Indiana Jones And Beowulf Comparison Essay

Compare and Contrast
Beowulf Vs Indiana Jones
December 8th, 2005

Throughout time stories have for told of a heroic man with abnormal strengths to take on monsters, thieves and to bear his bravery. From generation to generation these myths and chronicles have been carried down, changed, and rearranged. It may seem unbelievable when listening to some of the stories, but it is hard to say if these accounts are true or not. In the story of Beowulf, there was trouble throughout the lands and the problems caused great loss for the land. After great sorrow, a courageous, young man came to save the day, the same goes for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. This movie was created to show that it doesn't take a superhuman with abnormal
strengths to save the day. In the classic epic of Beowulf, a troublesome settlement in Denmark is overtaken by a terrible monster, Grendel, who kills the Danes every night. They lose all hope to fight back because their efforts always seem to be useless compared to the powerful killer. After years of this, a successful Geatland warrior hears of the troubles afar. Beowulf travels a great distance to try to help. Once the King Hrothgar agrees to Beowulf's plea, he allows him to fight the evil monster. The unarmed man was able to kill Grendel, proving his might. A quote by Virginia Satir states "We must not allow other people's limited perceptions to define us." I believe this is a well enforced quote to go along with our next character. Indiana Jones is more a contemporary man who uses all of his sources to empower him to do greater deeds. In the movie we previously watched, Indiana seemed to be a well-educated, educator who had a great desire to explore and search for missing artifacts. He did not stop when people doubted him. He saved people and freed them from torture. Both action-packed, dramas seemed to have common features in them. Beowulf and Indiana Jones were travelers in the beginning. They sought adventure and used their travels to help empower and challenge them. These brave, heroic men over come the odds, and retrieve their "prizes," whether it was defeating the beast or recovering the missing artifacts. They both had a wise helper who was by the side of their mate. In Beowulf, it was Wiglaf and Indiana Jones had a young Chinese boy to oversee his problems. The most distinct comparison we can talk about would be the mysterious kidnaping at night. Whether it was the Danes of the land being killed in spite of all of their effort to try to kill Grendel or if it was when the young children were snatched at night to become slaves in mines were evil withstood all. As time flies by nothing may change or everything may be different.
Time period was one of the major differences dividing these two stories. Indiana Jones takes place in the early nineteen hundreds, probably about 1920. He has a female companion that he seems to always be rescuing. He fought all of the crazy, evil men with his bare hands and a whip. He was a courageous middle-aged man, but with all of his attributes he was never out seeking fights, they just always seemed to find him. Beowulf's era was a mere one thousand years ago. He sought out evilness in hopes to destroy it and become a hero. He was a great war paragon hoping to make a name for himself. He seemed to not have a fear in the world, which made him a great person for the job of destroying the evil monster and his mother. I think pride might have caused him to lose against the dragon though, because he was thinking he was undefeatable. He fought bare handed, because in his days they didn't possess weapons like guns and also he wanted to prove to everyone that he was as strong without the help of "swords and stones." During the story, Beowulf died, leaving the kingdom again without a savior. I think because of this Beowulf seemed to prove that he was not as "superhuman" as some
heroes are. Indiana Jones was able to come out with a victory in all aspects of the movie. Like in all heroic movies, the good guy usually comes out the winner. Indiana got the beautiful girl, he saved the enslaved children from doom in the layer, and he was able to defeat the bad guy. I believe that stories like these have been passes down from generation to generation as a sign of hope and empowerment. It is easy to see that hearing stories of great victories give the average person something to look forward to. When I here a story like this it gives me inspiration to do more good in society. Since these epics have been passed down for some time now it is easy to see that these great stories will again bring hope to future risk takers and bold members of society.