His first battle took place with Grendel, an evil swamp-like demon who is terrorizing the town’s people inside King Hrothgar’s Mead Hall. The second battle involves Grendal’s mother who is seeking revenge at Beowulf for executing her son in the first battle. The last fight includes The Dragon, who is seeking revenge at the town’s people for a theft that took place inside the treasure hideout that The Dragon guards. There are obvious differences throughout the epic poem, for example, the fact that each battle is with a different beast. However, there are also similarities between these 3 fights.
Essay Ch. 7-8 In the novel,” Animal Farm” by George Orwell, the character Napoleon gains power through cruel and unjustified violent attacks. These cruel and brutish tactics damaged the will of the animals forcing them to have an undying loyalty to an unjust dictator. The constant violent actions have repressed the spirit of the animals of animal farm. The true meaning of animalism has perished along with the animals that oppose Napoleon’s rule.
Sometimes they are fabulous beauties and other times they are horrible demons. According to Arthur Cotterell’s Classical Mythology, “monsters symbolize the dark and unresolved forces in life and human nature” (56). The monsters in the Odyssey serve as warnings and lessons that haunt people. Homer uses the one-eyed Cyclopes to symbolize the narrow mindedness of people who view the world through a single lens. In her book, Mythology, Edith Hamilton describes monsters as living beings unlike anything else known to man.
Abbey Hagen Mrs. Delong Honors British Literature and Composition 20 October 2011 Are the Supernatural Characters Really Monsters? *In the epic, Beowulf, Grendel is perceived as a vital killing machine, as well as his mother and the dragon: however, their actions are not necessarily based off of wicked thoughts or pure evilness. Grendel is a disgusting, evil, and cunning monster that resides in the lands of Denmark. In the epic, Grendel is described as, “ A powerful monster, living down / In the darkness, growled in pain, impatient ” (Raffel 40). This part of the epic is starting to describe the torment and badgering that Grendel receives from the Danes in Herot.
The beast is a huge element of fear in the novel. The reason the fear is so great is because the beast is an unknown creature in the beginning, never seen, just a fear that grows bigger. Like JK Rowling said in Philosopher's Stone, “Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.” This paranoia of the beast drives them to insanity, they have the constant feeling as if they are being hunted, like Jack who says: “If you’re hunting sometimes you catch yourself feeling as if-” Jack flushed suddenly. “There’s nothing in it of course. Just a feeling, but-being hunted, as if something’s behind you all the time in the jungle.” This quote proves that fear spreads quickly, from the littluns to the biguns, caused by the beast.
I had hung between possibilities before, between the cold truths i knew and the heart-sucking conjuring tricks of the Shaper: now that was passed: I was Grendel, Ruiner of Meadhalls, Wrecker of Kings!" In this quote Grendel is compared to the Dragon, because he is portrayed as villain, which is how the dragon is described. Now we see a switch in Grendel’s personality, because he goes from a lonely and mindless monster to a evil and villain like monster as he is described in
The reader is introduced to fear at its upmost level, the fear that accompanies an experience bound to end in death and destruction. That fear triggers a natural human response, the fight or flight response, the latter being the more customary choice. In Beowulf, the noble Geats are faced with a dangerous situation in which they ultimately abandon their leader in his hopeless battle against the dragon. “None of his comrades/Came to him, helped him, his brave and noble/Followers; they ran for their lives, fled/Deep in a wood” (35.2596-9). The Geats chose to flee instead of standing beside Beowulf and supporting him.
Gollum is a wicked creature that lives in darkness and brings everyone down. When Bilbo beats him in the riddle off he portrayed that good will overcome darkness. Even when Bilbo had won the riddle game he still “…jumped at once to his feet, put his back to the nearest wall, and held out his sword…” (pg 80) he could not trust him. Through life experience brought new change. Bilbo had begun to change his character towards the end.
Dragon and its symbols I had the pleasure of going to see The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug earlier this month where the movie was based on a group of dwarves who strived to recapture a mountain filled with treasure and slay a fearsome, greedy dragon who is now its guardian. Relating this back to J. C. Cooper and her writings, she explains how fabulous monsters such as the Dragon are symbolic and how their meanings vary across the globe. For example, in the West, the Dragon represents evil and has uncontrollable power that is used to wreak havoc, however, in the East; the Dragon is benevolent in nature, representing wisdom and true power. It is also fascinating to see how religions such as Christianity, plays a heavy role in influencing the symbolic meaning of the fabulous beasts such as the Dragon. J. C. Cooper notes how the Dragon (also known as the Serpent in the bible) is associated with the devil, signifying death and darkness from a western perspective.
Unstable Issues of War War is one of the most argued and common issues in world today. This world is full of violence and greed which led to this catastrophic issue, war. War does not only affect the soldiers, who fought in battlefield for their country, but also affect soldiers' friends and families. One of the examples is "Billy Don't Be a Hero", a song made by a band called Paper Lace, that shows a new perspective about war. War is an unstable force which can takes away soldiers' life and leaving their families and/or friends in vulnerable position.