Death, the ultimate equalizer
As I previously spoke on in class, I want to elaborate on my point that Gilgamesh failing in reaching immortality gives the ending so much more importance. Let us propose an ending in which the snake doesn't eat the flower and Gilgamesh returns with his boons for the people, life forever. I would say that Gilgamesh and the people, if they were blessed/cursed with this flower, would become something similar to the gods and ultimately, life would lose it's purpose (whatever you want to call it). Thankfully, the story doesn't end that way and we have Gilgamesh return to the city and realize one thing that we all do at some point: life is short, death is real, and that is what makes every action important. We don't have eternity to continue failing with no fear of it all ending. We are finite beings and our lives are only but a spark just as quickly gone as it came. I believe that is a central theme of the book, that remembrance through our lives and how we impacted the world for the better is how we live on though we face death physically.
Commented on Cody's and Katie's
Commented on Cody's and Katie's
I stopped in the middle of your post so many times imagining what life might have been for Gilgamesh and his people that I had to re-read it a lot. But, you are right. Life would lose its purpose and people would lose their motivation. Nothing would get done, because people would put off doing certain tasks until the next day. Also, you have to worry about overpopulation. I definitely agree with your central theme idea. Death can be a big factor in motivation people to do more and do better, whether it is from trying to honor someone (as Gilgamesh tried to do for his friend) or by trying to be remembered.
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