Essay Questions

Which episode in the Bible is alluded in the poem "A Grain of Sand’’?

The poem may have been inspired by two different episodes in the Bible. The first one appears in Mathew chapter 6 verses 25 to 32 where Jesus talks about the tendency humans have to think about the future and worry about it. Jesus mentions the birds and the flowers and mentions how God takes care of them in such a manner that nothing a human does is comparable. This episode has the purpose of reassuring the people that God will take care of them, no matter what, and that they are precious in God’s eyes. The other instance is mentioned in Mathew 10 when Jesus talks once more about sparrows, the cheapest birds a person could buy during the first century. Even though for the people of the time the birds were of no value, Jesus tells them that for God, every bird is important and he knows when even one bird dies. This has the purpose of showing once more how for God every person is important.

What is the "moth and rust’’ mentioned in the poem "Mother’s Treasures’’?

The two elements are once more, taken from the Bible. The two are mentioned together when Jesus tells his followers to gather riches not on this earth, riches that can be affected by rust and moths, but rather to gather riches in Heaves, a place where the moths and the rust has no power. The riches a person may gather on this earth may be financial gains, fame or power, fleeting things that can disappear the next day. The riches that will last forever are a good heart and faith, something that makes a person valuable in the eyes of God. Thus, then the narrator talks about her desire to help her children gain the true riches, she refers to the hope she has that her children will grow up to be good Christians.

What it the idea transmitted in the poem "Bible Defense of Slavery’’ and does the narrator imply that the Bible promotes slavery?

While the idea of slavery appears in the Bible, the idea transmitted though the Bible is that a slave should be treated humanely and with respect by his or her master. The Bible criticized those who abused slaves and even punished them for killing slaves. In modern times, when slavery became wide spread and when the slave trade flourished, many influential people used the Bible as an excuse to gather more slaves and to trade them. Many slave traders argued that even though they were taking the slaves away from their home, they were doing them a favor because they were introducing them to Christianity and to the true faith. Thus, those people used the Bible to argue that slavery was accepted and not a practice which should be abolished.