The Woman, the Giant, and the Vulture

Candice McCarty

Professor Morgan Peters

English 200-08

December 15, 2011

 Life is full of questions, why am I tall, why do I have brown hair, why does Susy have prettier clothes than I do? Some questions are easily answered say by Google or a textbook, but back in ancient times, answers to these questions were not so easily found. Like mentioned before answers are found through stories, and the story The Woman, the Giant, and the Vulture is no different. Here the characters struggle with trying to find the answers to the questions they ask.

The first character we come across in the story is a woman. Her character is seriously flawed in that she frequently finds herself pregnant all the time. The next character is a giant who is upset over the fact that he is so large. The third character is a vulture who seeks the answer as to why he is the color black. All three characters seek out the wisdom of God in order to find the answers to help ease their thoughts and suffering.

            The woman is showed from God a scenario of a hen with a flock of roasters. He highlights to the woman how the hen is perused by all the roasters, yet she gives in to none. He points out to the woman to take advice from this hen and quick simply, not give into every man’s desires with which she encounters. Basically he told her to stop being promiscuous. One could say this can relate to many college students, and that given we all make mistakes that we are not proud of, we should stop after the first mistake because if you learned the first time, don’t do it again.

            The giant on the other hand is given a completely different scenario where he is placed in a room where a dead baby is lying in the middle of the floor. He is simply told that if he was that baby he wouldn’t be here today to complain about simply his large size. He emphasizes the fact that life is precious, and not to be taken for granted, and to happy that you are living, when some are not as fortunate as you. Take life seriously, and not waste it doing stupid things like drugs, and abusing alcohol because one might want life to simply feel the air on their face, while others are out falling drunk in the streets.

The vulture is given no explanation to his question, but the story tells how the narrator of this story stops in his narration, and when asked what became of the vulture, his response was simple, “Lift up his tail and kiss his ass.” The meaning to this quote I am most certainly unclear, but it might be a reference as to why black people are black and white people are white. It doesn’t give a direct answer because simply there is no answer and there will be no way to ever come up with one on our own, it is not in our nature to understand the “will of god”. The comment might be made as a pride aspect to saying well we are what we are and there is nothing wrong with that and you should be proud of who you are and what color your skin is. Either way the story tells a lot of life lessons through the eyes of many developed characters.