Basic Format:
Thread Title: Topical Summary of your Reading
Thread Text: “Quote” (MLA citation).
Analysis of quote, including specific excerpts from the quote you have selected, substantially longer than the quote itself (as per the following example) – Exemplary posts will be of sufficient length (150-200 words) and analysis + commentaries on your peers’ posts (minimum 2).
Sample Post:
Dangers of Heroism
“He died in battle, paid with his life; and now this powerful other one arrives, this force for evil driven to avenge… death” (1336).
This quote selected best demonstrates the vicious circle, of vengeance and temptation that Beowulf must avoid. Again and again, he passes the threshold to avenge death. On the trek to fight Grendel’s mother, he is so filled with hatred and vengeance, his pure spirit dies in the lake. No man can hold his breath that long, nor emerge unscathed from blood-lust. Before he attacks the dragon, his focus is on the booty. He had faith and high expectations in talismans the “ancestral blades…” “..to cut straight to the soul” (796, 802). These did not help him survive they way he thought they would.
The temptation to seek, then acquire the vast booty was fleeting. We learn only one that is worthy can be permitted to open the Dragon’s booty (3054).