Sunday, September 15, 2013
The Truth
In Grendel, Grendel knows that the shaper is twisting the truth. He spins it so that it justifies and glorifies Hrothgar's actions. Although Grendel does have a sense of this, there is part of him that wants to believe what the shaper is saying. Once Grendel comes to his senses and realizes that all their talk is nonsense you see him descend into a darker character. The same thing can be applied to propaganda. Even now we are led to believe information that isn't always true because it's meant to promote a certain biased idea. It's hard to hear the truth sometimes. I think that a lot of the time it's covered because we are scared to face the consequences and realities of what we have done. By lying and twisting the truth, like the shaper, it's easier for us to accept our actions. It puts a positive light on something negative. And who is to tell you wrong if you make it your reality.
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I do like the thoughts you ask in this post. One thought that I started to ponder about is the thought of "we are scared to face the consequences and realities of what we have done." Do you think Grendel is truly scared of his future consequences if he learns the truth? I think so; I think that's why he conforms to the thoughts of the Dragon and begins to terrorize the kingdom despite knowing that there are consequences. This post features tons of thought-invoking questions; well done.
ReplyDeleteI especially enjoy the last line of this entry, "and who is to tell you wrong if you make it your reality". Hrothgar's people have made their fantasy of themselves their reality because no one is opposing it and they are doing absolutely fine believing whatever they want to believe. In my opinion this is what makes Grendel so furious. He wants to be the person to shatter their image of perfection they have created of themselves and he believes that is what he was put on Earth to do. In our society today, we don't need a monster to do it, we have millions of people who question and oppose any form of propaganda. For every one person who agrees with a politician there are five who disagree. This is a more healthy environment in my opinion because it keeps anybody from having too much power and keeps the minds of the people critical and on their toes.
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