What is the claim (message) of fear by Gary Soto

throughout the ancient epic of gilgamesh, the protagonist, gilgamesh of course, exhibited many character traits that made him a true epic hero. one great trait that gilgamesh acquires of an epic hero is that he's a courageous and confident leader. in the text enkidu is too afraid to fight, but he's positive that gilgamesh has the ability to triumph against humbaba. gilgamesh tells enkidu to not be afraid and then continues on to remind him of all the victories he's had against similar foe. gilgamesh proves that he's confident by encouraging enkidu and shows he's courageous when enkidu ask gilgamesh to battle humbaba alone because he knows that gilgamesh will reign victorious.

another characteristic that makes gilgamesh an epic hero is that he's brave and takes risks. "dread surged through gilgamesh, terror flooded his muscles, his heart froze, his mouth went dry, his legs shook, his feet were rooted to the ground. / gilgamesh felt his courage return. they charged at humbaba like two wild bulls." when reading the first part of the quote you see that gilgamesh is terrified of humbaba, and realizing that humbaba is the antagonist he's about to battle is taking a big risk. gilgamesh soon shows how brave he is by not letting his fear of humbaba overtake him, instead he went charging into the face of fear and triumphs.

the thousand and one nights – or, as i prefer to call them in the following for purely practical reasons: the arabian nights – as we perceive them three hundred years after antoine galland’s epochal french adaptation bear a distinct arabic imprint. meanwhile, the commonly accepted model for their textual history acknowledges various stages in the conceptualization and effective formation of both the collection’s characteristic frame story and the embedded repertoire. the vast majority of tales in the preserved manuscripts of the nights has been integrated into the collection during two periods of arabic influence, the so-called baghdad and cairo periods (gerhardt 1963: 115–374). these “arabic” stages are preceded by an iranian version, probably dating to pre-islamic times, which in its turn profits from both structural devices and narrative contents originating from indian tradition. considering the eminent position that iran and iranian culture hold in the early stages of the textual history of the arabian nights, surprisingly few details are known concerning the collection’s relation to and its actual position within the iranian cultural context. in the following, i will discuss links between the arabian nights and iranian culture on several levels. in surveying these links, i will treat five major areas: (1) the iranian prototype of the nights; (2) tales of alleged persian origin; (3) persian characters within the tales; (4)persian translations of the arabian nights; and (5) the position of the arabian nights in modern iran