No new tales to tell

            In the Wife of Bath women are treated on a lesser scale than men and that is no new issue. Still today we have women fighting for equal rights that they deserve. This issue has been forever a long haul to fight as much other discriminatory cases have. Just as the Wife of Bath had explained, the sense of understanding and power should be equalized. He creates this character to personify this strong idea. Often time feminism is taken out of proportion into sexism with women’s favor. Women should not be able to control men or have all the say. There needs to be a balance within a system of giving and taking. I believe that he focuses very strongly on this topic without directly saying that there needs to be reform. He shows within extremist examples of ‘what might be ’ within the civilization to show that equality as its potential. We read in class stories of the Anglo-Saxon culture and how women had no say whatsoever in any decisions; whether they be about the village, her family, or even herself. In 1919-20 women finally received the right to vote and continued to fight on from there. Today we have small outbreaks of women showing their passion towards this idea. Taking complete reform would probably be unnecessary in our times now, but this comes to show that women wanting their equal respects and right will seemingly forever be a topic. And tales will come following the same ideas.

Truth

When we read Beowulf in the first week, we had already depicted our own bad image of Grendel as this evil creature who lures in the night. Yet we continued to read on into Grendel and saw a different perspective. Throughout this time our idea of what is the truth has been twisted and turned. This question of who is telling the real story is constantly running through my mind. The Shaper comes into the story and tells of these heroic and devastating poems to the people of Denmark and as they listen they are drawn into his tales. Even Grendel who listens in hiding is almost dragged in, and we know that is not the life that he knows. Grendel had seemed to be hiding in his own little bubble of stories that has brought him great torture, but absorbing such a drastic life in such a quick moment of time was to much for him. He has a pure breakdown in this moment of time because of the truth. As quotes say, the truth may hurt, and it really puts a toll not only on Grendel but everyone else in the village also. While Grendel is firing up in his cave, these villagers are being inspired by the ancestral stories. They are ready to take back their lives.
We also see truth within the Dragon. And this is a cold harsh sense of honesty. He blatantly tell Grendel what his life needs to be about. He makes Grendel, a feared man-eating "beast", afraid and demeans him. The sense of truth had made Grendel feel as his life is even less that he thought of it before (which was fairly low). The Dragons cold hard advice is to "find a pile of gold and sit on it" because the truth is, our life is such a small part of existence.

Modern American Beowulf

              Beowulf would not be considered a bad character, but personally I would not give him as many props for what he has really done. I would say modern American Beowulf would be America's participation within other countries issues. At all costs they are made from good intentions but could be considered intrusive. I don't have enough background information to strongly support the subject of Americas history but I feel America has a powerful sense of confidence when addressing others just as Beowulf did entering Denmark. Telling them he is the greatest and with their approval he will rid them of the monster. We seem to be a powerhouse of the world and by that we have this sense of certainty or boldness about ourselves. America also seems to have a tendency to involve themselves into other countries issues. Not always when asked. Beowulf came from a far away land all the way to Denmark telling them he was here to solve their problems, nowing fully well he could accomplish the task. American seems to take these issues with the same mind set, yet the outcomes don't  to be the case and often, we dig themselves or ourselves deeper in the problem. Not to say that it was a bad idea for Beowulf to come, obviously if not for him there would be hundreds more dead, but there was there was no invitation to it. I'm fairly  sure that America did involve itself within places such as Haiti to promote democracy or in Kosovo to end genocide, and  not saying that it was a bad idea because we are spreading 'good' ( or our idea of good), but there was no starting act of a call for help. Again I'm not at all against what Beowulf had done to come and defeat Grendel but he did just place himself very confidently in that position, just as America has with many other countries.  And that seems to have a negative connotation in a wide part in the audience of America. This is why I believe America's positions within other countries issues is a modern American Beowulf.