Analysis of Cain and Abel: The First Two Sons of Adam and Eve
The Graves/Jung model is an interpretative method that attempts to explain a variety of things on a variety of levels. It explains how individuals progress, how societies progress, how theories progress, how we view others, and how others view us; just to name a few. I will be applying the theory to analyze the story of Cain and Abel found in the fourth chapter of Genesis, in the Bible. I will be interpreting the three main characters to assess what level of the model they are functioning in. We meet the main characters of the story in the first two verses.
Cain is Abel’s older brother and we learn of their occupations, “Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. Their nature of their occupations could already be setting up the idea that Abel is physically small and Cain is physically larger. In the Hebrew world, shepherds are historically the youngest children and often girls. Later in the Bible, there is a mirror of this in 1st Samuel. it is King David (portrayed as the smallest amongst his brothers) who is also a shepherd. Typically anyone who “works the land” is going to have to be physically fit, which leads to more capabilities of physical violence.
The author may have put these important details in to start to paint the picture of “helpless innocent Abel” and “big bully Cain”. This is just the beginning of why this is a Level 3 story of competitive, survival-of-the-fittest type interactions. Even though the characters might be functioning at the level 3, I think the society they are living in is at least level four. We see this in verses three and five when the third main character is introduced, “the Lord”. The fact that Cain and Abel’s god needs a offering implies that at some point someone said or wrote that he needed one.
They wouldn’t just do that if it were not made clear by society that offerings were expected. This is all fitting with Level four. This also implies that the god is at least a level four god. In verses six and seven the Lord states, The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. ” This shows that the god of this story can function on level six.
He is empathizing with Cain and even offering advice, or at least his challenge to Cain without explicitly telling him to not go through with his anger. However, to get to a level six, one must come out of a level five which came out of a level four. The level four god comes out in his punishment of Cain, “And the LORD said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength.
You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. ” He is saying by this punishment that there are rules and you broke them, a very level four statement. The god in the story of Cain and Abel when the context is not extended to the whole Bible is a level four god. Cain is a textbook level three character he gets “angry” and jealous that someone else did better and he decided to go through with level three actions in verse 8. “Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Cain essentially decided that he was bigger and stronger so he could deal with things accordingly. The problem with that is that he is on a level four society with a level four god. Level four was created to stop individuals functioning at level three and this story follows suit with the Lord’s punishment of Cain and the society carrying it out. This is seen in verse 15, Then the LORD said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. ” And the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. Now we also see a little bit of level two come out in Cain’s words.
When the lord asks him where his brother is, Cain responds with, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper? ” This is a very mischievous thing to say because Cain knows exactly where Cain is. It is very similar to a child being asked by his parents “Where did all those cookies for the shower go? ” and the child who, while knowing it was wrong, ate them responds with “well I don’t see them anywhere. ” Cain is mirroring this. I find it interesting that when it comes to a conflict both the Lord and Cain begin to function in lower levels than their original state.
Lastly there is Abel, since the author doesn’t give us and lines of dialogue to reference, we will use the context of the story to evaluate what level character he is. I would say because he abides by the level four standards set by society and the level four god then he is at least functioning at the level. We see this in the fact that not only was he attempting to do the societal norm in making an offering that potentially allowed him to have “regard” with the Lord but also he succeeded in that. This shows he possibly could be a higher level than four but it is hard to say since we do not know exactly how he responded to Cain’s attack.
