No New Tale to Tell

"Greed is the root of all evil." Though this statement is debatable, negative traits such as, hate, jealousy, or anger can be traced back to greed. The original quote is "For the love of money is the root of all evil," which is stated directly from the Bible. This shows that this notion is present in the Christianity world, but also in the Buddhist society. During one of my Sunday Buddhist studies, there was a specific lecture on the three poisons of mankind with Attachment (a.k.a. Greed) as one. The teacher specifically stated that greed was the prominent poison as it led to the other two.
My definition of greed is the ultimate desire for a particular thing, whether it is materialistic or not. Like I said, it can also lead to other evil traits. For example, if one were to seek gold, he/she would remove all obstacles in front of him/her in order to obtain it, possibly creating anger or commit unholy actions. In the Pardoner's Tale, the story itself depicts the epitome of greed. As the three men come upon gold, they remove all prior intentions and sought after it. Ultimately, greed, in the form of "Death", kills all of them. This story and its theme has already been told in different versions making it a "No New Tale to Tell."

Truth

What is "truth"? Is it something that is based of evidence? Or how one perceives truth? The theme of "truth" reoccurs throughout Grendel and can sometimes be ambiguous. Grendel's knowledge is undeveloped and unsure, thus leading him to believing anything to become true. In his first encounter with the Shaper, he and Hrothgar's people have been exposed to the Shaper's songs. Because of the Shaper's ability to recite stories in such a mesmerizing way, those with lack of knowledge or understanding are susceptible to regard these stories as the "truth". Are these stories and songs actually true? Maybe? Maybe not? Throughout time, oral traditions are passed down from generation to generation, slowly changing its original context. Perhaps, they have changed so much, that they evolve into complete lies, just to satisfy kings and heroes. One of the Shaper's apparent feature is that he is blind, which emphasizes this idea of his stories as being unoriginal or possibly inaccurate. Later on, Grendel goes to the dragon for answers to his questions. Upon this encounter with the dragon, Grendel's view of the "truth" complete changes. The dragon explains how human's perception of the world is consisted of small individual knowledge that links up to a larger understanding. Sooner or later, this bigger picture will become nonsense and this is where the Shaper comes into play. The Shaper uses his ability to develop his own idea of from these nonsense into something real for others. But like the Shaper, why does Grendel believe the dragon? The dragon's controlling and authoritative tone may have frightened Grendel into believing him. In the end, Grendel seeks his own "truth" of the world.

Modern Day Grendel

Throughout the epic of Beowulf, the antagonist, Grendel, is depicted as a unrelenting and murderous savage. However, this description is derived from the perspectives of the people of Herot. To them, Grendel committed countless of murderers in order to satisfy his devilish desires. These are only assumptions, disregarding what Grendel's true motive. Maybe he thought his doings would compensate for their actions. Maybe he sought revenge for something that has occurred in the past. Maybe he doesn't have one at all. It seems apparent that this poem is one-sided, masking other ideas. When I think things being one-sided, the idea of terrorists come into mind. Americans have created this image of Muslims of the Middle East as being terrorists. However, they based this stereotype off terrorist attacks. Not all Muslims use violence; there has been benevolent protests. They don't conduct these actions just because they resent America. The prominent motive of this is to avoid being part of globalization and losing their distinct culture. Most Americans don't take account for the Muslims' viewpoint because of their arrogance. Perhaps, Muslims depict Americans as being the modern day "Grendel" for expanding this idea of globalization into the Middle East. Our modern day "Grendels" exist only because we imagine them as that.

Me

Welcome to my blog page everyone. Before I start adding blogs to my page, I would first like to introduce myself. I am a current junior at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School. Here, I participate in multiple clubs and one sport, including National Honor Society, Key Club, and volleyball. Not only do I play volleyball for the school team, but I partake in Powerhouse Volleyball Club, where their practices are held at UIC. Besides that, I have been playing the euphonium for over eight years and currently hold a position in the Advanced Band at school. During my leisure time, I usually turn on the television and watch "How I Met Your Mother" on Netflix. During the summer, I would hit the beach with a couple of friends to play some beach volleyball and take a dip in Lake Michigan. Every Sunday, I would commute for an hour to attend my weekly at a Buddhist temple, Truc Lam Temple. Some of my future aspirations is to attend University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and be employed for ComEd. Other than that, I hope this post can give you a brief description of myself and I also look forward to British Literature.

Thank you