Books and Movies that have been compared to Job
This is books that are not based on the book but have been seen as similar, or where lines seem to have been taken form the work.
Where people are tested against their will when they are innocent.
Author Franz Kafka
(July 3, 1883 – June 3, 1924) was one of "the" major German language fiction writers of the 20th century. A middle class Jew based in Prague, his unique body of writing, many incomplete and most published posthumously, has become amongst the most influential in Western literature.
Book compared to his work "The Trial" (German: Der Process)
A novel by Franz Kafka about a character named Josef K., who awakens one morning and, for reasons never revealed, is arrested and subjected to the rigours of the judicial process for an unspecified crime. According to Kafka's friend Max Brod, he never finished the work and gave the manuscript to Brod in 1920. After his death, Brod edited The Trial into what he felt was a coherent novel and had it published in 1925.
Author George Orwell,
(25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950),
better known by the pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist.
Noted as a novelist, critic, political and cultural commentator, Orwell is among
the most widely admired English language essayists of the 20th century. He is
best known for two novels critical of totalitarianism in general: Animal Farm
and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Both were written and published toward the end of his
life.
Book compated to work Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) a dystopian novel by the English writer
The book tells the story of Winston Smith and his degradation by the totalitarian state in which he lives.
Along with Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, it is among the most famous and cited dystopias in literature. It has been translated into 62 languages and has left a profound impression upon the English language itself. Nineteen Eighty Four, its terminology and its author have become bywords when discussing privacy and state security issues. The term "Orwellian" has come to describe actions or organizations reminiscent of the totalitarian society depicted in the novel, and the phrase "Big Brother is watching" has come to mean any act of surveillance that is perceived as invasive. Nineteen Eighty-Four has, at times, been seen as revolutionary and politically dangerous and therefore was banned by many libraries in various countries, not mentioning totalitarian regimes.
The novel was chosen by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.
Author William Shakespeare
Book compared : Hamlet is Shakespeare's
Book of Job
In Act 3, Hamlet speaks of
the dread of something
after death,
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns
book of Job chapter 10:21 " I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death."
Later Job writes "I shall go the way whence I shall not return" (Job 16:22).
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It is said there are similarities between the Book of Mormon, and the book of Job that of with the Mormon Joseph Smith
The lines
Awake! and arise from the dust, and hear the words of a trembling parent, whose limbs ye must soon lay down in the cold and silent grave, from whence no traveler can return; a few more days and I go the way of all the earth.
are compared
to the above lines mentioned. Some use this similarity as an excuse to attack
the religion.
Rudyard Kipling
Gunga Din - Poem
Gunga Din (1892) is one of Rudyard Kipling's most famous poems, perhaps best known for its often quoted last line, "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!"
If - Poem
Especially the lines
Or watch the things you gave your life
to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
And
lose, and start again at your beginnings
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
Can be compared to the book
It's a Wonderful Life
A 1946 drama film directed by Frank Capra, produced by his own Liberty Films and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Dubbed by the American Film Institute one of the best films ever made, it placed 1 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers, a list of the most inspirational American movies of all time. It ranks 11th on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies, a list of the greatest American films. The film has also been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
It is Christmas Eve. Absent minded Uncle Billy loses $8000 cash belonging to the Bailey Building and Loan; it ends up in Mr. Potter's newspaper. Mr. Potter does not return the money. George is distraught, unable to find money anywhere. His family's constant questions, demands, and chatter about Christmas irritate him; he knows he will go to jail and take blame for the business's financial ruin. His daughter Zuzu has a cold; a stressed George phones Zuzu's teacher and yells at her for not telling Zuzu to put on her coat. Zuzu presents George with some fallen petals from a rose, which he hides in his pants pocket.
Desperately, George asks Mr. Potter for help. He declines to lend George any money, citing that the only collateral he can offer is a $15,000 life insurance policy, in which his equity is $500: George is "worth more dead than alive." He instead promises to arrest George on charges of malfeasance and manipulation of funds.
George gets drunk at Martini's Bar, and prays for help. The husband of Zuzu's schoolteacher recognizes George and punches him in the face for being so cruel to his wife.
Suddenly, George sees a stranger fall into the river. George jumps in to save
him, and the bridgekeeper quickly pulls them from the water.
As Clarence (Henry
Travers) introduces himself, George's face reeks skepticism.The stranger introduces
himself to George as Clarence Odbody, George's guardian angel, who jumped in to
save George's own life. George doesn't believe any of this, and claims "Everyone'd
be better off if I'd never been born at all."
Critical moment,
George prays. "Dear God...show me the way".George interprets this blow
as God's answer to a man in need, and, sick of the world's cruelty, contemplates
suicide by jumping into an icy river.
This much like:
from Book of Job in the Bible:
After this Job opened his mouth and cursed
his day. And Job spake and said: Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the
night in which it was said, 'There is a man child conceived'. Let that day be
darkness, let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.
Job.III.1: 4.
In the film though the lead chracter is told of how much he has done for everyone, and decides to live. His family is not punished. So it does not work out much like the book of Job. But there is a similarity in the lines of the film and book. of the lead in each asking if they should have been born.
Nala and Rama.
A similar story exists in Indian mythology with Nala and Damayanti where Nala separates from Damayanti and reunites with her. The story of stringing a bow is similar to the description in Ramayana of Rama stringing the bow to win Sita's hand in marriage.
Nala is a character in Hindu mythology. He was the husband of Damayanti and their story is told in the Mahabharata.
Nala was known for his skill with horses and
culinary expertise. His main weakness was gambling. He was possessed by the demon
Kali.
Story
Nala, also known as Nala Chakravarti (Nala the emperor), was
one of the Shat Chakravarthins (six great emperors) in Hindu mythology. He was
king of Nishadha Kingdom. He was chosen by Damayanti as husband in the swayamvara,
a function in which the bride selects her husband from among the invitees, in
preference to even the gods who came to marry her.
All the gods left the place praising the qualities of Nala and blessing the couple. But the demon Kali vowed to divert Nala from the path of Dharma, or path of righteousness or virtue, and separate Nala and Damayanti. Such was the purity of Nala that it took twelve years for Kali to find a small fault in him and bewitch his soul. After being influenced by evil, Nala played dice or gambling with his brother Pushkara and lost all his wealth and the kingdom to Pushkara. Nala and Damayanti had to live in forests where they were separated. After undergoing many sufferings, in spite of which Nala did not deviate from the path of righteousness, Nala overcame the influence of Kali and regained his kingdom by defeating Pushkar. Nala and Damayanti were reunited and lived happily thereafter.
Rama or Ramachandra: a legendary or historical king of ancient India. In Hinduism, he is considered to be the seventh Avatar of Vishnu.
He is one of the most popular heroes of Hindu mythology and folktales in South and Southeast Asia. The majority of details concerning Rama come from the Ramayana, one of the two great epics of India. Born as the eldest son of Kausalya and Dasaratha, king of Kosala, he is the embodiment of the Supreme Brahman and Dharma. Rama is Maryada Purushottama, literally The Perfect Man. Rama is the husband of Sita, who Hindus consider to be an Avatar of Lakshmi and the embodiment of perfect womanhood.
Rama's life and journey is one of perfect adherence to dharma despite harsh tests of life and time. For the sake of his father's honour, Rama abandons his claim to Kosala's throne to serve an exile in the forest. His wife, Sita and brother, Lakshmana being unable to live without Rama decide to join him, and all three spend many years in exile. This leads to the kidnapping of Sita by Ravana, the Rakshasa monarch of Lanka. After a long and arduous search that tests his personal strength and virtue, Rama fights a colossal war against Ravana's armies. In a war of powerful and magical beings, greatly destructive weaponry and battles, Rama slays Ravana in battle and liberates his wife. Having completed his exile, Rama returns to be crowned King in Ayodhya (the capital of his Kingdom) and eventually becomes Emperor of the World, after which he reigns for eleven thousand years - an era of perfect happiness, peace, prosperity and justice known as Rama Rajya.
Rama's courage in searching
for Sita and fighting a terrible war to rescue his wife and their honour is complemented
by Sita's absolute devotion to her husband's love, and perfect chastity despite
being Ravana's captive. Rama's younger brothers, namely Lakshmana, Shatrughna
and Bharata strongly complement his piety, virtue and strength, and they are believed
by many to belong to the Mariyada Purshottama and the Seventh Avatara, mainly
embodied by Rama. Rama's piety and virtue attract powerful and devoted allies
such as Hanuman and the Vanaras of Kishkindha, with whose help he rescues Sita.
The legend of Rama is deeply influential and popular in the societies of the Indian
subcontinent and across South East Asia. Rama is revered for his unending compassion,
courage and devotion to religious values and duty.
The
Book of Job in Other Literatures. II
George S. Goodspeed
The Old and New
Testament Student, Vol. 15, No. 3/4 (Sep. - Oct., 1892), pp. 105-114
This article
consists of 10 page(s).
This is seen as a good course of info on comparing the work with other literature.
He commented on how the book of Job is bery much like that of Odysseus or Ulysses. A main hero in Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey, and plays a key role in Homer's Iliad. King of Ithaca, husband of Penelope, father of Telemachus, and son of Laërtes and Anticlea (the tragedy Iphigenia at Aulis names Sysiphus as his father), Odysseus is renowned for his guile and resourcefulness, and is most famous for the ten eventful years it took him to return home after the Trojan War. Relatively little is known of Odysseus' background except that his grandfather (or step-grandfather) is Arcesius, son of Cephalus and grandson of Aeolus. Ithaca, an island along the Ionian coastline of Greece, is one of several islands that would have comprised the realm of Odysseus' family, but the true extent of the Cephallenian realm and the actual identities of the islands named in Homer's works are unknown.
He commented on how the book is very much like that of the tale in Greek mythology, Prometheus the Titan chiefly honoured for stealing fire from Zeus in the stalk of a fennel plant and giving it to mortals for their use. For that, Zeus ordered him to be chained on top of the Caucasus. Every day an eagle would come and eat his liver, but since Prometheus was immortal, his liver always grew back, so he was left to bear pain everyday. He is depicted as an intelligent and cunning figure who had sympathy for humanity. To this day, the term promethean refers to events or people of great creativity, intellect and boldness.
'The Clerk's Tale' is the first tale of Group E in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. It is followed by the Merchant's Tale. The Clerk of Oxenford (modern Oxford) is a student of what would nowadays be considered philosophy or theology. He tells the tale of Griselda, a young woman whose husband tests her loyalty in a series of bizarre torments that recall the Biblical book of Job.
Phineas Redux is a novel by Anthony Trollope, first published in 1873 as a serial in the Graphic. It is the fourth of the "Palliser" series of novels and the sequel to the second book of the series, Phineas Finn. This book has been compared to the book.
Eminent Domain (1991)
A high-ranking Polish politburo member is banished from the party, and must find out why. No explanation is given for his dramatic change of circumstances
Donald
Sutherland plays Josef Borski
Starring
Donald Sutherland as Josef Borski
Anne Archer
Direct use of job in popular culture
Biographies of many famous footballers