I remember reading Bunyon’s Pilgrim’s Progress and finding it quite interesting despite, or maybe because of, the obvious Christian theme. For much the same reason I was glued to watching the Mahabharata which was so different because it was staged for a different culture. And again another great saga Monkey, showing how the Chinese thought about the world and its affairs.
Yet the differences are pale next to the similarities: the idea of human beings being on or going on a journey which provides them with experiences that change them; the importance of friends, the struggles of life. From Europe to Asia the experiences of human beings on this planet are all the same. How could it be otherwise since the human beings are all the same.
Not the least because they tell each other stories. Stories that we can learn from and are entrancing to the young minds who remember them for the rest of their lives, even though most just remember the story and not the import of the story for their own lives. We are all protecting someone, we are all on a journey, we are all fighting unseen demons to try to achieve something better for ourselves.
We are all story tellers.