October- Good vs. Evil

October 28, 2015 Good vs. "Evil" The classic poem "Beowulf" explores the ideas of good vs evil in a stereotypical way. In the poem we see the traditional archetypes of the hero who is big and strong and saves the day, and the villain who is ugly and hated and an outsider. Because "Beowulf" was written so long ago, the ideas presented are pretty shallow and only present conventional ideas. Back then, society hadn't progressed to what it is now, obviously, and so that must've been the only way they really saw good and evil. Today however, I think that we've experienced so much in society that there are tons of ways something can be perceived as either good or evil. Today we obviously don't have real Grendel like monsters, or heroes like Beowulf, they take the form of very different things. In our world today, something that could be considered evil or a monster may be something like somebody who is extremely racist or discriminative and takes particular actions in order to enforce what they think. The hero in today's world may be someone who takes action against things that are wrong or stands up for what they believe in or for someone else who they see being put down. I think also that many people's perceptions of good and evil have been disturbed. It seems to me that people will look for any way they can to frame something as evil and put a spin on things to make things that are really innocent, into something evil for their own benefit. Also in today's movies and tv shows it is no longer the cliche hero vs villain story, they are often presented as somebody who is seemingly normal. They are not always the typical ugly, outsider or muscular superstar like in Beowulf. For example, Superman is a normal, everyday reporter. From the outside, he doesn't look like a hero at all, and nobody knows that he is the best super hero around. The idea of a hero and a villain is really all subjective. Whether someone sees something as good or evil, is all opinion based. Today, or visions of the typical hero and bad guy have drastically evolved from time of "Beowulf" but as individuals, we will never stop holding people to those titles.