Ancient Evenings Bs Essay, Research Paper

“9 out of 10 book critics rate this novel 100% fat free” which is nine more than Monica s Story received.

Ancient Evenings book cover

by Will Hockett

Ancient Evenings is a long and arduous book that tells the tale of a man in ancient Egypt. The setting is a far cry from any other book that I have read because it is a historical fiction that is entwined with the scenery that includes the Great Pyramids, Tyre, Syria, and references to other locations from antiquity.

The novel starts off with the narrator stuck in his tomb. His sacred burial site has been pillaged by grave robbers and he has been left with little of the necessities that he needs to survive. The reader is then told that this character is actually dead, we are being told of his Ka. The book explains much about the Egyptians beliefs that concern the after life. In a nutshell the character we know is like a spirit or a ghost, he is not composed of flesh and is separate from his body. He is able to gaze down on the putrid sight of his feet being eaten away by maggots, although since he is not “in” that body he does not feel the pain. In a few moments an old withered man appears in the room, his name is Menenhetet. While his body is that of a wretch the aura of his mind is great and fills the room with it s presence. Menenhetet jumps into a conversation with our narrator about the previous life. However, the narrator is not able to recall any details of his life because in Egyptian death, the memory is almost entirely wiped away. All he can remember are names and a few fragments of information. Menenhetet is trying to tell him about what will happen when his Ka passes into the land of the Duad. The Duad is like a meeting place for all the spirits and dead. They must pass through many tests before they are allowed to enter the equivalent to Heaven. The tests are based on the accomplishments and misdeeds that the person did in their natural life.

Menenhetet soon finds that our character has no recollection of the legends that were told to him about this process. He must be told what will happen and the events he must accept to take place, after that there ensues a discussion of how the gods played a roll in process that rich Egyptians are buried and embalmed.

When the narrator asks Menenhetet who he is and if their is any relation Menenhetet laughs wickedly. He starts to orate the story of themselves. The story is of how Menenhetet is not only his grandfather but also his biological father and one of his mothers lovers. It starts out when he is a boy no more than eight years old but wise enough to pass for five times that amount years. With his mother, Hathfertiti, and his surrogate father, Nef-khep-umsha, and grand father, Menenhetet. They travel to the Palace of the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh is Ramses IX, he is known by many names the main of which is Ptah-nem-hotep. They have been invited to a feast with the Pharaoh, a very great honor, in which they are to entertain each other with stories.

After a lavish dinner Menenhetet begins to tell the tale of how he has lived so long. It is rumored among the nobles that he is one hundred and sixty years old. The narrator now switches to become Menenhetet but all is still heard through the ears of the former. He tells how over a century ago a peasant told him the secret to living forever, the secret was that on you last breath after you had just released a seed into a woman that if you recited a certain incantation you would become that child born of your own wife. The spell worked and Menenhetet has used it three times with success. Since he has lived such a long life he has gained much knowledge about upper and lower Egypt. The Pharaoh asks Menenhetet to tell of his second life. He was born to a peasant woman and was drafted into the army while just entering his teen years. He became a great soldier and excelled at all areas of combat. In a contest he won out over his peers to take on training to become a charioteer. Not only was this hard but it was reserved for the sons of the richest nobles. Menenhetet excelled and was soon the aid to Ramses II. He was like a bodyguard and went on a war campaign to an Eastern nation to besiege a city. The attackers were counterattacked and barely able to escaped from the foreign land with half of their original army. He did not show valor in combat so he was put into dreary duty keeping track of the kings concubines.

The novel skims through his third and fourth lives until the climax where Menenhetet is commits suicide after being captured by a rebel faction of the Egyptian army. The other narrator dies in a bar fight together their spirits travel into the Duad.

My bedcover while not being a masterpiece does represent key part in the novel. The cover is in a double frame of black and red. The black is to represent death and destruction while the red is to be interpreted as blood and love. Those are the main themes of the book. The frames are also meant to capture how this is a story within a story within a story, and how the book cover is a picture within a frame within a frame.

The backdrop is of a large oak tree because the story is about a families genealogical heritage or family tree. It tells of all of Menenhetets lovers and of their offspring. Sons and daughters who were married and contain tidbits of tales. The tree is still living and still has it s leaves because it is still alive and has vigor, because their family is still thriving and continuing.

In the foreground is my metaphor for Ancient Evenings and that is of a bedroom. I feel that the story is like a bedroom because it is self containing and does not tell of what is going on outside.

In the lower right of the bedroom is the most prominent feature, the bed. This is prominent in the picture and in the book because the bed represents sex both hetero and Homo. All stories within the book contain some form of sex in them. It is one of the central themes to the book.

Below the bed is a green Boogie Monster, he represents all of the evil and wrongs that happen. All the antagonists which can change from character to character are represented by him. I also purposely put him under the bed because many of the conflicts arise from the sleeping of one person with another.

Above the bed is a Christian Cross. This represents another of the central threads and that is of religion. In Menenhetets fourth life he was a priest. Many of the things that happened were out of fear of the gods wrath, ironically though there were still a number of sins committed. Which shows not a large fear of the gods, for otherwise everyone would have been good.

To the left of the cross is the one bedroom window. Like I said earlier there is not a lot of outside troubles or stories so the window is small and not very interesting as to not attract the eye of the viewer. Through it we can see the moon and stars because the whole story takes place within one nights. In the corner of the window there is a large crack to represent the sometimes twisted views of the outside by the different characters. They seem to each perceive the setting as something different.

In the lower left of the bedroom is an empty cupboard, it is empty to represent the fact that there is little “filler” in the book. The author sticks to his main plot line and does not stray from it. Filler would constitute side stories that just lengthen the story. On top of this sets a TV, the television is meant to be a story teller. It tells of battles and loves like Menenhetet tells his audience.

Last but not least along the bottom of cover with the roots of the tree there are three pictures. The first is of a tree as a sapling, then as the full grown tree and finally as a fallen down log with a sapling growing out of it. This is to represent how the book comes full circle in the life of the plant and how the tree does the same thing. For at the finish of Menenhetets tale it goes back to his dead spirit and his grandson trying to cross the Duad.