Week Twelve Essay: Beowulf

Beowulf. Matherart.

This week, I read one of my most favorite stories from my high school literature class: Beowulf. I definitely enjoyed the readings this week. I found that I really enjoy when units have a flow of a story that happens in it rather than a lot of smaller, short stories. This way, the reader is almost forced to come back to read the rest of the unit. It gives the unit nice continuity in the reading and I definitely prefer this running story in a unit, rather than short, choppy stories.

I didn't necessarily have a favorite or least favorite story this week, as all of the smaller stories were needed in order to give the overall story its finished plot. Something I loved in the reading this week was the amount of detail provided in the stories. There were so many wonderful uses of imagery and description in the stories that made it so easy for an reader to put themselves into the world of Beowulf.

This unit didn't have notes on every page, however I didn't find that confusing or challenging in any way. The story itself isn't in a very antiquated language and is fairly easy to understand. I did do some back research to find out where this story came from, but the lack of notes on every page really didn't hinder my ability to read and comprehend the story.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story. Like I noted above, I did read this story in high school but I was excited to re-read it with different eyes. I have grown so much academically since my senior year of high school so I was excited to process this story in a different way than in the past. I would definitely recommend this reading to anyone who is interested in a story with a clear hero, lots of action, and great use of imagery.