Ryan McMahon, Period 2, 2/10/21, Day A

Blog #2 - Literacy & Learning

Write your thoughts about any of the fiction or non-fiction covered in class.

At the time of the writing of this, we are covering a summarized version of the Old English fiction, Beowulf, in class, and have just read of Beowulf's defeat of Grendel's mother and will next cover the finale of the story. My thoughts towards Beowulf are that: although it does not contain "original" story elements (even at the time, a hero defeating monsters was nothing new), it is relevant to the location of its writing. Grendel, the titular evil monster character, slips into camps and halls in the night and kills even great soldiers, all being powerless to stop him. This could be seen as a representation of the real dangers of society at that time. Wolves, beasts, raiders, and marauders could slip into a village in the night and wreak havoc, taking advantage of the night, only able to be stopped by an overwhelming force. Beowulf as a man could represent that force of reinforcements to a border town or a night watch.

 

Reflect on any new information you have learned in English class by considering how that learning influences your critical perception.

In this class, we study ancient myths of cultures, including Greek, Egyptian, and the 3 big monotheistic religions. I believe that so far, the greatest lesson I have learned is that, nothing is original. The saying that "all Western writing is just taken from Greek mythology, the Bible, and Shakespeare", I have come to learn, is extremely true, and may even be understated as Shakespeare borrows a lot from the Bible and Greek mythos, and the Bible borrows from Greek, Egyptian, and Sumerian stories. This class helped me to realize that all writing is built on the back of other writing, originating from oral stories told about the human experience, and now I cannot help myself from seeing the elements of ancient myths in all media.

How is what you’re learning applied to any other classes/the world around you?

I don't have any history classes this year, so I cannot really relate the lessons learned in this class to any other classes, but I can apply them to my life and the world around me. The goal of every English class in which stories are read is not only to read them and understand the plot points (what literally happens) but also to understand the philosophical and symbolic meanings of the story and elements of the story. I apply these ancient human lessons to situations in my life and events in the world around me. As a fairly "manly man", I tend to focus on the lessons about bravery, loyalty, and those surrounding conflict and war. These ancient stories have made me question what it means to be loyal, can a soldier be loyal to enemies in respect of life (reporting war crimes and your comrades). If cowardice is preferred over death, does the promise of passing on your genes to the next generation fall short of or surpass the promise of passing your name deeds. Is war always a waste, is the idea of a "warrior's death" just used by those who don't fight to get people to die for ideas that aren't truly worth it?