Cain and Abel were brothers and the children of Adam and Eve. Cain worked in the field with crops and Abel worked as a shepherd with the livestock. One day they gave offerings to God, who for some reason decided that Abel's offering was better than Cain's. Cain, understandably upset at this arbitrary favoritism, overreacted and killed his brother Abel, making him literally the first murderer ever.
I myself have a younger brother, so in purely mythological terms I would be seen as Cain's equivalent in that we are each the firstborn sons. Unlike Cain and Abel however, we get along pretty well, The occasional fight is unavoidable, but when the dust settles we'll always be brothers no matter what (a little more self control than Cain had also helps). Sometimes we even work as a team by irritating our parents about something we feel is important, and on more rare occasions, helping them out with things. He's cool with me, I'm cool with him, and we're friends. It's pretty good. Way better than Abel and Cain. Or Romulus and Remus. Or Loki and Thor, or siblings in a crazy amount of Shakespeare plays... There are a plethora of siblings who fall under the Cain and Abel trope. But not my brother and me.
Fun link bonus- a disgusting amount of examples of this trope: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CainAndAbel
I too picked up on how arbitrary God's favoritism was, and the corrosive effect it had on Cain and Abel's relationship. It makes you wonder why more people don't pick up on the negative effect it has on relationships, as this is present everywhere, whether at school, at home, or in the workplace.
ReplyDeleteWe do have some things in common: younger siblings, with whom we have relationships that are, for the most part, better than Cain and Abel's. tvTropes is a literal time-sucking black hole of interesting and mostly unusable information, but here are some things I have learned: the band name Avenged Sevenfold is a reference to the story of Cain and Abel; in most instances, the trope involves two brothers or two sisters; and spoilers are in white text, which you have to highlight to read. A+ link
ReplyDeleteI like your criticism of God's truthfully pretty uncool behavior in this story, I would've been mad too. Your link made my day, it is full of fun facts on WWF superstars Kane and the Undertaker. A1 link
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