No New Tale To Tell

Modern day literature can, for the most part, relate back to The Canterbury tales. This set of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer, can relate to many things in modern literature and current day living. Two of the stories from The Canterbury Tales that we read so far are The Wife of Bath and The Pardoner.

In The Wife of Bath, it can be indicated that Chaucer felt that woman should have more voice in the community. This is shown especially when the queen decides on what the knights punishment should be. And it was none, because he was able to fake that he understood woman and what a woman should  and does want in life. It's obvious though that the knight really does not know what a woman would like and need in life because he already ruined one woman's life with his greed and lust. Chaucer could have easily killed off this horrid character by having King Arthur have the final ruling in the punishment. But like we discussed in class, that would have made for a much less interesting tale.

Women are constantly being oppressed in modern day literature and even in current day. Even in America, 'the free country.' To have Chaucer write about woman's oppression and put it in a not so glorious light is good. He shows it as something that should not be taken lightly and by the way he puts it he talks about that sexual harassment is punishable by death. But the queen was lenient and gave the knight a second chance by giving him a difficult task in which he would have thirty days to answer and if not, off goes his head. I feel like that wasn't good because the victim then lived in constant fear, much like today's victims because rape is taken almost too lightly it seems.

In the Pardoner's tale, three men are too greedy and that costs them their lives. It seems that everyone is just backstabbing jerks. I mean of course not everyone but the three FRIENDS in this story definitely are. They ask an old man where to find death and he points them to an old tree. The start of this story isn't going too well. First off, they ask a man cheating death where to find Death. This man wants death so don't you think he would also have been at the tree desperately awaiting Death to come and take him? Well, onto the next part. At this point, they are already at the tree. And there at the base, is a pot of gold. How lovely. Then one of them proceeds to go buy wine and rat poison and the other two decide to kill the one who left. What a shame it would be if they were all to die. Well, that happened. And yes they found Death. Well, Death found them. Dead.

This relates to so many things in modern day everything. Books are constantly expressing backstabbing, greed, and distrust. These never result in anything good. Even in our culture today we are constantly seeing distrust happening too often.

Truth

In Grendel, when the Shaper comes to Hrothgar's kingdom, Grendel sees the Shaper as almost an overseeing being. One who knows everything. From the start Grendel knows that the Shaper is blind but he still believes everything the Shaper is saying. He believes what the Shaper says about him and his origin. He believes that he is a decedent from Cain. He believes all of these stories and even though he has seen most of them take place he seems to forget that and just becomes enchanted and mesmerized by the Shaper.

                  What he hears the Shaper saying, is almost perfect it seems to him. And he wants it to be true. He wants that to be what is actually happening. But at the same time he knows the real world. He knows what is happening. And he is torn between the two worlds. The Shaper’s and his.

                  That is where the Dragon comes in. He goes to the Dragon to seek help. But it seems that he is almost too intimidated by the huge, immense, overwhelming Dragon to really ask the Dragon much. But as we read more we see that the Dragon does have answers. Some are not what Grendel was looking for because he so dearly wanted the perfect life and tale the Shaper was speaking of. 

MODERN DAY GRENDEL

An example of modern day Grendel could be President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. He called enemy forces 'half men,' which is how the humans see Grendel and maybe is how Grendel sees the humans because they are so violent when Beowulf comes to their aid. 

President Bashar al-Assad has become increasingly aggressive recently, like Grendel did when he was fighting Beowulf. The more Beowulf fought back the more Grendel used his force. The same goes for al-Assad, when he was attacked, he used force. 

The president Declared his determination to wipe out the entirety of the opposition. He claimed he is standing against an imperialist army. In Beowulf, Grendel vowed it upon himself to kill. That was how he took out his misery and he fueled himself. He found himself standing against an army of angry men, like the president is now facing. 

When Grendel kills, he feels no remorse, he does it because he needs to. President Bashar al-Assad continues to refuse to express any responsibility or remorse for the blood washing over Syria. Sound familiar to Grendel?

President Bashar al-Assad cannot compromise,like Grendel, he cannot rebuild, Grendel only goes off of what he knows like the President, he cannot reconcile, cant hide like Grendel. He is stuck, like Grendel was when he encountered Beowulf. He wanted to run but he couldnt because Beowulf over powered him and he was left to his own devices which are strength and brutality and when Beowulf is better in both fields, Grendel wants to hide and run away but he can't. 

The president "can rule over a pile of rubble - thats the best he can do." He has nothing left since hes destroyed it all. This relates to Grendel because Grendel ruined the lives of so many in the mead hall that he has nothing left to torture. 

The president let off a poisonous gas attack that killed more than one thousand four hundred people. Grendel killed so many people without a second thought that this almost relates to him perfectly.