2nd draft

Book: The Epic of Gilgamesh

Topic: The Relationship Between Gilgamesh and Enkidu

In the “Epic of Gilgamesh” significant changes appears in the personality of Gilgamesh, as he is the main character of the story. As Gilgamesh has a strong charismapersonality, and the book gives the readers a preview of Gilgamesh’s personality, motivations, and objectives. The appearance of Enkidu affected Gilgamesh’s life from all perspectivein many ways. Moreover, the two major characters meet as enemies but ended up being good friends. From the beginning of them being enemies and till being friends. This paper analysis this friendship as Enkidu influenced Gilgamesh’s personality in positive ways that lead into being a better king to his people. [How? This is a good idea. But I don’t see a clear and specific thesis statement that tells me exactly what you hope to prove in the paper, what your overall conclusion will be. You need to tell me, very concisely, right here in the introduction, the complete idea of the paper. What does it mean for our understanding of the story or the characters in the story that this may be true? Finish the thought. So, characterize the way Gilgamesh changes, or how Enkidu does this. But then you must say what this means for our understanding of Gilgamesh.]

[You also need help with your writing. I haven’t corrected all the little errors of word choice, agreement, etc. throughout the paper. But you need to do this for the whole paper before you turn in the final version. Consider taking the paper to the Writing Center in Tuttleman and having one of the tutors there go over it with you before you turn it in. Or you could ask a native English speaker whom you trust to go over it with you.]

Gilgamesh who is a great leader and worrier is the king of the people of Uruk. His leadership style was shown in his cruel and injustice behavior towards his people that led them to complain to the gods. Furthermore, these complaints lead the gods to rise up a counterpart, Enkidu.

The character Enkidu was raised in the wild, in the beginning of his appearance he meet a prostitute who took him out of the wild. Thus, at the beginning of Enkidu and Gilgamesh’s first meeting, Enkidu was unhappy with the way Gilgamesh interrupted his event with the prostitute (Page 12 lines 2-5). The fight between them marked the foundation of their friendship as Gilgamesh’s strength turned him out to victory where Enkidu accepts, thus they became good friends.

Their friendship lead to a visit to the forest, where Gilgamesh was basically out for extension of his superiority fame. During the journey to the forest they noticed that they could camp after every three days for a ritual, thatritual that is aimed at provoking a dream (Page 30 lines 1-2). They found it hard to penetrate the forest due to the high security by the ogre. Hence, they hatched a plan to get in.

Gilgamesh and Enkidu encountered Humbaba on their way in. Humbaba recognized Enkidu since he used to live in the forest. When Gilgamesh and Humbaba fought, Shamesh used her powers to provoke thirteen winds that blinded Humbaba, which lead to Gilgamesh’s victory (Page 39 lines 3-5). After that, they took charge of the place and courageously went further into the forest.

As Gilgamesh and Enkidu returned from the forest, goddess Ishtar found herself developing love feelings toward Gilgamesh. As she confessed her feelings to him and asking him to merry her, Gilgamesh turned Ishtar down by reminding her of her history with her past lovers. This made Ishtar mad and leadled her to go out for the fiery bull of heaven, which she intended to use against Gilgamesh. However, the weakness of the bull was clear to Enkidu and Gilgamesh, so they killed it before it was used and celebrated that victory, which insulted Ishtar more.

After the celebration, Enkidu and Gilgamesh went to sleep. Thus, Enkidu had two dreams that made him scared. The first dream was basically an obvious sign of his death. He saw the gods gathered in quest for his death. In the dream, he curses the great cedar that he used on the journey to the forest with Gilgamesh. The cedar did not secure him the favor of the gods. So, this led Enkidu to turn on the blame to the initial agents that transformed him from the forest life to civilization amongst them being the prostitute. On the other hand, the second dream involved him encountering an angle of death. The angle assures of hell, this dream made him shake until he woke up. After waking up from those nightmares, Enkidu immediately narrates his dreams to Gilgamesh and gets ill (Pages 55 lines 3-7). After narrating the story, Enkidu dies which included the negotiations on whether he was innocent or guilty.

From many events happened with Enkidu and Gilgamesh, its noticeable that they had been more than great friends and the death of Enkidu left Gilgamesh wondering in this world. Moreover, after the death of his best friend, Gilgamesh decided to go on a journey seeking for immorality. In his journey, he comes to a scorpion man who guards the path to the mountains. This is the mountain where the sun sets and rises, so Gilgamesh believes that he shall find the solution here (Page 70 line 2-5). Even through the scorpion man warned Gilgamesh of the danger in the mountain, Gilgamesh entered the mountains until he came across a garden by the sea.

The goddess at the garden on the sea spotted Gilgamesh and has a conversation with him. Gilgamesh narrates everything that he has encountered including his journey to find immorality and how he fears death due to Enkidu’s death. For that, he simply inquires the direction from the goddess to access Uta-nappishti. However, the goddess warned him about the danger along the way he wants including the waters of death, but finally gives him the direction to the place he wants to go to. On the way to Uta-nappishiti, Gilgamesh encounters several trials but at the end he managed to maneuver through to the end of the hard task of crossing the waters of death.

Finally, after all what he went through Gilgamesh meets the desire of his life that he knew was going to be the solution of all his fears. However, he was amused by the fact that Uta-nappishiti was immortal and had eternal life. In addition, Uta-nappishiti asks Gilgamesh to go for a week without sleeping, but he fails the tests and sleep. After hopeless trials and continues failures to being immortal, Gilgamesh returns to Uruk with so many lessons that he learned during his adventure with Enkidu and the journey.

[Here and throughout the paper you need better evidence from the book. You have vague references to the text that serve to remind the reader of the story and how your argument links to the story as you move along. You need long, substantial quotes that don’t just provide context but prove that the underlying supposition in each point in the paper is valid. If you need space to include these, pare down some of the plot summary you have in each point that also only serves to provide the context of your ideas in the story.]

In conclusion, all these events and actions that happened during and after the relationship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu shows the impact of this friendship on Gilgamesh’s personality. He conquered Enkidu and made him one of his great friends who all have been with him all along. It is indeed true that he confirms his physical strength through the victory he acquires in all the battles that he engaged in. But as much as he succeeds in winning battles he will always be remained in fear of one aspect of life, and that is death. As he was seeking immorality he finally realized his fear, and he became a different person. The death of his best friend taught real life lessons, as he now fears dying as a bad king with the evil reputation. Thus, he changed to be a better king who is remembered for his kindness and justice. Therefore, he achieved the immorality he was seeking through long-lasting fame thanks to his this friendship that changed his personality and life forever.

Work Cited

George, A. T. The Epic of Gilgamesh.

[This is good. Look at your thesis statement and at your evidence and make sure that each is doing all it should to help you prove that your overall thesis is valid. And pare down some of the plot summary in favor of quotes from the book.]

Your Grade (see attached rubric):

Main idea: 15 / 25

Evidence: 15 / 25

Organization: 25 / 25

Mechanics: 20 / 25

Total: 75 / 100

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Assessment Standards for Writing Papers

Criteria	Excellent	Good	Fair	Poor
Main idea (25 possible points)	Paper has a focus and a clear thesis statement that answers the assignment. (25 points)	Paper has a focus but the thesis may lack specificity. (20 points)	Paper’s focus is unclear or not clearly related to the assignment. (15 points)	Paper lacks a focus and/or fails to address the assignment. (10 points)
Evidence (25 possible points)	Use of text(s) shows good understanding of and response to key ideas. Quotations or paraphrases are integrated into prose. References/citations of text(s) are clear. (25 points)	Use of text(s) shows adequate understanding of and response to key ideas. Quotations or paraphrases are clearly identified. (20 points)	Use of text(s) shows basic understanding of key ideas. Paper shows some problems introducing and citing quotations or paraphrases. (15 points)	Use of text(s) shows lack of understanding. Textual support may be missing or references may fail to adequately identify source material. (10 points)
Organization (25 possible points)	Introduction engages the reader and states thesis. Body paragraphs connect to and develop main idea logically. Transitions are clear. Conclusion points to the paper’s purpose (i.e. answers “so what” question). (25 points)	Introduction sets up the focus of the paper. Body paragraphs connect to the main idea but may need further development or clearer transitions. Conclusion summarizes the argument. (20 points)	Introduction missing or not clearly directed to the paper’s focus. Body paragraphs too short (not developed) or too long (lack logical divisions into topics) or not clearly connected to main idea. Lacks transitions. Conclusion missing or off the topic. (15 points)	Introduction missing or not directed to the paper’s focus. Body paragraphs not developed and/or lack connection to main idea. Lacks transitions. Conclusion missing or off the topic. (10 points)
Grammar, mechanics, and diction (25 possible points)	Paper is essentially error-free and employs the conventions and diction of academic discourse. (25 points)	Paper has occasional errors, but is comprehensible and attempts the conventions and diction of academic discourse. (20 points)	Paper has numerous or distracting errors but is comprehensible and commensurate with college level writing. (15 points)	Paper lacks mastery of basic skills and makes numerous grammatical and mechanical errors, as well as errors in syntax, paragraphing, and diction. (10 points)