the saying about a cat with nine lives. I feel that the stories are just tells of adventures; however one does wonder how he was sometimes the only survivor of these adventures.
ReplyDelete3. Sinbad may be considered the hero, and moral at times, but he does not always do the right thing. He did have the instinct of survival, as when he was in the hole with his dead wife and killed the spouse of other couples to steal their previsions to remain alive awhile longer, this act also have him till to find an avenue of escape as he had in all the other stories.
Yes, he is like a cat with nine lives, since he always comes back--perhaps a metaphor for our own life, and how resilient mankind is (and how often we, too, can escape death)?
DeleteAndrew Reeves
ReplyDelete1. The general theme of Sinbad is that bad things happen to good people, but having faith and determination can pull you through to survive and end up prosperous. I feel that the stories are more allegorical than just roughhousing adventure, due to the fact that the adventures all start out very similarly. 4. I believe that Shahrazad is trying to open the king's eyes to how he is treating the women of his country. She is showing him that she is like Sinbad, having a defined destiny, strong intelligence and resourcefulness, and is quite lucky. These stories she tells are framing the narrative to allow the king to slowly adapt and realize that he is a different man then the one that marries Shahrazad and learns to stop his murderous killing spree.
Good point--it shows that good or bad, we're subject to fate's decrees. Where else do we see Sinbad as an allegory for this idea, or for mankind in general? Be specific, since you're on to something here...
Delete3. Sinbad does not display the true ethics and values of a hero throughout. In his dealings with the Cyclops Sinbad displays a lack of heroism by only telling him that he was “nobody”. He has a sense of self-preservation that keeps him from always doing the “right” thing as we would view it from a heroic perspective. He seems to be keeping his own neck out of trouble to save himself instead of risking himself to save others. He is fairly intelligent and resourceful though in his mission to save himself. He manufactures ways to deal with the different challenges he faces that keeps him safe or alive. This to me those lacks the qualities of heroism and borders on luck. Because he lacks the desire for power and glory he doesn’t have a hubristic approach to life. The stories are told to show us a more humble and simplistic “hero” that allows himself to choose his own destiny through the blessings of Allah.
ReplyDelete4. Shahrazad tells these stories to the King for two reasons to save herself from dying and also to start to teach the King lessons in how people survive. The King wants her killed but she sleeps with him every night and tells him a story a night. She is very much like Sinbad in the sense that she is very capable of buying time for herself to preserve her own life. Much like the story when Sinbad continually kills the people that are lowered into the burial pit and steals their food to survive, Shahrazad is willing to do whatever it takes to survive. Also I think secretly that she wants the king to understand her plight through the stories. She continually tells stories that are similar in their display of morality to point out his deficiencies as a leader.
Good points, but the "nobody" thing could be read as very humble and/or sly as well. Odysseus does the same thing in The Odyssey when he fights the cyclopes, Polyphemus. However, to a certain Greek perspective, he lacks the hubris quality, so he might not seem as heroic. He is a simple, and humble hero, one perhaps of the common people rather than of kings/warriors.
Delete1. Throughout the all of the Sinbad keeps doing the same things. He sets off from Basrah and get shipwrecked or lost at sea and washes up on a strange island with strange people and somehow survives to make it back home to Baghdad. And I do think that the stories have a deeper meaning. I think the meaning behind the stories are that no matter how good of a person you are bad things happen to everyone and all you can do is keep your head up and persevere.
ReplyDelete2. Yes I think Sinbad is a hero, I think he's actually heroic without being heroic if that makes any sense. Sinbad is very humble and respects and worships his god Allah and acts in a manner that he thinks Allah wants him to act. Another heroic trait is he never gives up hope that he will one day be back in Baghdad. Some might say his survival would be purely luck of the gods but I think in all most all of his journeys he uses his brain to get him out of the tight situations he's in. For example in his fifth journey he is forced to carry the old man of the sea on his shoulders everyday and he some how makes some homemade wine and gets the Old man of the sea drunk with it and kills him and escapes once again. I think Sinbad would make a great hero character in a movie today.
Good point--bad things happen to even good people, and the difference is not what god we blame, but how we persevere (or even, how we die). Sinbad is heroic in just this respect: he continually throws himself into danger, and while he regrets it, he keeps going back. He likes the challenge and is willing to die if necessary.
Delete2. I believe it is a good mix between both Divine Fate and an unwavering destiny. In many parts of the book he refers to Allah and how it will be Allah's will, but he is constantly trying to survive. I believe he knows that it is Allah's will for him to be in a certain predicament, but it is also his duty to try and survive and not give up. So it's kind of a mixture between Allah and him creating his own destiny. Like when he is stuck in being buried. He could have been like, well Allah put me here, so time to die, but he realized that he could survive. He just had to do it a little unconventional. See Allah put him in that situation, but he got himself out.
ReplyDelete4. I think Shahrazad tells these stories to the king because she is trying to show him that you can go on a million different voyages, but they are all going to be the same. He could have a different woman every night, but he will never have the chance to love again. I think she could be trying to teach the king that even though he had a tough voyage with his wife, he could go on an even crazier more fantastic adventure with another women. She is trying to teach him to not be so closed minded when it comes to new things; and just because he's been hurt once, doesn't mean he'll be hurt again or the same way. I personally think Shahrazad is more like Sinbad, because she's a survivalist and she's telling these stories to survive. Just like Sinbad would have done.
Yes, there's definitely more power of free will here than in the Greeks. Allah is just a distant presence, not a meddler like Zeus, etc. However, belief in him seems to strengthen Sinbad's will to survive. And I see Shahrazad as sharing in many of these traits as well, as you suggest.
DeleteMargaret Mitchell
ReplyDelete3. I do believe that Sinbad is heroic in some ways. One thing that makes him seem that way is that he doesn’t seem to do things based on hubris or because he is greedy, etc. He simply goes out and has these adventures in order to travel and explore. Not because he wants more and more of things. He does have morals and even though that can be argued in some of his adventures, but he always did what he had to do to survive. He took what Allah willed upon him and he did what he could with it. I believe he is indeed intelligent and resourceful in many ways. One being that with all these close death encounters and adventures, he managed to survive. That is exactly what he did when he was buried with his wife and damned to death. Yet, he seen the opportunity to survive and even though it wasn’t ideal, he took that opportunity. That says something about the intelligence and resourcefulness a person has. I think the stories want us to see and appreciate the qualities of morality, intelligence, resourcefulness, the belief in yourself, and the undying need to survive and never give up.
4. I think Shahrazad may be telling the king these stories to make him realize through example that even though all this bad stuff happened to Sinbad (likewise to the king), that he still trucked along. He didn’t choose to be revengeful of all conflicts he has ever had. Therefore, in a way she is trying to tell the king that he does have another option, to put on his big boy pants and stop feeling sorry for himself because his wife was unfaithful and that he needs to not get revenge on her by killing women every night. Shahrazad I think is way more like Sinbad than the king. She simply wants to survive and if telling these stories is the way to accomplish that, she will do so. Just like Sinbad, she will do what she has to do in order to survive and that is why they are more alike.
Great responses: faith is good, but what makes him even better is his intelligence and ability to adapt to any situation. He's a kind of 'normal' superhero, in that he uses his wits alone, and because of this, he survives every adventure known to man (and some we've never heard of!)
DeleteAlbanie Beck
ReplyDelete1. I think Allah in a way saves Sinbad's life. So he can go on all of these journeys. even though all of his journeys seem to be the same thing. he sets off from somewhere, gets shipwrecked or lost, gets washed up on some island with people he doesn't know, manages to survive, and somehow ends up making it back home. it is not that Sinbad is a bad person and it is karma it more like that saying 'bad things happen to good people' and I totally believe that. but if you have faith and perseverance you can get through anything.
3. Some people may see Sinbad as a hero and being moral at times because he did survive through all of his adventures and dealing with the cyclops. while others see him as a coward because he did not always do the right thing. but when it comes down to it who would honestly do the right thing if it didn't benefit them. while he was in the pit with his dead wife he also killed other people so he could eat their food. just so he could live a little while longer. I don't know why he killed other people for their food he was just going to die anyway. but I think if anyone was in his place they would probably do the same thing because they would want to live a little bit longer so they would do whatever it takes to hold on.
Good responses--he shows the value of faith and good karma, even when he acts in ways that might not seem heroic to us. However, it makes us question: what WOULD we do in such a situation?
Delete2) It's a little of Divine Fate. Sinbad does everything he in his power to avoid dying. Through the whole story he has a willing desire to have survive. He never gives up and say that he story is suppose to end for him. Sinbad didn't give up when he was in the hole with his dead wife. He figured out a way to stay alive and get out. He also knows that Allah has all the power to control everything.
ReplyDelete4) Shaharazad is telling the story to send a message to the king. She is trying to show him how the lower class people has to live. He doesn't know what they have to go through to survive. He needs to know what good morals are. Through the stories she is teaching him what the right things are. She is also just adding stuff to keep all the stories going so that she can stay alive.
Good responses here: so what morals do you think Sinbad has that the King might not have (according to Shahrazad)? What does can he learn from the lower class merchants/travelers of the world?
Delete2. I think its a combination of fate and destiny. Its almost like Allah is challenging him to overcome all these obstacles just to test his faith. But if Sinbad didn't have some sort of destiny he wouldn't have survived all those unfortunate events. Like when Sinbad tied him self to the roc, to get off the island, if Sinbad would have left it all up to Allah he probably would have died, or been killed by the roc, but it is almost like he was trying to creat his own path, and be like I might die but if i'm going to die I am going to put up one hell of a fight.
ReplyDelete3. Nothing really makes Sinbad heroic. I mean he really doesn't save anyone or do anything to be defined as a hero, but he is rather intelligent and resourceful. And I think he respects Allah more then he fears him, I mean after all Allah is the one doing this to him, and although he may sometimes question Allah he never really fears him. Like in the hole with all the dead people, Sinbad kind of losses it for a moment screaming to Allah, why would you do this to me? But he develops ways to survive it as long as possible. He rationed all his food and water, and even though he may not have been happy about is he killed other people dropped down in the hole to insure his survival, and then he rationed all his food that he got from that person, and he would have to be intelligent enough to control the food he has because he would never know when someone else would be lowered down. And also he was resourceful in his way he escaped the hole, by following the animal to see where it came from
Great responses, especially the idea about his self-sufficiency and survival. in this way, he's a kind of everyman who teaches us how to use our wits and escape the worst predicaments of fate.
DeleteKyle Straughn
ReplyDelete4. I don't think there is a under lying message to these stories but if there was it would be the diversity of life. One of the basic lessons of One Thousand and one Nights is the messiness and changeability of life. How many times does Sinbad's luck change? Is the insane barber not ultimately the salvation of the dwarf despite the fact that he has been nothing but trouble for everyone else that he's met? Every most of the stories end with the character having gained or lost standing, wealth, or body parts. I suspect that Sharazad is trying to slip in the message that fortunes change; like maybe you don't need to kill every woman you sleep with because three is really to small a sample size to call it a trend.
1. The stories of Sinbad and the Barber; like all of these stories, are meant to entertain. While we can see that the stories are repetitive in hind sight the Nights often throws us a curve ball in terms of narrative. Because you don't know what is going to happen, the story can get away with being repetitive. And because repeitive stories are easy to remember the suspenseful but repetitive stories are the ones that make it down through time. I don't see a clear theme so much as themes. Sinbad can't stop going out to sea even when he says never again, fate just won't let him have a normal trip, and he always comes back richer.
Ha, good responses! Yes, 3 bad women doesn't damn the entire world of women! I think there are a few consistent themes, which the repetition seems to foster, though they're subtle. The diversity of the world, and the sheer wonders that lie outside one's door is a good one, which we see in each one of his travels.
ReplyDelete