Oedipus the King & Job Essay

Never Broken

Everyone experiences basic or extreme suffering throughout their lifetime, but how it is dealt with could result in a positive or negative outcome. In Oedipus the King and the Book of Job, Oedipus and Job are forced to deal with suffering that is out of their control. In both of their lives they struggle through hardship, try to find out why they suffer and how to prevent their suffering. Both Oedipus and Job deal with unbearable suffering, however, they react differently because of dissimilar backgrounds and different relationships with their gods. This leads to Job’s recreation from suffering and Oedipus’s destruction.

Both Job and Oedipus face suffering in their lives, but deal with it differently. Job did not know about his suffering until it actually happened and fails to understand why he is suffering to begin with. Job’s wife tells Job to turn away from God, while his three friends tell him to repent,

assuming that Job has committed a horrible sin that angered God. When Job speaks to his friend, Bildad, about his suffering, Job explains "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God" (Job 19: 25-26). Job explains that faith in God and love for Him will guide him through his suffering. As a result, Job sits quietly and waits for God to explain himself. Sadly, he experiences many losses; he loses his family, farm, wealth and develops uncomfortable boils all over his body. Job receives a reward for his faithfulness and trust in God, and at the end of the book, his health, family and riches are restored, and he lives for another one hundred and forty years. Since Oedipus cannot avoid the oracle and his fate, once he suffers, he loses all control and stabs out his eyes. He also blames the god, Apollo, for making him suffer. When Oedipus states “And the god Apollo spurned me, sent me away denied the facts I came for, but first he flashed...