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.
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