The Book of Job is an interesting literary work. I spent an entire semester in a graduate seminar with one of the world's foremost Job scholars reading the entire book in Hebrew, and discussing the folktale origins of the story (the story has many earlier parallels in the Egyptian Middle-Kingdom and Near Easter literature).
For JUDAISM (not how later Christianity has accepted and interpreted the text) Job is part of a literary movement called 'Wisdom Literature'--along with Ecclesiastes and Proverbs. It is an international movement when the Israelites discover the larger world around them--as opposed to their very provincial and parochial beginnings. Works from the Wisdom Movement challenge traditional Israelite theology and practice--especially the Doctrine of Divine Retribution, which forms much of the basis of early Israelite thought. If you live in a small isolated village or kingdom, it's easy to believe in Divine Retribution. But once you've come into contact with older and more sophisticated cultures like the Persians, the Egyptians, and Greeks you realize that Divine Retribution is quite a silly belief--that if you tell a lie on the witness stand in a court of law that Zeus or Yahweh will strike you with a thunder bolt.
As I mentioned before, Like Adam and Abraham, Job never existed as a real person. He is a literary creation. We know this from his name. Names are not just grunts. They have meaning. 'Job' in Hebrew asks the question "Where is the Father (i.e., God)."
According to the Doctrine of Divine Retribution, all reward and punishment is meeted out in this life. So if you are righteous you will prosper, if you are wicked, you will be punished. Job however is righteous but is made to suffer by God's doing. We should recall that GOD allows Ha Shatan (The Satan--who is NOT the same as the much later Christian concept of Satan) to torment Job and kill his wife and family. As such, it is GOD who has broken the covenant, not Job. Job now experiences what we call Disconfirming Evidence--what happens when the facts of experience do not correlate to your religious ideology?
Also part of the commentary of Divine Retribution, the Book of Job is the first time that a Jewish writer asks the provocative question: Does Job love God because God is God, or does Job love God because in return for his piety God gives Job lots of stuff. The writer has Ha Shatan (The Satan) as the protagonist to ask this explosive question to God. We discussed earlier how much of ancient religion is quid pro quo.
Job and the Wisdom Movement represent in Judaism something parallel to the Upanishads in Hinduism--a break from traditional religious piety based on priests and rituals to a more human and ethical practice with a relationship with the divine that is no longer based on fear of punishment but rather love and mutual respect. But the Israelites are not there yet when the author pens Job. But the Wisom Movement does become the catalyst that later created what we call Judaism--as opposed to the early religion of the Israelites.
Just some notes for you. We'll talk about Job later in Judaism. In the meantime, in your Western Civ class, I suggest you take on the role of Ha Shatan. Someone has to ask God the tough questions. Otherwise, God will start to think that he's omniscient and omnipotent and get a big head and become a brutal tyrant.