Briley Holbrook

December 11th, 2017

Andrew McCarthy

UHON 1010

Grappling With The Injustice of Unreconcilable Suffering

In both the biblical book of Job and Matt Rasmussens Black Aperture, the main

characters encounter a degree of unjust suffering that causes them to question a higher power.

These characters encounter suffering as it unfolds in three parts, first as initial suffering,

subsequently causing them to ponder why they were chosen to face this degree of agony, and

finally ending in a state of assumed mending and tolerance for their circumstances. Both

characters stories end in a place of assumed reconciliation and acceptance, yet this conclusion

forces readers to consider suffering as an outcome that leaves an eternal scar on human beings,

regardless of surmised toleration of misery.

The primary encounter with suffering that plagues both Job and Rasmussen is presented

as gratuitous and abrupt. Rasmussens thoughts throughout the collection of poems reveal the

aftermath of dealing with his brothers suicide and convey a tone of desolate confusion as a

result of grappling with such a permanent and unanticipated tragedy. The narrator expresses his

degree of agony in one of his first poems, I turned off my light and cried (14). The trauma

takes an emotional toll on the poet, leaving him to not only cope with the unexpected loss, but

also deal with the devastating pain of managing his own temperamental response. The

experience Rasmussen encounters from losing a loved one to suicide changes who he is as a
person, This isnt you, and you were right, it no longer was (17). The concept of sudden

trauma and the encounter with deaths grasp forever altering ones being is a natural impulse

many humans face, and forces people to wonder if the suffering they have experience is

deserved.

Job experiences a similar extent of loss by losing his entire family, his lifes work and

decline of his physical health at the hands of his beloved God. The suffering Job experiences is

curated by God as an attempt to prove Satan wrong, a settlement often viewed as selfish or unjust

from a God that is revered as merciful and equitable. This produces a range of emotions for Job,

who is forced to cope with such a vast amount of loss, yet still remain faithful to the one who is

to blame. Job is thrown into a state of grief and depression, cursing the day he was conceived,

Let the day perish in which I was born (3, 2). Job grapples with the same sudden change in his

life that Rasmussen explains, and the struggle of coming back to ones former self after

undergoing a life change manifests in both works. Both individuals interact with unfair loss that

prompts them to question the motivation behind those causing them harm, and brawl with the

aftermath of their personal trauma and how it impacts their existence.

The outcome of bearing the grief of losing the things they hold dear encourages both

Rasmussen and Job to uncover the reasoning behind such horrible acts. Rasmussens reaction to

his brothers suicide in his poems seem to be appropriate responses to such a shocking discovery,

and he wrestles with pondering his brothers intentions. He considers the reality that decisions

can always be optional, projecting a state of contemplation that causes him to question why

things like this would happen, Nothing ever absolutely has to happen. The gun doesn't have to

be fired. When our hero sits on the edge of his bed contemplating the pistol on his nightstand,

you have to believe he might not use it (22). This poem, accurately titled Chekovs Gun, seems
to suggest the idea that although the outside spectator had no control of the outcome, the

producer of the distress had the potential to change his mind

For Job, this contemplation of suffering is aimed at God, and he struggles with

understanding what sin he must have committed to precipitate Gods wrath, let me know

why you contend against me. Does it seem good to you to press, to despise the work of your

hands and favor the schemes of the wicked? (10, 2-3). Job never becomes angry at God for

wiping away all that he has and remains faithful to God in his struggle; he simply requests to

know why. Job asks God the controversial question of why unjust things happen to righteous

people, Why is light given to one in misery, and life to the bitter in soul (3, 20). This internal

battle that washes over Job as a result of the conscious decisions of his Maker suggests the

possibility that God was not fair-minded in his verdict. In both instances, the characters undergo

a state of curiosity as an outcome of suffering that produces questioning towards a higher power,

either examining the nature of the world itself or interrogating Gods plan. The act of questioning

authorial figures in these examples seems to endorse human inquiry about the incitement of God

and the way of the world, and depicts this as an incredibly human reaction to essence of

affliction.

Both Matt Rasmussen and Jobs stories end in a state of assumed reconciliation or

acceptance of the things they have endured. In Rasmussens final poem, he claims to have

reached a point of tolerance, stating I have come to terms with my brothers suicide (62). This

seems to be an untrue statement, considering the nature of trauma to inflict an everlasting mark

on his life, as revealed in the previous poems. The poet enforces this idea in one of the former

poems of the collection, stating that suicide is forever burned into the minds of those who
experience it, Opposite of closure, a suicides grave never grows over (47). The reality of

experiencing loss is the notion that suffering is eternal, even if it fades overtime.

Jobs story comes to an end with God blessing him bountifully, The Lord blessed the

latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen thousand sheep , six thousand

camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys. He also had seven sons and three

daughters. (42, 12-13). On the surface, this seems like a happy ending for a righteous man that

had endured so much. God did indeed cover Job with gifts, a new family and abundant plant life,

but the agony Job undergoes through his lifetime at the hands of God cannot be covered with

tangible, worldly gifts. The idea of reconciliation does not reduce the pain of losing everything

you possess, and the suffering will blemish Jobs life and his former view of a just savior until he

dies. Jobs final words express a tone of contempt towards his situation, Let thorns grow instead

of wheat, and foul weeds instead of barley (31,40). Job is fatigued at this point in his life, and

has surrendered to the agony that God has thrown on him.

The concept of reconciliation and acceptance that appears in both Black Aperture and the

book of Job presents suffering as an eternal infestation that cannot be shaken, regardless of time

passed or material possessions given to soften the blow of the fall. Each piece surveys the root of

suffering and the humanistic response to suffering as rational and transcendent through hundreds

of generations, and presents the initial cause of suffering as unfair to characters that did not

deserve it. The purpose of analyzing the structure of suffering in these works is to view the

glooming presence of the memory of a traumatic experience as eternal, forever hovering over the

lives of the sufferers. The notion that the response to grief is everlasting and often times unjust

surpasses timelines and further enforces the concept of inequitable sorrow as a stain that cannot

be washed away.
 Works Cited

Rasmussen, Matt. Black Aperture: Poems. Louisiana State University Press, 2013.

The Bible. The New Oxford Annotated Version, 3rd ed., Oxford UP, 2001.