Essential #3: How is Wealtheow portrayed? What does she do? can we expect of Anglo Saxon Women

Wealtheow is like high ranking slave. The fact that she serves the king his mead demonstrates her secondary nature.The author refers to her as, "excellent in mind" (615). In other words, a woman who serves a man is the ideal anglo saxon woman. We can expect very little from her due to to her subservient nature. We discussed in class, that a large part of being a hero involves gaining respect from others. The food and drink that she provides for Beowulf and his men are a token of her respect demonstrating that all women ought to offer tokens of their gratitude to men who look to protect them.

What are the social obligations of a hero?

The social obligations of a hero are to weed out injustice where ever it may lie. The difference between a true hero and a good person is the manner in which they go about dealing with this injustice.In the story of the good Samaritan, a man was robbed and badly beaten, left to die by his aggressor. Men of high credibility who were particularly good in speaking what they believe were simply unwilling to aid a dying man. A priest and a Levite pass the man while a socially shunned Samaritan finally resolves to help the dying man. Here in the gospel of Luke, we are given a demonstration of the hypocrisy that can occur when believes do not coincide with corresponding actions.This would be an example of a good person who gives charity to the poor. While Jesus would be the Christian hero as he died to eliminate structural sin within the hearts and minds of the romans. Jesus's death gave way to the catholic as he died in the hopes to bring justice. In other words, Heroes are required to pluck the roots injustice rather than simply trim its branches.

How do we create division in our society?

Michael Rossi
September 9th, 2010
Advanced Placement English Literature
How do we create division in our society (Respond in 15 sentences)


Division occurs on a small level, within the educational system. Students often organize themselves into cliques that share a similar interests or physical features such as the nerds, jocks, Blacks, Caucasians, Hispanics, Skaters, or any other kinds of cliques. Each of these groups are different organs in the student body that are magnificent on their own, but ultimately exist to give life to the student body. Just as an animal cannot survive with only seventy eight of any one organ, a student body would perish without variety. The more these groups try to focus on the differences between each clique, the more difficult brotherly unity becomes and the cancer of disunity begins to eat away at the student body clique by clique.
On a larger scale, countries are often guilty of spreading this cancer through foreign policy. A supreme example of this would be the tension that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union during the cold war. The United States government felt the need to contain communism as they considered it a grave threat democracy worldwide. The government portrayed communists are grotesque looking men whose heads were as blank as their hearts. America was thrown in to such hysteria that (for a short time) they began the red scare, hunting communists as puritanical Massachusetts had hunted witches.
Both large scale and small scale division often call for those who alien others to first dehumanize them. Rather than think of the soviets as our brothers from Russia or Kazakhstan, we were first ready to call them communists. Rather than recognize our peers as a community as brothers and sisters, one is often quick to categorize outsiders at school into a stereotype or clique, rather than try to welcome him or her as a brother. This connection emphasizes the fact that even modern world leaders are not exempt from a childlike form of alienation against their foreign brothers and sisters. If not put in check, a rugged sense of individualism can result in individual insanity or give rise to tyrannical rulers of an entire nation.