Holbrook 1

Grant Holbrook
English 11
Mrs. Warwick
6/6/2014
Evolution of Heroes
A long, long, time ago, the way to be brave was to fight evil with your physical
strength. Violence was not only accepted, but applauded, as seen with the tale of Beowulf.
Beowulf was a strong, powerful warrior. In this poem consisting of over 3,000 lines, Beowulf
fought multiple monsters using only his bare hands. The final monster he faced, a fire-breathing
dragon, caused his death. Centuries later in the Elizabethan Era Shakespeare rose to prominence.
His plays, particularly his tragedies, illustrated the treachery of violence and how words are more
powerful. He wrote 32 plays and hundreds of poems. Then, in the 1960s, Martin Luther King jr.
showed the power of civil disobedience. He was a pastor and led the boycott against buses and
the rest of the civil rights movement. Eventually, segregation and other racist polices were
banished due to these efforts. Regardless of whether it was killing monsters, challenging the old
order, or being disobedient and civil at the same time, all three of these men were heroes during
their time. All three of these men showed courage. But they were all different. The way to be a
hero can change and evolve.
Beowulf, even though he was a fictional character in an epic poem, was a fictional
heroic figure of Old English. He was a hero for the fact that many passed on this poem through
oral tradition and was looked up apon. Many admired his strength and courage he used to defeat
sinister monsters In the tale, Beowulf was amazingly strong and fought only with his bare hands.
Beowulf assisted the King of the Danes in riding the Mead Hall of the terror of Grendel. One
Holbrook 2

night Beowulf trapped Grendel.Using nothing but his hands, Beowulf ripped Grendels arm off
and let him go off to his lair where he bleed to death. Beowulf then killed Grendels mother
when she was trying to get vengeance for her sons death. For Beowulfs bravery, he is awarded
the crown of the Geats and reigns over his kingdom for fifty years. After those fifty years,
Beowulf died in battle from the fatal wound acquired from a fire-breathing dragon. Wiglaf, who
showed bravery in helping Beowulf defeat the monster, is crowned the new King of the Geats.
Bravery never goes unnoticed.
Violence, which is used heavily by Beowulf, was very much discredited by
William Shakespeare. Shakespeare was one of the most intriguing play writers of his time. His
plays all share one simple denominator: Violence should be avoided at all costs; knowledge is
power. In the play Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet fall in love with each other. However,
their violent family rivalries made it impossible for them to become lovers. Romeo and Juliet
poison themselves believing they could never be together. Their bodies are discovered, and the
families realize that the rivalry between the Montagues and the Capulets is toxic. In the play
Hamlet, one of the quotes from Rosencrantz was "... many wearing rapiers are afraid of goose-
quills and dare scarce come thither (Martin 1)." This basically means the pen is mightier than
the sword, Which was a quote from another English novelist, Edward Bulwer-Lytton (Martin
1). Shakespeare was a hero because he showed through his plays that violence is not the best tool
to solve problems. Knowledge and good communication is a far more effective and less lethal for
problems. Another hero who was against violence was Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most, and possibly the most important
leader in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. He grew up in Atlanta and was a pastor for a
Baptist Church (Haberman 1). He was of course very religious and use civil disobedience as a
Holbrook 3

huge weapon in his fight to rid society of segregation (Haberman 1). He learned about civil
disobedience while studying Mahatma Gandhi and applied it to his own approach on the Civil
Rights Movement (Haberman 1). He lead the bus boycott, which meant he and other African
Americans would not ride buses until segregation and other unfair policies of the bus would be
no more. Until then, they would just walk place to place This strategy of civil disobedience
worked and rid the US of segregation and all unfair policies toward African Americans. Martin
Luther King jr is most certainly a heroe. He showed that goal toward freedom can be meant
without using violence.
It is clear. All three men listed above are heroes. All of these men have courage.
But there tactics all differed. They conceivably used different tactics because of the different
situation and unique problems they faced. Beowulf used his physical strength to kill monsters in
an epic poem, perhaps encouraging other to fight their own monsters. Shakespeare used the
power of words to illustrate a picture of the evils violence can have on a society. And King Jr.
truly set African Americans free without a bullet. The evidence shows that these heroes are
heroes but the method to being a hero has changed. Heroes do evolve.









Holbrook 4

Works Cited
Martin, Gary. "The pen is mightier than the sword." . N.p., 1 Jan. 1996. Web. 31 May 2014.
<http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/the-pen-is-mightier-than-the-sword.html>.
W. Haberman, Frederick . "Martin Luther King Jr.." . Elsevier Publishing Company, n.d. Web.
31 May 2014.
<http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html>.