Symbolism of Battle in Beowulf
Beowulf Authors often use events and things to symbolize stages in someone's life. Symbolism is the practice of representing things by means of symbols or of attributing meaning of significance to objects, events, or relationships. In the anonymous epic, Beowulf, Beowulf fights Grendel, the monsters of the ocean and Grendel's mother. Beowulf's battles with theses three evils symbolize the youth and adulthood of Beowulf's life.
The battle with Grendel represents the youth of Beowulf's life. The typical youth is very brave and fights for fame. Beowulf shows how the battle with Grendel is a representation of the youth of Beowulf's life by going to Hrothgar and asking him if he can fight Grendel for him and his people. Beowulf shows this trait when he says,
Grant me, then, lord and protector of this noble place, a single request! I have come so far, oh shelter of warriors and your people's loved friend, that this one favor you should not refuse me. That I, alone and with the help of my men, may purge all evil from this Hell. (Beowulf page #).
Another trait that a typical youth has is that they don't want to be outwitted. They also don't want people to think poorly of them. Beowulf shows this when he hears that Grendel does not use any weapons to fight and so Beowulf says that he will not use any weapons because he wants Higlac to think worthy of him. Beowulf shows this trait when he says,
I have heard, too, that the monster's scorn of men is so great that he needs no weapons and fears none. Now will I. My lord Higlac might think less of me if I let my sword go where my feet were afraid to, if I hid behind some broad linden shield: my hands alone shall fight for me, struggle for life against the monster (Beowulf page #).
The typical youth likes to brag about what they have done. Beowulf shows this third trait when he brags to Hrothgar about how he swam all the way over and killed all the monsters in the ocean. This is seen when Beowulf says, "I swam in the Blackness of night, hunting monsters out of the ocean, and killing them one by one; death was my errand and the fate they had earned" (Beowulf page #).
Deborah Gray Whites book shows a side of slavery containing black women that wasn’t unmasked. Though the mythologies of Mammy and Jezebel didn’t quite match up to the everyday lives of female slaves, there is still a great deal of difference of being a slave women then a slave man or white woman.
Women slaves were subject to unusually cruel treatment such as rape and mental abuse from their master’s, their unique experience must have been different from the experience men slaves had. While it is no secret that the horrors of the institution of slavery were terrible and unimaginable; those same horrors were no big deal for southern plantation owners. Many engaged in cruelty towards their slaves. Some slave owners took particular interest in their young female slaves. Once caught in the grips of a master’s desire it would have been next to impossible to escape. In terms of actual escape from a plantation most women slaves had no reason to travel and consequentially had no knowledge of the land. Women slaves had the most unfortunate of situations; there were no laws that would protect them against rape or any injustices. Often the slave that became the object of the master’s desires would also become a victim of the mistress of the household. Jealousy played a detrimental role in the dynamic the enslaved women were placed within. Regardless of how the slave felt she could have done little to nothing to ease her suffering.
In 1095 Pope urban II call all Christians to take part in what would become the world’s greatest Holy War in all of history. Urban’s called Christians to take up arms and help fight to take the Holy Land of Jerusalem back from the accursed Muslims. During this time of war the whole world changed. Land boundaries shifted, men gained and lost and gained power again, and bonds were forged and broken. The Crusades had a great impact on the world that will last forever. There were many major social, political, religious and economic changes that occurred during the crusades. But first, a brief history to give backbone to these reasons.
There are many traits that are possessed by those who seek heroism. Whether it is in real life or in fiction, every hero desires these character traits in the past, present, and future. IN my opinion, the two traits that are most prominent in the poem Beowulf are bravery and goodness.
...nese immigrants that came to America in the mid 1800’s came for the same reasons as every immigrant group, dire situations in their native lands and the opportunities for economic prosperity. Having escaped their misfortunate pasts, the Chinese immigrants took the opportunities afforded to them in the gold mining fields and on the railroad tracks. Providing a much needed labor force to America at the time, the Chinese would never get their just credit. Instead they would be discriminated more in the years to come. Acts such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 would greatly reduce the number of Chinese immigrants allowed to come into the country ("The Chinese," n.d.). Coupled with measures put in place by the state of California such as the “Anti-Coolie Act of 1862”, the Chinese immigrants faced humiliation after contributing so much to the United States of America.
A major turning point in Medieval history were the Crusades. The Crusades were a series of wars fought between the Christian Europeans and the Muslim Turks, which occurred between the years of 1096 to 1272. In this Holy War the Christians goal was to obtain the Holy Land from the Turks, in which they did not succeed. Although the Christians did not meet their goal, many positives did come out of their attempt. Due to the reason that they did not meet their goal, yet numerous positives came out of their effort, many refer to this as a successful failure.
Bravery is like a very trusted friend, it will never let you down. That statement holds true in the great epic of "Beowulf." "Beowulf" is the story of a great hero who comes to the aid of a troubled king. Beowulf hears that king Hrothgar is having trouble and immediately comes to help with no questions asked. he defeats the monster, Grendel, with his bare hands. Beowulf then defeats Grendel's mother along with a dragon until he is fatally injured. Bravery is a very admirable characteristic that few people possess.
Today, half of state prisoners are serving time for nonviolent crimes. Over half of federal prisoners are serving time for drug crimes. Mass incarceration seems to be extremely expensive and a waste of money. It is believed to be a massive failure. Increased punishments and jailing have been declining in effectiveness for more than thirty years. Violent crime rates fell by more than fifty percent between 1991 and 2013, while property crime declined by forty-six percent, according to FBI statistics. Yet between 1990 and 2009, the prison population in the U.S. more than doubled, jumping from 771,243 to over 1.6 million (Nadia Prupis, 2015). While jailing may have at first had a positive result on the crime rate, it has reached a point of being less and less worth all the effort. Income growth and an aging population each had a greater effect on the decline in national crime rates than jailing. Mass incarceration and tough-on-crime policies have had huge social and money-related consequences--from its eighty billion dollars per-year price tag to its many societal costs, including an increased risk of recidivism due to barbarous conditions in prison and a lack of after-release reintegration opportunities. The government needs to rethink their strategy and their policies that are bad
The treatment of Chinese immigrants and Chinese-Americans is often overlooked as the struggles of other ethnic groups in the United States take center stage in history. Many remember the plight of African-Americans and their struggle over basic civil liberties during the 19th and 20th centuries in America. However we shouldn’t forget that the Chinese were another group heavily discriminated against with the use of legal racism in the form of laws violating basic human rights and Sinophobe sentiments held by the American populace. After the “fall” of China to communism, anti-Chinese sentiments were only exacerbated due to the second Red Scare and the Communist witch hunts that it created. People of Chinese descent were another unfortunate target of racism in America’s long history of legalized racism.
The first influence we see in both modules is discrimination. The Whites as a whole did not give any acceptance towards both cultures. There were several barriers keeping the Blacks and Mexicans from breaking the lines between them and the Whites. First, the Whites saw both groups of people as minorities. They felt both subcultures were unequal from the beginning, therefore holding discriminating beliefs about the cultures from which both groups came from. Also, the Whites were very angry with these groups, who were trying to share the same freedoms.
...xperienced harsh discrimination and even legal exclusion from our country. They were blamed for the lack of job opportunities and low pay of jobs and received extremely unfair treatment that labeled them as an inferior race. However, the inter-ethnic tension blinded us from seeing how the immigrants were contributing to our country in positive ways. They not only created economic and social gains for us, but also opened our minds to a whole new way of life and prepared us for the multicultural years to come. With all of the help and modernization that they contributed to our country, the racism and discrimination that the Chinese immigrants received day-in and day-out was not rightly justified or deserved.
As female slaves such as Harriet Jacob continually were fighting to protect their self respect, and purity. Harriet Jacob in her narrative, the readers get an understanding of she was trying to rebel against her aggressive master, who sexually harassed her at young age. She wasn’t protected by the law, and the slaveholders did as they pleased and were left unpunished. Jacobs knew that the social group,who were“the white women”, would see her not as a virtuous woman but hypersexual. She states “I wanted to keep myself pure, - and I tried hard to preserve my self-respect, but I was struggling alone in the grasp of the demon slavery.” (Harriet 290)The majority of the white women seemed to criticize her, but failed to understand her conditions and she did not have the free will. She simply did not have that freedom of choice. It was the institution of slavery that failed to recognize her and give her the basic freedoms of individual rights and basic protection. Harriet Jacobs was determined to reveal to the white Americans the sexual exploitations that female slaves constantly fa...
An epic hero is defined as someone who seems larger than life, that exemplifies the cultural values of that time period. A piece of literature that revolves around the archetypal hero is the poem Beowulf. Beowulf is the oldest surviving piece of literature in the English language. Although the poem has historical elements woven into it, it is a complete work of fiction. The poem itself was originally untitled. Later on, the poem was named after its protagonist, whom the poem primarily focuses on. Beowulf accurately portrays the archetypal hero in several distinctive ways which include; being a great warrior, traveling over a vast setting, showing humility, and being of noble birth.
In the beginning of the novel, Beowulf takes interest in the plight of Hrothgar, King of Denmark, and wants to help him fight Grendel. Grendel is a large monster that has been harassing members in the mead-hall of the Heorot. Beowulf owes Hrothgar a favor, due to the fact that Hrothgar saved his father in years past. Hrothgar is honored to have Beowulf attempt to fight the swamp monster, and decides to hold a feast in his name. When Grendel shows up to the feast, Beowulf illustrates his bravery by fighting Grendel without any armor. When Beowulf wins the battle by ripping Grendel’s arm off, everyone in the mead-hall praises Beowulf for his acts of courage. In this scene, Beowulf proves that he is a hero by fighting off a monster that everyone else was afraid of. This made him look
There I was, Beowulf, standing tall and brave after the battle had ended. It was a bit strange to me seeing as I had once lived a very lonely life; I had killed other creatures before, I had fought small dragons, I had hunted wild boars, I had swam a race in the sea, but to me, this battle was much different. I had many villagers counting on me to defend their land. I prepared myself for everything, even the unthinkable, for seven days and seven nights in the halls of Hygelac the Geat. I had wished to go alone on this journey to slay Grendel and save Greatsland, but I was told to pick fourteen earls to take with me.