Am I My Brother's Keeper?

When Cain asks the question “ Am I my Brother’s Keeper?”, God doesn’t answer him. I see this lack of answer as a motivation for Cain to explore it for himself. He wants Cain to reveal his own emotions and factors that caused him to kill Abel, and to expand upon it. When Cain gets driven from the land, he states: “ My punishment is more than I can bear”. I perceive this as there is too much freedom for him, that there is restraint in freedom, Cain doesn’t know what to do with all the freedom he is granted, and is suffering from it. Referring back “Am I my Brother’s Keeper?”, the lack of answer also disintegrates Cain’s well being. Cain is desperate to understand the question, and why? Cain does not know what the definition of brotherhood is, …show more content…
When Cain built the city of Enoch, I understand it as evidence to prove to God that he has understood what “Brothers” and “Keepers” are. In a city there is civilization, and within that there are people. The people of Enoch are considered Brother’s and the Keeper is Cain. God transmits his image of a civilization into Cain through the sacrifice of Abel, and teaches Cain the definition of “Keeper”. In the Moyer’s seminar, Jack suggests that God himself may not know the answer to “Where is your brother”, and that unknowingness is provoking God to find out. This parallels with Cain himself because Cain is also driven by the lack of answer, and has the desire to find the truth, and he sets out to create a civilization.This then means that Cain is a reflection of God, that Cain’s actions and motives were very similar to God’s. God does not know what civilization is, and he uses the brothers to answer his own question. Thus,there must be sacrifices in order for something great to be achieved. When Bill questions if God’s choice was arbitrary, I see it as God chose Cain rather than Abel. Abel has never spoken a word throughout the story, and it is that silence from Abel that tortures