Heroes, Men´s Power of Conviction, and Women´s Beauty

886 Words2 Pages

Journal 1 – Beowulf
Beowulf appears to be larger than life and is portrayed as the strongest warrior in the region. Beowulf might be arrogant, but he proves it in countless ways through his actions. Beowulf fights Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and a somewhat large fire-breathing dragon. Also, Beowulf uses a sword to slay Grendel’s mother that is unusable by humans. During the battle, Beowulf demonstrates his strength as he battles Grendel, “The monster’s whole body was in pain, a tremendous wound appeared on his shoulder.” This quote reveals how strong Beowulf is. When fighting Grendel he ripped his arm out of socket. Beowulf’s use of weapons, his great courage, and strength makes him the strongest warrior around.
Beowulf is also portrayed as a skilled fighter, but he establishes his presence during battle. When Beowulf kills Grendel’s mother, he comes back with her head to prove that he has defeated her, and his people look up to him. Beowulf is also skilled with his weapons, “I would rather not use a weapon if I knew another way to grapple with the dragon and make good my boast as I did against Grendel is days gone by.” Beowulf knows he has an advantage with his weapons, but the dragon can use his poisonous venom and his ability to breathe fire. This made the battle on a fairly level playing field because Beowulf had to use his strength not just his weapons. He might have had better weapons during his battles, but he uses his strength and he knows how to use weapons which made him a skilled fighter. The Anglo Saxon society praises those who boast. This shows how a culture can shape around one particular person.
Journal 2 – Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
This story is one of my favorites from this semester. It hits on nearly all...

... middle of paper ...

... represents the sexual bonding with his partner. For example, in the first stanza a flea bites both the speaker and the woman. The speaker reacts by saying, “And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.” By this, he is signifying that this flee will help them unify. This will help them unite in intimacy. Then the woman crushes the flea. Based on her reaction, the speaker clarifies, “this flea's death took life from thee.” By this way of explanation, the speaker twists his argument to raise the point that the woman thought of killing this flee, she would lose everything, including her partner. He is saying she will lose nothing by doing this. This flee is a key component in his argument. This poem helps capture a man’s power of conviction when he brings and involves sex into the bedroom with the reader.

Works Cited

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/

More about Heroes, Men´s Power of Conviction, and Women´s Beauty

Open Document