America’s Personal Values, Compared Essay -- Literary Analysis

Americas Personal Values ComparedGreat Indian authors have written exalted epics that depict heroic characters execute virtuous deeds. Many of these epic tales possess fearsome and godly battles, while others highlight the soft side of benevolent emotions. Despite seemingly unrealistic characters such as talking mortarboards and ten-headed monsters, and marvellous conflicts that feature bloody battles, many of these grand epics display many traditional value that Americans value in late gild. When construing three particular celebrated Indian epics (the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad-Gita, and the Ramayana), readers would easily glean the values and belief system that antique Indian society held in high esteem many thousands of age ago. Moreover, by comparing and contrasting respective ideals and principles, similarities mingled with Ancient Indians and Americans would go far to surface.The Mahabharata teaches the value of integrity through the story of a deal between a king and a hawk. At a nearby river performing a ritual sacrifice, a king comes across an injured go d witness trying to escape the clutches of a hawk. He makes a curse to protect the dove and says, This bird has come to me for asylum. It is my duty to protect it, (From the Mahabharata). The hawk rebuts and cites his need for food consequently, the king cuts a deal and promises to exchange his own framing to compensate the hawks loss You shall have my flesh and nothing less, (From the Mahabharata). The gods reward him for his integrity and bestow upon him the gift of prosperity. Certainly, our modern society values integrity to a great extent, but the king in this story goes above ordinary ethics and endures pain to protect an sincere life. While most Americans might not s... ... integrity, duty, and honor. The mere prevalence of these regarded values in modern society indicates their utility and tenability. Even though modern Americans might not on a day-to-day basis physically sac rifice themselves, go to battle, or fight a ten headed monster, they allocate the same principles of integrity, duty and honor with heroes of Ancient Indian Literature toward their panorama towards life. Works Cited From the Bhagavad-Gita. apprentice Hall Literature. Trans. Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood. amphetamine Saddle Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004. 182-89. Print. From the Mahabharata. Prentice Hall Literature. Trans. R. K. Narayan. Upper Saddle River Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004. 174-81. Print. From the Ramayana. Prentice Hall Literature. Trans. R. K. Narayan. Upper Saddle River Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004. 190-98. Print.