Beowulf Rection Paper

          How did I feel about Beowulf? I don’t feel much towards it, to be honest. My most prominent memory of the book is the infinite number of names that started with the letter H. Keeping all of the characters straight was the most difficult part of reading Beowulf. Even though I found the names tedious at times, I did enjoy the action that surrounded Beowulf and that was encompassed in his adventures.

           The characters that I felt was most compelling would have to be Grendel and his mother. I found them to be a quirky and dark pair. I tend to favor the misunderstood characters in novels and feel some sympathy for them. I would definitely consider those two monsters of the swamp to be misunderstood. I thought it was interesting that Grendel’s mother, who seemed so inhuman, was motivated by very human feelings: grievances about her dead son, resentment towards his killer, and an attempt at revenge. She attempted to avenge her son’s death by defeating Beowulf herself, but failed.

            My favorite scene of the book was when Beowulf was trying to slay the dragon. It actually reminds me of a scene from the Harry Potter series in the second book, The Chamber of Secrets, where Harry is stabbed by one of the Basilisk’s poisonous fangs, becomes weak, and nearly dies from the wound. The same scenario plays out in Beowulf except Beowulf ends up dying from the blow of the dragon’s fatal bite. While in The Chamber of Secrets, Harry is cured by Dumbledore’s phoenix’s healing tears. If only Wiglaf had the ability to produce tears with healing powers, then the comparison would have been close to flawless. However, Wiglaf is nothing but another noble young man with an unfortunate name; one of the many that continuously pops up in Beowulf.    

 

Wuthering Heights Reaction Paper

                In the novel Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff, the orphaned gypsy who is taken in and pitied by Mr. Earnshaw, grows up to be a very complex character that changes the course of the novel with his intense and steadfast feelings for Catherine Earnshaw. When growing up at Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff was shunned by Hindley, Mr. Earnshaw’s eldest son, but grows very close with Catherine, his only daughter. Heathcliff and Catherine develop a deep passion for one another and fall intensely in love. Heathcliff never lets go of this love and is not shy about hiding his feelings for Catherine. On the other hand, Catherine decides to make logical decisions when it comes to love, even though it pains her to leave Heathcliff behind when she marries Edgar Linton. These two events in particular stay with Heathcliff and cause him to take revenge on any innocent sole connected to Hindley or Catherine.

                Once he is older and married, Hindley has a son with his silly wife Frances and they name him Hareton. Frances dies in labor, which triggers Hindley to go into a depression where he drinks his feelings away into numbness. He does not care for Hareton as he should and once he dies, Heathcliff takes it upon himself to raise the boy himself. Heathcliff takes advantage of this opportunity to get revenge on Hindely and raise his son exactly the way Heathcliff himself was raised, as nothing but an uneducated worker for the Heights. Heathcliff’s hatred for Hindley carried over to his son Hareton and he was made to suffer the consequences for his father’s actions.

                Heathcliff also takes revenge on Edgar Linton for taking Catherine away him and Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff resents how being at Thrushcross Groves has changed Catherine and blames mainly Edgar Linton for these unwanted changes. Again, Heathcliff takes advantage of the surrounding family members of his resented target in order to hurt him indirectly through the ones he loves. Isabella Linton falls victim to Heathcliff’s vengeance. Heathcliff decides to make the most out of Isabella’s advances towards him and uses her shallow love in order to take revenge against her brother. Heathcliff treats Isabella terribly with no motive other than his hatred for Edgar. Heathcliff and Isabella even have a son together, named Linton, who is a sickly boy of many complaints. Heathcliff abuses Isabella’s emotions in order to hurt Edgar.

                Heathcliff takes advantage of another situation in order to hurt Edgar even more. While she was alive, Catherine Earnshaw gave birth to a daughter named Cathy fathered by Edgar Linton. Heathcliff tricks Cathy into coming inside at Wuthering Heights and then proceeds to force her to marry his sickly son Linton, which then made Cathy his daughter in law. Cathy desperately wanted to get back home to her ailing father, Edgar Linton, but could not because of Heathcliff. He separated the family and hurt individuals who never could have expected to be in his line of fire. By hurting Edgar Linton’s family members directly, Heathcliff indirectly hurt Edgar. Seeing his family members suffer was a worse punishment to Edgar than it would have been if Heathcliff had just directly targeted Edgar himself. Heathcliff was manipulative and passionate man who would take down anyone who got in between him and Catherine Earnshaw, his love and obsession.        

Micro-Story: XO

  

tHE weEkND

             Leftover balloons and steamers. Smoke and mirrors disorient you further. The smell of latex laces your nostrils. You reminisce on the wicked games that were meant to be played. The remains of popped balloon sleeves create a checkerboard pattern on the laminate floor. Faulty florescent bulbs shine little light on the crumpled mass before you. The longer you strain your bloodshot eyes to stare at what used to be alive, the more disassembled the mass becomes. Limbs start to limp away from it, one by one they unattach. An arm is now in the bathroom and a foot is ramming itself into a wall and an eyeball just toppled down a flight of stairs. You are strangely unphased by these hallucinations. Does that scare you?

              Walking over to the bathroom you stumble on a rise in the laminate and are left on your backside, now face to face with the mass. You flick your stare quickly from the Styrofoam ceiling tiles to the heap crumpled beside you. You see the distorted face of your brother. His tongue is flopped out of his mouth, like a raw piece of meat, still fresh and bleeding. His eyelids are partially open, revealing a glimpse of yellowing pupils behind them. His eyelashes are glued together with sleep and tears, creating small, jagged shadows upon his cheeks. His lips are cracked and thirsty, dead and grey. Your gaze travels upward back to the ceiling tiles. You close your burning, bloodshot eyes.

               Slowly you open them, bringing the scene back into view. Next, you get up off the cold, textured floor. You gather the arm from the bathroom, halt the foot’s banging, and collect the eye from the base of the dark staircase. You make your way over to the mass, avoiding the cracked laminate this time. You proceed to fasten the limbs back onto your brother’s cold body, like fixing a broken doll. His body appears less mangled now and is easier on the eyes. The less strain on your eyes the better, they’ve been killing you all night.