Reflection Essay on Beowulf Paper

This old Chinese Proverb has stood the test of time and is true today as it was in the 1 100’s. Like the rest of us, Beowulf endured a Journey. Although filled with much more peril and hardships than the average adult, Beowulf ultimately reached his destination. This begs the question, which is more important… the Journey, or the destination? Having a healthy focus on both the Journey and the destination allows one to reach the desired goal ith the same enthusiasm as you started.
Lines 690-693 illustrates how Beowulf focused on the Journey of acquiring riches and essentially wasted his life when he, while grasping for his last breath, told Wiglaf “l sold my life for this treasure, and I sold it well. Take what I leave, Wiglaf, lead my people, help them; my time is gone” (47). During his heroic life, Beowulf was, by todays standards, ‘The Man. ‘ Every individual with a fear looked up to this great leader, as he traveled from kingdom to kingdom destroying evil. As inspiring as this as, he lacked the one key factor to being truly successful-a goal.
Having a goal, or destination, is as important as the Journey itself. Giving yourself closure to the whole purpose of your actions will leave you with a feeling of success and a reason for your hard work. Beowulf lacked this, and led a life of blind deeds. Although helpful to his followers, he died a truly unhappy man, as inferred from the previous quote. Beowulf needed to have a set goal; a life he envisioned living after he was done kicking butt. This gives purpose and a drive behind everything he did. Instead, he lived an awe- inspiring Journey, but never set a destination to make him truly happy.

There is a plus side to his mistake, though. We can take what has been learned the hard way by our friend Beowulf and apply this to our own lives. Nothing can beat the feeling of success. It doesn’t matter if the scale dropped a couple numbers, or that pesky center dot is finally demolished in the shooting range. The feeling of accomplishing the set goals cannot be overlooked. Now, that may seem easy, but the amount of effort and practice required to reach that success is as mportant as the feeling itself.
This is the Journey versus destination taken out of context. In order for the scale to drop (the destination), one must put in lasting effort to get where they want to go (the Journey). More than often, one loses focus on either one of these aspects. This is the cause of failed goals. The importance of balancing focus is difficult, but required for true success. Beowulf stresses the importance of both in lines 365-368: “He leaped into the lake, would not wait for anyone’s answer; the heaving water covered him over.
For hours he sank through the waves; At last he saw the mud of the bottom” (38). Now, say Beowulf Jumped into the lake, and halfway through he became so focused on swimming at his best he gets to the destination, and forgets why he is there. Hrothgar and the Danes would not be pleased! Alternatively, what if he focused too much on destroying Grendel and his mother that he swims in the wrong direction? Again, it would not end well for the poor Danes. The importance of one’s healthy focus is not to be taken lightly. urney, there are many dangers that wait; lurking, ready to destroy all hopes of success. If one was to focus completely on the Journey, they start to lose a sense of who they are. Losing sight of the goal and the purpose behind the goal becomes all too evident. Friends may be lost, because all attention is on the here and now. Likewise, focusing on the destination is Just as dangerous. One loses sight of what is necessary to accomplish the goal; too caught up in what awaits them in the future.
Many fall unsuspected to these traps, and are forced to restart and replan. This is most clearly seen in lines 12-18 when Hrothgar thinks he has reached his destination. Then Hrothgar, taking the throne, led the Danes to such glory that comrades and kinsmen swore by his word, and young men swelled his armies, and he thought of greatness and resolved to build a hall that would hold his mighty band and reach higher toward heaven than anything that had ever been known to the sons of man. ” (27) Hrothgar thinks he has finished his Journey and reached his destination.
Little does he know, Grendel is about to demolish everything he has worked for and ause him to replan everything; including his destination. Finding a healthy balance between the destination and the Journey is crucial to being truly successful in any area of life. It takes great experience to find this, and many have failed. Once this balance is acquired, though, it is more rewarding than anything else, because unity and closure is provided to years of hard work and dedication. The next time New Year’s comes around, think of what is needed to finally win against the seemingly unbeatable resolution.