Compare And Contrast Bilbo Baggins And Beowulf

How a society describes its heroes says a lot about its values. In Anglo-Saxon times, men aspired to be like Beowulf. Beowulf is described as “the strongest of the Geats—greater and stronger than anyone anywhere in the world” (Raffel, 2007, p. 26). Anglo-Saxons admired a daring and powerful leader. Beowulf was these things; for example, he killed Grendel with his bare hands and fearlessly led the charge against Grendel's mother. Beowulf is the praised and long-sought after Anglo-Saxon. In contrast, little Bilbo Baggins doesn’t conjure similar images. Bilbo is introduced as the least-likely hero of this story; Tolkein says “they [the Baggins] never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say
The reader sees Bilbo transform from a timid follower to a humble leader when he confronts Smaug and the spiders in Mirkwood. The reader can relate to this because ADD REASON WHY THIS IS RELEVENAT. Similarly, in the 1990s Superman, Lex Luthor is a rich powerful man, a representation of the rich corporations taking advantage of the middle class during these times. In reality, corporations began shipping more jobs overseas while the unemployment rate rose in America. United States citizens felt victimized and looked to Superman comics to get the sense of relief they craved by witnessing Superman destroy Lex Luthor. Julian Chamlis, a history professor, believes that heroes, “address the troubles facing the generation” (Truitt, 2013, p. 1). Bilbo and Beowulf are respectively what their generation sought. While Beowulf represents the wyrd the Anglo-Saxon’s believed in; historically, the wyrd says a person’s fate is written and the Anglo-Saxon culture believed it was honorable to die for your leader than to live while your leader perishes. Bilbo’s storyline may be an allusion to the heroism England displayed in World War I, where all men and women had to step up and do what was right. Superman was an escape for the struggling