This Article Really Blew

The argument that stood out to me was that Beowulf should not be considered the man and the poem together. The argument by Kathryn Hume saying that Beowulf's inner thoughts aren't displayed to the reader except through some very brief and few private moments struck a cord with me. I never really connected with Beowulf the poem or the man because I like being just that, connected. Even if I wanted to read a story about dragons and monsters and defeating armies and whatever you can put into an epic poem, I still feel that need to be connected to the main character, to read at least a little tidbit of what he's thinking, not just "and then he did this, then he picked this up and did this, and how brave he was".

The opposing argument that Beowulf is in fact what makes the poem, what makes its theme, well, I just don't agree with that. If there is any theme or point to Beowulf in my mind, its all about preserving culture and entertainment, and we could get into that whole debate about Paganism and about Christianity and who wrote it and all that stuff, but forget it. I feel that the main character has a very important role in the theme of the poem, and that contributed a great deal to my dislike of this work. Also, the idea of some brute who due to the writing of the poem has no inner thoughts and cannot even be considered a man of action through the fact that he is not portrayed in any specific light other than the one of "hero" is representative of the entire poem is kind of unsettling with me in a literary sense.

Wil Wheaton.

And then we all die.

Yeah, heroes are interesting. I'm really not a fan of the classical heroes, tragic heroes, all the ones we've read about recently. Heroes represent the good, represent the just, the loyal and what we should all aspire to be like. Personally, I wouldn't want to A) be in a position of power B) be like any of our literary heroes from class C) have to fight big scaly things D) commit incest or even E) have a name that has too many vowels. Heroes fight the bad guy and traditionally prevail, unless of course to prove a point in the story. Romeo and Juliet isn't as poignant without the deaths of the main characters. The New Testament isn't quite the same without (SPOILER ALERT) Jesus getting crucified. Heroes in literature are usually a moral incarnate. And the opposite works too with the tragic hero. The tragic hero is fantastic; they're an amazing person...except for that one thing. Sometimes hubris or sometimes a personality shortcoming, who knows, but that's what does them in.

I don't have heroes like that. When I think of heroes, I think of Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk. Survivor is the story of Tender Branson, who was in a religious cult. the cult committed suicide, except for Tender, and he lives his life out relatively alone. Then he becomes a big star for being the last survivor, becomes buff, gets rich, and hijacks a plane sending himself and the Quantas sailing off into the Australian outback. My hero lives life in ways no one else will, all the while telling you how to get different kinds of stains out of carpets. My hero is the owner of his former family's 20,000 acres that he decided to fill with pornography in order to rid the world of it. My hero will never die because of a fatal flaw because he is nothing but flaws. My hero is just that, a hero.

In Beowulf, the epic title hero is a braggart, he is powerful and the leader of his people. Generally a guy you'd want to have on your side. He slays monsters and lives the good life; there's nothing wrong with that. Near the end of his life, he still wishes to fight as hard as possible, and his downfall is that, well, he's old. I don't mind Beowulf, he likes to help people he feels are in need, and he likes to have himself some mead (not a bad way to live out your days). The only problem is that, personally, he's not much of a hero to me. Someone has to kill the beasts, and if you can, you should. When we discussed what constitutes a hero in class, we mentioned that not all firefighters are heroes. If a firefighter puts out a fire, good for him, but that's what he gets paid to do. If he runs in like a fool, and comes out with an old lady over his shoulder, a cat in his suit and a baby on his arm, we can go ahead and say that's extraordinary. That would make a classic hero for me. I'm pretty jaded by the whole setup: "Ooh! Big scary monster terrorizes town! Who will save them? Why its the handsome strong guy! Yay handsome strong guy!" This is why my personal heroes aren't amazingly talented at anything, they're just people that live for the sake of surviving. They fly planes and punch people in the face and build castles for the sake of doing them.