Saint Augustine's The Confessions

Humans have roamed the earth for thousands of years. One would think that in that time period humans would change, but in reality our basic instincts, our likes and dislike are the same. Though this may seem far fetched from reading The Confessions by Saint Augustine of Hippo one is able to draw parallels from themselves to Saint Augustine and from todays society to his even though we are separated by more than sixteen hundred years. While reading this book there were several things that Augustine did or felt that jumped out at me because it was something that I had struggled with as well. The first big thing that Augustine and I both had in common was stealing in our youth, and it’s something neither of us our proud of. In his youth Augustine and a group of his friends steal fruit

Now when Augustine was an adolescent he didn’t have YouTube or Snapchat, but that doesn’t mean that his form of media was any less damaging than mine in the 21st century. “[Augustine] was held spellbound by theatrical shows full of images that mirrored [his] own wretched plight and further fueled the fire within [him]” (p. 51). Later on a friend and student of Augustine named Alypius is forced by friends to go to gladiatorial games, and though he tries to ignore the game eventually curiosity wins and by the end of it, “he watched, he shouted, he grew hot with excitement, he carried away with him a madness that lured him back again not only in the company of those by whom he had initially been dragged along but even before them, dragging others” (p. 146). Now in this day in age we don’t have depressing live dramas or gladiatorial fights but we do have Game of Thrones which is basically the same thing. So while the way humans are entertained has changed what we want to see has not in fact it’s probably only gotten