The Christian Explanation of Samuel Becketts Waiting for Godot :: Waiting for Godot Essays

The Christian Explanation of Waiting for Godot    "The human predicament described in Beckett's first play is that of man living on the Saturday after the Friday of the crucifixion, and not really knowing if all hope is dead or if the next day will bring the life which has been promised."  Ã‚   --William R. Mueller  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the five decades since Waiting for Godot's publication, many of the countless attempts to explain the play have relied on some variation of this religious motif proposed by William Mueller. Though Beckett's open text invites the reader to hunt for an interpretation, statements as decisive as this one overstep the search and leave little room for any other possibility. His idea has a compelling textual basis, but its finality violates the spirit of the play. Kenneth Tynan suggests that "Beckett's Waiting for Godot is a dramatic vacuum...It has no plot, no climax, no denouement; no beginning, no middle, and no end." Such an idea forces any analyst of this enigmatic masterpiece to tread lightly and makes definite criticism nearly impossible. Before examining an explanation as conclusive as Mueller's we must acknowledge that we cannot hope to determine "the meaning" of this play. Neither the text nor its author makes a claim to any intrinsic meaning, yet a new meaning is born each tim e a reader or viewer partakes of the play.   Ã‚  Ã‚   With such cautions in mind, we can now approach Mueller's religious hypothesis with a safe detachment. The first utterance of Godot phonetically brings God to mind, and evidence throughout the play assures the reader that this path is a valid one to follow. On the most mundane level, Vladimir supports Mueller's premise with his guess at the timeframe of the play: "He said it was Saturday. I think"(10). We discover, however, that even this statement hides beneath the uncertainty as Estragon challenges, "But what Saturday? And is it Saturday? Is it not rather Sunday? Or Monday? Or Friday?" (11). His questioning reasserts that this work defies explanation and reminds us that we are following only one possible solution to an unsolvable problem.      Ã‚  Ã‚   If we read this drama with the intention of fitting Mueller's theory to the play (or perhaps the play to his theory), a vast number of previously unnoticed interpretive opportunities arise. Though the nondescript tree can be universally symbolic, when viewed from a religious standpoint it conjures an image of Christ's cross.

Major problems Facing Christianity Essay

All world religions face unprecedented times in the 21st century. The challenges are diverse and do not have easy solutions. The modern world has seen an amalgamation of global value systems and a similar confluence of socio-political ideologies and philosophies because of advances in information technology and the increased mobility made possible by modern day technology. It is feasible to find a representative of all the world major religions in each country. This has meant that the observance of each religion is no longer a mystical matter left for the convents and monasteries, but has become one that can be easily and readily scrutinized and compared with alternatives – which by the way do not have to be religious. In considering these challenges, those that affect Christianity can represent to a fair degree the struggles the others are facing and can provide a platform for the discussion of these forces. Christianity is by design an expansionist religion. Jesus sent out his disciples with the express command to evangelize all the nations. It is therefore the core duty of every Christian to spread the faith. Globalization is probably the most significant force affecting world religions, both serving and limiting the. Many technological changes took place in the closing half of the 20th century epitomized by the rise of the internet symbolizes the rise of the global village. Substantial changes include increasing ease of commercial travel by jets and high-speed trains, efficient telephone systems and powerful radio’s, the television set and a very efficient and diversified print and electronic media. The world has enjoyed many benefits because of these and indeed, even Christianity has had powerful tools to take its message across the world. Many a televangelist and bible teachers go on air in daily or weekly broadcasts, some with a global audience. Taped messages are downloadable from the internet as podcasts. Even if it is not possible to get the message in real time, it remains available for anyone to get it and watch or listen to it at their convenience. As commercial empires have grown into multinationals, so have efficient delivery networks, which now ensure the timely delivery of CD’s and DVD’s, magazines and newspapers to a global audience. However, these means for dissemination of information have not been available to just the Christian enterprise, they have also available to other establishments that have competing interests, usually commercial, and at times ideological that have employed them to good effect. A Christian watching television is not only watching popular televangelists preach the gospel, but at the comfortable press of a remote button, can watch virtually anything else. These options do not always complement the message heard but at times even go against the Christian value system. A Christian therefore is under immense pressure to conform to the prevailing worldview, as he does not live in a shielded Christian community, but rather in an information razzmatazz for which he has to sift through consistently, if he is to retain and spread the Christian message. As Smart (2000) puts it, â€Å"Even if each tradition stays true to its own message, it will have to operate in a context of this federal world civilization. † Secularization, which is a force to reckon with, has made it more difficult to proselytize. Faith is regarded as a personal issue and hence attempts to discuss faith in non-Christian settings with the hope of making disciples have become an uncomfortable, if not offensive undertaking. Decisions about what faith to ascribe to are made personally and increasingly, privately. After all, isn’t Christianity just one of the options? As Smart (2000) explains, â€Å"Making religion a private matter can also lead to a religion’s becoming just a minor element in a total fabric of living†. Smart (2000) adds, â€Å"Just as a person belongs to the golf club, so that person may join a church.† New age thinking has also made its blow on Christianity. Christianity claims exclusivity of access to salvation, and an exclusive personal God. One of the key new age values is tolerance to all religious beliefs and belief systems. Christianity therefore finds itself in a place where it must find a means of relating with the rest of the world religions, violating the fundamental belief in a single way to salvation. In addition, some of the practices of other religions meet the Christian threshold for classification as idolatry. This just serves to multiply the points of conflict. Further on, the modern world, especially those parts where democracy is dominant, acceptance in matters such as homosexuality is encouraged. This becomes a difficult undertaking for a traditional Christian, as it is excruciating for them to reconcile the practice of the Christian faith with homosexuality and therefore will demand a renouncement of the practice of homosexuality before Christian fellowship can commence. Another area of difficulty for the Christian faith has been the place of women in leadership. Feministic influence has pervaded traditional Christian leadership set up where formal overall leadership was the preserve of men. The Catholic Church still holds to this ideal, while the Anglican Communion has opened its priesthood in women. Protestant congregations and denominations seem to have much more flexibility in the matter, with a large number of women pastors and bishops, in some cases as the overall head of a denomination. Radicalization of faith has brought its share of problems to the world in general. Smart (2000) says, â€Å"Other sects are, in principle or in practice, at odds with society, and seek to change it radically, possibly by rebellion and upheaval. † Many people view Christianity as a western religion. Those who have any disagreements with the west therefore consider Christianity as a legitimate representative of the west. In countries where Christians are in the minority, militant religious fundamentalists have attacked them or their institutions as revenge against the west. State control has also had its punch at the Christian faith. Most of the socialist states such as the former USSR and China have had a very rigid stance against religion in general and Christianity has suffered as one of them. In others, proselytizing is illegal and attracts severe penalty. The spread of the Christian faith remains impeded thus. The Christian message along with that of other world religions has become more difficult to sell in a materialistic society. People do not see why they should wait for a coming glory when they can have the good life now made possible by modernization, which has generally increased the living standards in the world, most pronounced in the western world. â€Å"Then again, the new forms of social and economic organization promised a richer life here and now† (Smart, 2000, p. 138) It will be interesting to see how Christianity evolves in the coming age when each of these forces will have had sufficient time to unleash their full impact.

How and Why Guinea Pigs Were Domesticated

Guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) are small rodents raised in the South American Andes mountains not as friendly pets, but primarily for dinner. Called cuys, they reproduce rapidly and have large litters. Today guinea pig feasts are connected with religious ceremonies throughout South America, including feasts associated with Christmas, Easter, Carnival, and Corpus Christi. Modern domesticated adult Andean guinea pigs range from eight to eleven inches long and weigh between one and two pounds. They live in harems, approximately one male to seven females. Litters are generally three to four pups, and sometimes as many as eight; the gestation period is three months. Their lifespan is between five and seven years. Domestication Date and Location Guinea pigs were domesticated from the wild cavy (most likely Cavia tschudii, although some scholars suggest Cavia aperea), found today in the western (C. tschudii) or central (C. aperea) Andes. Scholars believe that domestication occurred between 5,000 and 7,000 years ago, in the Andes. Changes identified as the effects of domestication are increased body size and litter size, changes in behavior and hair coloration. Cuys are naturally gray, domesticated cuys have multicolored or white hair. Keeping Guinea Pigs in the Andes Since both wild and domestic forms of guinea pigs can be studied in a laboratory, behavioral studies of the differences have been completed. Differences between wild and domestic guinea pigs are in some part behavioral and part physical. Wild cuys are smaller and more aggressive  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹and pay more attention to their local environment than domestic ones and wild male cuys do not tolerate each other and live in harems with one male and several females. Domestic guinea pigs are larger and more tolerant of multi-male groups, and exhibit increased levels of social grooming of one another and increased courtship behavior. In traditional Andean households, cuys were (and are) kept indoors but not always in cages; a high stone sill at the entrance of a room keeps cuys from escaping. Some households built special rooms or cubby holes for cuys, or more typically keep them in the kitchens. Most Andean households kept at least 20 cuys; at that level, using a balanced feeding system, Andean families could produce at least 12 pounds of meat per month without decreasing their flock. Guinea pigs were fed barley and kitchen scraps of vegetables, and the residue from making chicha (maize) beer. Cuys were valued in folk medicines and its entrails were used to divine human illness. Subcutaneous fat from the guinea pig was used as a general salve. Archaeology and the Guinea Pig The first archaeological evidence of the human use of guinea pigs dates to about 9,000 years ago. They may have been domesticated as early as 5,000 BC, probably in the Andes of Ecuador; archaeologists have recovered burned bones and bones with cut marks from midden deposits beginning about that time. By 2500 BC, at sites such as the Temple of the Crossed Hands at Kotosh and at Chavin de Huantar, cuy remains are associated with ritual behaviors. Cuy effigy pots were made by the Moche (circa AD 500-1000). Naturally mummified cuys have been recovered from the Nasca site of Cahuachi and the late prehispanic site of Lo Demas. A cache of 23 well-preserved individuals was discovered at Cahuachi; guinea pig pens were identified at the Chimu site of Chan Chan. Spanish chroniclers including Bernabe Cobo and Garcilaso de la Vega wrote about the role of the guinea pig in Incan diets and ritual. Becoming a Pet Guinea pigs were introduced into Europe during the sixteenth century, but as pets, rather than food. Remains of one guinea pig were recently discovered within excavations at the town of Mons, Belgium, representing the earliest archaeological identification of guinea pigs in Europe--and similar in time to the 17th-century paintings which illustrate the creatures, such as the 1612 Garden of Eden by Jan Brueghel the Elder. The excavations at the site of a proposed parking lot revealed a living quarter which had been occupied beginning in medieval times. The remains include eight bones of a guinea pig, all found within a middle-class cellar and adjacent cesspit, radiocarbon dated between AD 1550-1640, shortly after the Spanish conquest of South America. The recovered bones included a complete skull and the right part of the pelvis, leading Pigià ¨re et al. (2012) to conclude that this pig was not eaten, but rather kept as a domestic animal and discarded as a complete carcass. Sources History of the Guinea Pig  from archaeologist Michael Forstadt. Asher, Matthias. 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Rosenfeld SA. 2008.  Delicious guinea pigs: Seasonality studies and the use of fat in the pre-Columbian Andean diet.  Quaternary International  180(1):127-134. Sachser, Norbert. Of Domestic and Wild Guinea Pigs: Studies in Sociophysiology, Domestication, and Social Evolution. Naturwissenschaften, Volume 85, Issue 7, SpringerLink, July 1998. Sandweiss DH, and Wing ES. 1997.  Ritual Rodents: The Guinea Pigs of Chincha, Peru.  Journal of Field Archaeology  24(1):47-58. Simonetti JA, and Cornejo LE. 1991.  Archaeological Evidence of Rodent Consumption in Central Chile.  Latin American Antiquity  2(1):92-96. Spotorno AE, Marin JC, Manriquez G, Valladares JP, Rico E, and Rivas C. 2006.  Ancient and modern steps during the domestication of guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus L.).  Journal of Zoology  270:57–62. Stahl PW. 2003.  Pre-columbian Andean animal domesticates at the edge of empire.  World Archaeology  34(3):470-483. 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