Brittany Coppinger - Extra Credit

For extra credit I read "Job's Jobs". In this story, every time the man starts to enjoy something God threatens that he will kill the man if the man continues. So the man is forced to stop doing what he loves immediately and find something else to do instead. He goes from being a writer to being an artist to being an actor and so on and so forth, but every time he starts to enjoy what he does, God threatens him again. It goes on like this for some time until God has told the man no to speak, or open his eyes to move. At the end, God binds and gags the man and places him in a box with no windows or doors, and the man is forced to sit there and do nothing.

I really enjoyed this story. I think that it carries a very powerful message. Every time the man excels at something and enjoys it, he is forced to stop, until all he has left is what is inside his head. The story ends where the man is sitting in the box, thinking about all the things that he had enjoyed over the course of his life, and God does not come this time. I think that Bender is trying to tell us that even if we have nothing in our lives, we still have our memories of good times that no one, not even God, can take away from us. And it is these memories and thoughts that will help us through the darkest of times.