Finding Inner Grandel

This week my blog topic is all about Grendel, throughout the entire novel I have been curious to see how Grendel balances out the drgaon’s theories and his own desires. At the beginning of the novel Grendel was intrigued by becoming a part of man’s society. He was obsessed with the Shaper’s philosophies on how man was created and how humans interpret God. The human’s interpretation on God is also a major aspect on how Grendel fits but doesn’t fit in with humans. This book I think is written to completely show the negative side of Humans which is really similar to the way Beowulf is written to scrutinize monsters, and I was wondering is there a medium where monsters and humans can be equal? Is there also a way that the Dragon’s theories can be applied to the philosophies of humans?

So one of the main criticisms within the novel is that man lacks the ability to understand morals and is over all cruel, Grandel comments on how “not even wolves are that cruel to each other,” I find this a little ironic because Grandel kills humans for fun and is an offspring to God’s true creation of evil (Cain is evil because he killed his brother). Aren’t humans exhibiting evil qualities by going and raiding and pillaging each other’s clans and towns? I’m also interested in the fact that Grandel is the first creature in the story to establish an official belief system and man comes in and says he is wrong and that he is evil for being different. Before Grandel has his encounter with the dragon, he is superior to human, he has  an established language, he can think for himself, he knows the hierarchy of life, but once he talks with the dragon he loses all of those things and submits to being second to humans and the dragon. Grendel’s evolution cycle is backwards compared to men. Grendel starts out intellectual and moral but then progressively loses those morals as humans evolve into more moralistic creatures. I also found it interesting how humans establish the word of God and they are supposed to be divine creatures when they were created also out of evil.

What makes man fear Grendel the first time they see him? Where does the fear stem from in the beginning? I don’t like how Grendel is so willing to join their society and they fear him automatically because he is different. Is it because he is different and new that he is accepted? I was more attracted to agreeing with the dragons theories because they are completely true even when looking at society today, because of the corruption and the lack of morals today. I feel like we haven’t evolved that much in theory we still are scared of the uncertain but we have updated our beliefs on what is evil and what is not. I think today’s society is a great example of the balance between monsters and man because we all have a little bit of Grendel in us and we all stay close to our roots.

Beowulf is awesome and today's heroes are....

For these last few weeks in AP Lit we have been analyzing the journey of a hero and close reading Beowulf. Beowulf is one of my favorite tales of a hero, Beowulf isn’t the normal super heroes that are in books today, and he has heroic qualities but has the ego of an evil villain. Leading up to this unit we looked at James Campbell’s theories and idea of the hero’s journey. 1)The call to adventure 2)The crossing of the first threshold 3)The belly of the whale 4)Emerging from the water (rebirth) 5) slaying of the dragon; these all parallel Beowulf’s journey but that is what make him different from today’s super heroes. Today super heroes have super natural powers and seem to be completely indestructible;  Beowulf as we see in the end of the novel is nowhere near indestructible and rather than fighting for strictly for the safety of mankind, Beowulf fights for more selfish reasons such as pride and glory for himself as well as safety for his followers. I think that’s awesome that Beowulf cares about himself and his people, it makes him more relatable to people because they can find similarities to Beowulf within themselves.

 Beowulf’s story also struck me as being different; it is completely determined by fate. Fate is one of the most reoccurring themes within the epic, and Beowulf is one out of a small list of heroes who officially accepts his fate. How many tales of heroes, do the heroes end up dying in the end written or told in this century, yeah not that many? Today many hero stories are lame and are very vague on the journey of the hero and they don’t really address all the key elements that make a hero. Let’s use Batman as an example; the Batman movies continue to get more and more complex but the journey is always the same, it seems like film makers can continue make Batman go through the same journey and add different details. All the movies also lack Batman’s rebirth he never experiences a change in personality of a sudden realization . Beowulf is the ultimate hero because he has all the qualities; he has strength, knowledge, courage, pride, and dignity.

The structure of Beowulf chronologically leads to Beowulf’s true sense of heroism. Beowulf goes through three battles, one against Grendel, one against Grendel’s mother, and the last one against a dragon. The battle against Grendel is suppose to represent the fight against chaos; the battle against Grendel’s mother represents the flaws within the Anglo-Saxton culture, and the battle against the dragon represents Beowulf’s fight against himself. Beowulf’s fight against the dragon is the key battle that constitutes Beowulf as a hero, this is the transition that leads to Beowulf’s acceptance of fate. Beowulf fights against his fate throughout the epic, but while fighting the dragon he accepts that he won’t make it through this last fight. That quality is what is missing in today’s heroic structure and journey.