Beowulf Heroes Vs Modern Day Heroes Essay

The definition of a hero has changed over the past two thousand years. Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney, is the oldest English epic to date. In the epic, Beowulf, the main character, is a hero for the Danes. An epic hero is “a brave and noble character in an epic poem, admired for great achievements or affected by grand events” (Dictionary.com). Modern day heroes, on the other hand, are defined as “a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal” (Dictionary.com). The characteristics of a hero are based on what a culture or society thinks. The heroes share some major characteristics, but other aspects are dissimilar. In particular, Beowulf and modern day heroes are alike in that both always change after crisis, however, Beowulf has a high social status, and while …show more content…
Beowulf is said to have the grip of thirty thanes. With this great strength he fights Grendel, an evil force that attacks Herot, and Grendel’s mother who dies avenging her son’s death. Some modern day heroes do not need the strength Beowulf has, and do not fight the tangible monsters Beowulf does. For example, Jorge Munoz, a Colombian immigrant fed 70,000 people in Queens, New York. He did not need physical strength to fight a monster, and the evil he was fighting was hunger, which is intangible meaning you cannot touch it. Another example of a modern day hero is Doc Hendley who lives in North Carolina. He founded the Wine to Water Foundation, which gives clean water to people who don’t have it. He like Jorge Munoz did not need physical strength to fight a monster, and he fought the intangible evil of dirty water. Even though about 1500 years ago Beowulf had to use physical strength to fight literal monsters, today’s heroes do not need physical strength or literal monsters to be considered a