Beowulf Exemplar
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Transcript of Beowulf Exemplar
Exemplar Student
Mr. Ankeny
English 7
24 November 2010
Beowulf as Hero
In Robert Nye’s Beowulf: A New Telling, one pervasive question is: What is a hero? Through
interactions with a variety of heroic figures—Scyld, Hrothgar, Wealtheow, Beowulf—the reader
eventually develops an intimate understanding of what makes a hero. However, it is the story’s main
character, Beowulf, who fills the hero archetype most fully. Beowulf is heroic because he identifies his
own weaknesses and he overcomes evil not for personal gain, but to remove other’s suffering.
When Beowulf is first introduced into the novel, upon arriving at the land of the Danes, he is
described as “the rare kind of person who makes strength of his own weaknesses” (20). Beowulf makes
these weaknesses strengths by acknowledging them and then working deliberately to fix them. A true
hero is not born perfect, but works with discipline to improve his or her weaknesses.
Also during the hero’s introduction, Beowulf is said to have arrived to fight Grendel because “he
was determined to help, if he could” (20). Beowulf does not come boasting of his deeds and looking for
further fame. He comes to help the Danes, not forward his reputation. A true hero fights to remove the
suffering of other people, not to selfishly gain a well-respected name.
Beowulf is a hero because he makes weaknesses strengths and fights evil for the betterment of
other people, not only himself. This vision of a hero has survived for many generations because it taps
into the truth that we all can be heroes, each in our own small, but significant, way.
Student 1