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Comparing Beowulf And Captain America

Decent Essays

What is a hero? As a society we have many ideals of them and with the recent events, whether they are real, War on Terror, The persecution of our emergency responders, the upcoming political races; or are simply all the new superhero movies coming out, the definition of a hero is somewhat vague. Looking at Beowulf, however and comparing him to Captain America, a revisit of an old comic book, we can see that though times have changed, our idea of the “prefect hero”, which these stories seem to describe to us remain largely unchanged. In the opening part of Beowulf, ”a fiend of hell, began to do evil. The grim demon” (Lines 100-102). This monster is Grendel and he seeks the utter destruction of Heorot Hall and the warriors within. Captain America’s greatest foe is the Red Skull, a man that seeks to take over the world during World War Two. The similarities are very …show more content…

“In such wise, manfully, the mighty prince, treasure-warden of heroes, paid for shocks of battle with steeds and treasure”(1047). As time goes on each hero fights more battles gaining more renown. In time Beowulf becomes a king, whereas Captain America stays as he is, a simple Captain in the U.S. military. Another large difference between these heroes is there last battles. Captain America has no plans of dying in his last battle, but when he sees that the only way to assure victory is to sacrifice himself he does so with no hesitation and no thought of himself. Beowulf goes into his last battle knowing very well that he will not survive as he is old now. Beowulf dies knowing that his life was full and good and is glad it ends with honor “I have ruled the people fifty years; no folk king was there of them that dwelt about me durst touch me with his sword or cow me through terror”(2734-2736). “I may have joy of it

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