College Prep Multigenre Project
The Monsters of "Beowulf"
Beowulf vs. Grendel
This project focuses on the theme of monsters in the story "Beowulf," which is one of the most important pieces of writing from the Anglo-Saxon period. "Beowulf" is about a hero who slays monsters, specifically a feared fiend named Grendel, and serves as Denmark's protector.
Monsters or some other form of evil are important to a story because it gives the effect of fear and suspense to the reader, as well as purpose for the other characters. Without monsters, there would be no opposition for the main character or hero to defeat and the story would just be plain and boring.
The Molding of Grendel
Mead Hall Midnight Massacre
The idea behind this piece was to give a more local, close-hitting feel to what Grendel would have done to the people possibly within even the reader’s own community. A news excerpt seemed to give the effect that Grendel was a terror to the people and that authorities would be trying their best to handle the situation, when in fact the situation was highly uncontrolled. This leads to my theme. Monsters are generally associated with terror, widespread chaos, and a state of anarchy or lack of control. In this piece, the state of chaos is hidden by an effect of it being seemingly “controlled” by officials, the same way, in a sense, as what happens in today’s modern world.
My Relfections
I chose the topic of monsters as my theme for this project simply because I felt like the contrast between good and evil had the most profound impact on Beowulf and the Canterbury Tales. Through this project I have noticed a lot of themes and references back to these tow pieces of writing, mainly Beowulf, and that although these pieces are old, they are still influential to the literature world. This project was seemingly difficult for me mainly because I felt overloaded with a lot of assignments and did not always completely understand what I was supposed to do. The piece I enjoyed the most and felt was the most successful was the news excerpt titled "Breaking News! Thirty Dead in Mead Hall Massacre!" because I found it easier to write and had a more influential meaning to my project. The places where I was most challenged by this project involved all of the due dates, guidelines, and other information that I failed to understand. however, this may be due in part by my lack of ability to effectively manage my time, which is what I would like to improve on in the future.