Our culture shapes the way writers create their master pieces. Beowulf is the story of a man who epitomizes the idea of a hero that existed in a culture that was around many years ago. This was a culture that valued honor above all else. He is a reflection of the time period that the story was created in. Beowulf's character is strong, fast, and vengeful. For these reasons I think that he is comparable to the modern hero the Hulk. The Hulk does not think about his actions before he does them. He instead thinks about vengeance. This was the tragic flaw that led to Beowulf's downfall.
The main literary devices used in the stories of these heroes are symbolism, foreshadowing, and imagery. An example of the symbolism in Beowulf is that all of the monsters in this story are big and ugly ones, who live in hidden places, with mysterious backgrounds. This symbolizes how monsters can never truly be a part of society. The Hulk is another example of a big green monster who will never be considered "normal." At many points in this story other characters said things that foreshadowed Beowulf's death by dragon. In the Hulk the fact that he must escape to a far off location when he gets angry should foreshadow that at some point, he will cause some major destruction. The author in both of these stories uses imagery to portray what great strength the main characters have.
The differences in these two characters definitely stem from the fact that they take place in such different time periods. The Hulk could be considered a hero, because of his strength and his struggles to control his anger. However Beowulf is a hero, because of all the good he did for his people. Even if it was for his own selfish reasons.That was the standard then. The Hulk meets our standards now. Even if he does not receive the same amount of honor.
In conclusion, these characters may seem very different in regards to their reasons for being considered a hero, however they have many similarities. Such as their strength and inabilities to think things through completely. In different time periods this led them down different paths one to death and another to eternal misery as a monster.
Kendall, Your essay starts off really good explaining the topic and characters in the introduction. One thing that I would change would be that it seems that your thesis is in the beginning of the second paragraph. Changing that to be in the introduction can give the reader a clear thought process of your examples right off the bat. Other then that I feel that you essay had good examples and the only thing to make it slightly better is to be a little less broad.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more with Kristen. Your first paragraph is ingageing and I found it interesting but out of place how your thesis was in the second paragraph. After you stayed your thesis you immediately started with the "body" of the essay. If the thesis was in the first paragraph the rest of the essay would've had a better flow.
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