October Monthly Blog: Grendel and Beowulf

Yes, I know this is quite late, but in my defense...well actually I dont have quite a good enough excuse besides the fact that saturday is a terrible, random and obscure date to have something due, especially if that saturday lands on a busy weekend. Hopefully I could get some credit for entering this...well for what I will write after I stop complaining about my life as most blogger s do.

At any rate, I thought the story we read, written in Grendel's perspective was quite interesting actually, contrary to most people who really hated it. It seems that lately the class is reading stories that revolve around flaws in people, and the errors that arise from their ignorance. The AP question we responded to last friday was a good example of how ignorance breeds destruction, something which I think is a good statement to sum up the past few stories we have read. In the poem about the history teacher preaches to the children, about a world that is softened by statements such as the ice age was the "chilly age,"and tragic wars were downplayed. That poem shows, in the end, that the teacher caused the children to be ignorant to the facts of life, who bullied those who were smart enough not to believe the teachers lies. The statement that ignorance breeds destruction shows itself here that, it eventually destroys society. The characters in Beowulf are ignorant to the intelligence and sophistication, in a way, of Grendel and the Dragon. Clearly, both characters, perceived to be monsters, were creatures capable of higher level thinking, as Grendel and his mother were advanced enough to have reasoning ability, and the Dragon was wise and intelligent, speaking of the nature of men. Beowulf's men ignored the fact, or simply could not see that the Dragon and Grendel were not beasts on the inside, but saw only what they wanted to see: monsters that could be fought and killed, prizes to be won, and things that would make them heroes. Both Grendel and the Dragon saw through the ways of men, and thought them to be primitive and cowardly. The men in this story, similar to Oedipus, lacked the ability to see the truth. Although both stories have different plots, they have a similar theme. Oedipus lacked the sight to see that his fate was not avoidable, to trust in others, and Beowulf was too ignorant to see that the Dragon and Grendel were advanced creatures. Because both characters were ignorant to the facts, destruction arose. Oedipus blinded himself, and Grendel, his mother, and the dragon were killed. My main point here is that in all three stories, the characters ignorance to the facts creates their eminent downfall. The barbaric actions of the characters in Beowulf to Grendel reveals the nature of their society. I think that ignorance is a main theme lately in the books we are reading, and that preaches a moral. Even in society today, we see the implications of the "ignorance" of countries. We have preventable situations such as global warming, for which the whole world is responsible, or the amount of deaths in, say, hurricane Katrina. It could be said that our wastefulness and ignorance to our actions could have prevented the destruction of the ozone layer, or that if there had been a larger, communal country wide effort, the country could have amassed more help to save lives after the hurricane. Either way, these things are arguable. Some could say that in both situations, we have done everything we could have. However, it is certain that we see sheer ignorance in society through out history in this country and throughout the world. This is why these themes are written into books like these, because they happen in real life and are universal.
Once again I apologize for the lateness of this blog. It would be nice if i could get some credit for it anyway.