Letter To Bonobo

Dear, Dad

Dad you wouldn’t believe this piece of artwork from a book by a primatologist in our first year read in class the other day The Bonobo and the Atheist “The Garden Of Earthly Delights” by Heironymus Bosch. It may be one of the most overwhelming paintings to ever understand, and you know how I am when I don’t understand something at first how frustrated I get. At a first glance you would say how could I ever understand what one could even think such a painting could mean, from the first panel having god and Adam and Eve together, to the second panel having people run around a beautiful landscape with contrast of pink and blue colors and enjoy the pleasure of the world, on to the third with what you would see as hell and havoc. I had

The second panel can be interpreted in many different ways you can see people frolicking around while they are naked, people are being fed berries by birds and sexual encounters are seen. It is meant to be read from top to bottom. When you read it this way it starts off very abstract and becomes something that you and I can understand and relate with because of it showing animals we know but as you might wonder the fruits are very important to this panel. To the right of the panel you should be able to see a pelican feeding its young. You will also see a lot of strawberries one of your favorite fruits, you can see them on the shore holding up a humungous strawberry.” German folklore has said that strawberries are temptations and our worldly pleasures.” Peter Glum a author has said “berries were used as a symbol of our earthly pleasure and the Dutch word for a berry is erdbere which actually means earth berry”, and of course he is Dutch so that’s where he knows this from. What else could be a better symbol for our earthly pleasure but a

“The Garden Of Earthly Delights” Has shown me what will happen when we let our fruits and sexual nature take control of us. In the last panel you can see a scene that looks just like hell would, there is a mouse swallowing a human, I believe this to be how we are finally judged, our indulgences will come back to swallow us as a whole and when you die if you are a gambler that is what you will be remembered for. You can see a man in a position like Jesus was on the cross being crucified for a man who had gambling problems, and this is what I mean when I talk about the fruits, and sex meaning temptations because once we have it we keep wanting more, what we have as our little temptations is what defines us in the end and we are judged for. This painting evoked my emotions to think of what I indulge in and see if it is going to help me succeed in college because there’s nothing more that I want to do than make you proud of me dad. So ill keep indulging in studying and improving myself as a