The first half covers the first four of the seven voyages. Each of his voyages contain death, adventure, riches, and discontent with life. As weird as it may sound, I feel like I relate to Sindbad in some ways! He is someone who really loves adventure, and gets bored too easy. He is not after riches, although those do tend to follow him wherever he goes. These stories also depict humans as kind people, which is refreshing to read! I'll include some quotes from some of these voyages to help you understand why Sindbad rocks!
The very first story, First Voyage, opens up with this quote:
I had inherited considerable wealth from my parents and, being young and foolish, I at first squandered it recklessly upon every kind of pleasure, but presently, finding that riches speedily take to themselves wings if managed as badly as I was managing mine, and remembering also that to be old and poor is misery indeed, I began to bethink me of how I could make the best of what still remained to me.
To me, this shows that Sindbad is different than a lot of the heroes we see in our readings. He reminds me of the prodigal son in some ways, going off and squandering his wealth. But then Sindbad realizes that he needs to be a person of wisdom in order to have a fulfilled life! Another thing I love about this unit is at the end of each voyage he returns home with wealth unmeasureable, and he always gives it away to the poor! He is a generous, adventure-loving guy! Is he single? Just kidding. But check out the end of the Fourth Voyage what he does with his resources:
He just seems like a great guy, and I can't wait to read the rest of the unit!
Maxfield Parrish's version of the giant in the Third Voyage. It's a little too Rollbounce-esque to me, but I can dig.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
It seems like Sindbad is more of a man of conquest than a man of greed or altruism. He may not realize it consciously, but I think the author tries to make his true conflict this: he cannot quell his thirst for adventure. I think that the overarching moral of the Sindbad tales is that "life is not about the goals, but about the journey."
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