Beowulf Essay

“Heroes are ordinary people who do extraordinary things” Heroes from across each decade, culture, society are all cut from the same cloth. They always defeat evil because of their unnatural abilities. Heroes are the imagination of the society that creates them. Both Beowulf and Iron man share similar characteristics, not only as characters, but as symbols of the times in which they were created.  They both posses traits that hurt and helped those around them. Each hero is portrayed through a series of literary techniques.

Iron man and Beowulf are both confident in their abilities and use that to defeat evil. Although, their confidence can be misconstrued as cockiness and sometimes even hurts them; it makes them who they are. Beowulf is so confident that it ultimately what brings him to is death. He tells his companion to wait and let him go kill the dragon but by doing so he gets himself in to trouble. Iron man is similar to Beowulf in that he doesn’t think that he needs any help from anyone and that gets him into trouble. The authors of both heroes use allusions to tell their stories. Beowulf alludes to the Bible and Iron man alludes to Stark’s father and his creations. 

Beowulf and Iron man are both the creation of the society which thought them up. Beowulf represents an older time with kings and queens. They had a medieval outlook on things or what we would consider medieval. Iron man came from an age of technology and technology that keeps evolving. Therefore, Iron man is a genius who creates something so unique and so advanced, that it is his super power.  We can see the difference in era’s in which these stories were created. We can see it through the authors use of imagery. The authors describe things in such detail such as the celebration hall in Beowulf and everything that takes place in it. In Iron man they use imagery to depict the battle scenes. 

Heroes are what a society makes of them. Beowulf is what his people wanted him to be, they needed a person who had an immaculate amount of strength who could defeat whatever stood in his way. Iron man is what America needed; a normal person who was had a gifted and used it to protect the country. They may have been from different time periods but they resembled many of the same characteristics; strength, courage, and confidence.