Don't forget! After the class responses are posted to the Message Board, read what everybody has to say about the discussion topic and respond to any or all of them, and feel free to respond to responses :)

Also remember that this is not an opinion question; you are not showcasing your personal beliefs here; we are looking at the literature as literature.

Answer one of the following:

  1. Although Milton's Paradise Lost is not part of our reading (check out the English 205 class), his epic was an attempt to justify God's ways to man--to look at "the fall" as part of a greater, positive plan many have called "The Fortunate Fall." What on earth could be fortunate about "all of the evils escaping into the world" in Pandora, or people having to work and women having to feel the pain of childbirth in Genesis? Why could the expulsion from a Garden of Eden or any other state of innocence be a positive thing, and HOW might it parallel our own lives?

    If you have read Paradise Lost, do feel free to quote/cite bits here as part of your Post and/or Responses.

  2. A lot of myths are what are called porquoi (why?) tales; they attempt to explain the origins of some phenomena that humans experience. "The Tower of Babel," for example, explains why humans speak different languages; Deucalion and Pyrrha explains how the world was repopulated after a massive flood, and Apollo and Daphne shows the origin of the laurel tree.

    No, they are not what we would call scientific; they are stories. See if you can find some others; they can be folk tales from the oral tradition (so not Disney) as well. Keeping in mind that these stories were not written for a child audience, they now seem to be found in the nursery more than in the adult sections of the library.

    Considering that myths, porquoi tales, traditional folk tales are often loaded with misery, violence, seduction, jealousy, cruelty, even mass destruction, why do you suppose that is? To be fair, some ancient literature is charming, even whimsical, but is this children's literature?