Blog #4- Achilles: Superhero or Super hero?

For this blog I want to talk about the discussion we had in class on Achilles.  I think in class most of us agreed that Achilles was not a superhero, except for one person, and I just want to share the reasons why I consider him more of a “super hero” rather than a “superhero”. You may notice that my reasons lean more towards why he is not a “superhero” and less towards why he is a “super hero” but it is my blog so I guess I can write what I want.

The main reason why I would consider Achilles a super hero is because to his people he was the ultimate war hero. People looked up to him and admired him for his strength and courage. When we talked about people we considered super heroes in class we mentioned these as major characteristics and named fire fighters and army soldiers as some examples so I think that Achilles characteristics would fit into this category.

One reason I do not consider him a superhero is because he basically started a war over a woman he barely knew and had no feelings for, this to me is not something a superhero would do. There have been superheroes that fight over the woman they care about but Achilles case it was different. He started a war, not just a fight, putting innocent people at risk and it all over someone he just met just to keep his pride.

 Another reason why I would not consider him a superhero is because he had to ask his mom to do his dirty work. He had to ask her for help because he could not do what he wanted himself and I do not think that is something a superhero would do. I have seen superheroes get help from others, like Robin helping Batman, but I don’t think superheroes ask for help because most of them seem too proud. Above all he asked her to hurt other people which is definitely not something a true superhero would do.

The final reason I have is that he is part god and I believe we talked about it in class that gods are not superheroes; at least I don’t think so. They seem to have an upper hand over superheroes I think and I feel that they should be in a separate category. So in the end I think Achilles would be either just a “super hero” or “god”.

WORD COUNT: 413

Blog #3: Oedipus: Tragic, but not Heroic

While reading Oedipus one of the main things I kept thinking about was how Oedipus was able to do so many horrific things and still mostly everyone ended up feeling sorry for him instead of hating him. First of all, he kills his own father. Oedipus goes off and kills his father along with many other people on his way to Thebes and nobody even looks for him because they are worried about something more important at the time. He also ended up sleeping with his mother, he may have not known, but in those times I am sure there was some sort of punishment for incestuous behavior. Nonetheless, when everyone found out it was he that put punishment on himself and I don’t believe they would have done anything if he hadn’t just because he was the king.

This is one reason that makes me not think of Oedipus as a superhero because I think that when a superhero does something wrong he would be looked down on by not only himself but also his entire society at least for a while. In most superhero movies I have seen the superhero has great amounts of followers, when he does something wrong they turn against him, but he ends up redeeming himself by doing something great. Oedipus never did that; he gave up. I do not think that superheroes ever give up even in the worst cases and that is another reason I do not think of him as a superhero. I think that this has a lot to do with the type of poem this is; the most epic tragedy.

If I understood correctly from what we talked about in class this is the greatest tragedy because of the fact that there is no happy beginning, no happy middle, or happy ending; it starts off bad and ends bad. I think for there to be a superhero someone would need to end up happy or there is not anything there that can be considered “super”.

In the end I really enjoyed reading this story but I would not consider Oedipus a superhero and I do not think his constituents did either. He killed his father and many others, slept with his mother, blinded himself, and never really did anything good for his people (nothing that was mentioned anyway). I would agree this is a great tragic story but a horrible superhero story.

WORD COUNT: 403

Blog #2- Beowulf is just too real!

So we just recently finished up reading about Beowulf So I figured I write my second blog about how I ended feeling about him as a “super hero”. In my first blog I mentioned that I did not consider Beowulf a “superhero” because he was just too proud and I do not think that is a characteristic that a “superhero” would possess. When we talked about this in class I came to the realization that the difference in cultures plays a big part when it comes to the definition of a superhero. Back then someone like Beowulf was characterized in this way but today I feel with the advancements in technology we see “superheroes” as something greater than what Beowulf is. So although I came to understand why he could be seen as a superhero I still do not believe he is one in today’s American culture and I thought of another reason why.

Beowulf just seems to be too real to be a superhero. To make my point a little clearer I use Spiderman and Batman as examples. Spiderman is a superhero but his alter ego, Peter Parker, is not. Batman is a superhero but his alter ego, Bruce Wayne, is not. This idea, I suppose, could tie into the previous one of Beowulf being too proud. I feel that characters like Spiderman (even though I do not like him) and Batman can be considered “superheroes” because they themselves are “superheroes” but they separate their personal lives from their work. Beowulf is just Beowulf and that I feel would just classify him as a “super hero”. This idea was further embedded in me when we discussed Oedipus in class.

In class the only thing we really mentioned about is Oedipus as a “superhero” was that we believed he was not one. I agreed with this idea mainly because he was a King and even though this may be a dumb reason I just do not think Kings can be superheroes. I think it may be because Kings are there to rule others more than to just watch over them like superheroes do. Also, the job of a King, anyone can do but you would have to be really “extraordinary” to be a superhero. That is why when Beowulf became king I really didn’t classify him as a superhero because I feel that if he really was one he would be out killing monsters instead of sitting on a throne, which he did end up doing in the end but it didn’t really help change my mind. So in the end I see Beowulf as more of a “Super Hero” than a “Superhero” because he was just too real!

WORD COUNT: 449

Blog #1- Beowulf Pt. 1

This week we started our first reading; Beowulf. I must admit that that I was not looking forward to taking this class just because I find these types of readings difficult to understand but Beowulf has been relatively simple so far.

In part one of the story we learned about Beowulf’s past and the characteristics that make him a superhero to his people. These characteristics are many of the ones we (the class) considered were needed to be a superhero:    

          1.  Beowulf needed to have a back story; he did not have his real parents.    

          2.  He needed something that made him unique; he had extraordinary strength.  

          3.  He needed to defend the weak; protected the cities’ people who could not defeat their adversary. 

          4.  He needed an antagonist; Grendal.

There are some characteristics we haven’t seen yet, like a love interest, but there is still much of the story left.

While these are some of the characteristics that we came up with as a class in the end we are all individuals with different opinions and I for one feel that Beowulf has one characteristic that in my mind stops him from being a superhero and that is conceit. So far all I’ve been able to focus on in the story is how much Beowulf loves himself. He bragged about how he defeated the sea monster and how nobody else but he could have done it. He also boasted about how he would be able to fight Grendal without weapons. Even though he was capable of all these feats I feel it isn’t necessary to brag. Again, this is my opinion, but I can’t respect someone that is that into themselves, no matter how great they may be and I think that having people’s respect would be an essential part of a superhero.

Beowulf so far has reminded me of Ironman, and I make my comparison to the Ironman movie because I have not read the comic, because he too is extremely vain. I really didn’t like Ironman either for that reason; he was very into himself and could not figure out why people liked him so much. I can see why people would appreciate the things these two characters did but not the way they acted. I think this is another thing we can talk about a little more in class. Does a superhero need to be respected to be a superhero? What are some other ways superheroes have lost the peoples’ respect?