Theme Of Mortality In The Epic Of Gilgamesh

The consequences of death affect each person differently. Some take hours to grieve while others spend years trying to come to terms with loss. The timeline in The Epic of Gilgamesh is uncertain due to their measurement of time differing from present day, but it is likely that Gilgamesh 's adventure was a lengthy task. At first, he sought to attain immortality after Enkidu died. By the end of his journey, Gilgamesh discovers that he is not destined to live forever, just like every average human being. It is only a matter of time before death catches up to everyone. The difference between each person 's experience is how they cope with mortality, whether it is their own or that of someone to close to them. Gilgamesh did not know what else

Many deaths, like Enkidu 's, occur suddenly. One day, someone has all their strength, and the next, there is nothing they can do to avoid their fate. With grandparents and elderly, this process tends to be more drawn out and emotionally draining. As a child, it is difficult to understand why a grandparent suddenly appears weaker and then disappears altogether. Parents are forced to introduce their child to the concept of death and mortality. Since the afterlife, or lack thereof, is a widely contested topic, each parent has their own way of comforting the child when they ask where their grandparent is now. Some explain to their daughter that heaven is a place where everyone 's grandparents go when their time on earth is over. Others tell their child that Grandpa will be reincarnated into a whole new person so that he can experience life all over again. Another family will just tell their son what death is and leave it there; no afterlife, no

Mortality is one of the hardest concepts to explain to a child because to them, life 's possibilities are endless, so life does not end either. When my mom 's father died, I was six. I barely knew what was happening, let alone what death was. To me, the grandfather that I saw rarely became the grandfather that I never saw. My parents hid their grief as far as I was aware. Skip to ten years later when my dad 's father died. While I did not know this grandfather much better than I had known the other, my family 's grief was much more obvious to me. Seeing my father be emotional for one of the first times in my life hit me like a brick. That innocent kindergartener who had no idea what was happening grew into a junior in high school who was well aware of the consequences of death and now had to deal