What do you think he means? How does this relate to Beowulf? How does this relate to our lives? In what ways can we follow Dr. King's words? Like Beowulf and Dr. King, how do we make sure we continue embodying lightness and love, even in the face of darkness and hate?
I think that Martin Luther King Jr.'s quote is very thoughtful. It does relate to some people's lives, and Beowulf. There are many ways for us to follow Dr. King's words.
ReplyDeleteI think that Dr. King means that darkness, hate, and violence on both sides does nothing. The darkness in wars solves nothing. This reminds me of that quote: "Fight fire with fire." That is a horrible idea. He is saying that light is the only thing that can defeat darkness, not more darkness. Using hate as a weapon for someone else who uses hate is useless. Love fights hate, and overcomes it. Dr. King is saying: "Don't fight fire with fire."
Beowulf had similar views. He didn't want to fight Grendel with a sword, because it hadn't worked in the past. He chose to pity the misguided (Unferth), and the monsters (Grendel and Grendel's Mother), instead of hating them.
It also relates to our lives. If everyone realized that the easy way out (hate and violence) is not the best way out (love and forgiveness). Many people find it harder to forgive, than hate.
Everyone has a choice: Violence or Forgiveness? Hate or Love? If we all made the right choice, life would be better. I know that I don't make the right choice all of the time, but that can change. We can all make a change for the better.
Well put, Kylee.
DeleteI agree with Martin Luther King's quote. I think it means that Darkness, violence, hate, and etc will not go away unless the "light" drives it out. For example, in Beowulf King Hrothgar was using violence against violence or "fighting fire with fire" as Kylee A stated. This just might be the reason why King Hrothgar lost.
ReplyDeleteThis relates to our lives because there is a lot of hate in the world. Lots of kids depressed, people that are so full of hate that they want revenge, and etc. We should follow Dr.King's words. The world might just be a better place then.
Even in the face of darkness and hate there is a way to to change that. Love, peace, mercy all those good factors can make that change.
I think Martin Luther King means, as Kali said, that darkness and violence etc. wont go away unless "light" or good drives it away. Adding to what Kylee A. said "fighting fire with fire" doesn't work. Beowulf always fought "darkness" with ''light'' which is exactly what Dr. King means in this quote. For example, when Hrothgar tried to defeat Grendel with violence it didn't work. But when Beowulf tried to defeat Grendel with good it worked.
ReplyDeleteThis relates to our lives because there are so many people in our world who, like Kali said, are full of hate. If we use Dr. Kings words and put out love and kindness we could make our world a better place. We as individuals can follow King's words by being loving. We can drive out hate by showing the person love and compassion for them. You can follow King's words by keeping on the positive side of things and remembering that being negative will get you nowhere.
-Lauren M.
I agree with the quote. Grendel was pure darkness and Beowulf's light is what he feared. Also queen Wealtheow saved Hrothgar with her love that also frightened Grendel. Like how you need water to put out fire, you need light to shine through the dark. Revenge and hatred can't solve anything. They can only make it worse.
ReplyDeleteDarkness can't fight darkness. That just makes things, well, darker. Just like how adding fire to a fire will make a bigger fire. Unferth's hate for Beowulf is what got his head stuck to a tree branch. He wanted revenge by using Grendel's mother. All that hate made him go desperate and crazy for revenge and that lead to his own death by trying to be with the monster to feared to be named anything but "She".
Good analysis of Beowulf, Oscar. You really understood that book! Have you checked out John Gardner's Grendel? He wrote the story from Grendel's point of view -- very interesting!
DeleteI agree with some of the people above when they say Martin Luther King means that the darkness, which is violence, hate, and other bad things things can't be driven out with darkness, but only with good(love, peace). However, I wanted to add something of my own. I feel that if you try and solve violence (darkness) with violence, it will work, but unlike solving it with light, it is only only a temporary solution. If you do that, the darkness will always come back. We have done this in war, but there will always be another war.
ReplyDeleteLike how we said in class, the Hrothgar's efforts to kill Grendel didn't work because they were violent and weren't part of the light. But Beowulf's non-violent (except the arm part) worked. I think we can follow Dr. King's words by finding better solutions to our problems. A bit like Kylee A. described it in her last paragraph. I think we can keep embodying light how Beowulf did, acknowledging our faults.
I think Dr. King's quote means that only good actions toward your enemies could beat them and violence is not the answer. The only way to beat Grendel was with pure light and goodness. The sharpest sword in the world can't beat him. This relates to our lives because most problems in life are dealed with with violence. In Ferguson Missouri, there were many riots over one decision the court made. Martin Luther King was against most of these things. He wanted fair rights, however he fought for it peacefully. I honestly think that disagreements should be handled peacefully instead of causing even more damage. We can make sure that we are always good and light by not falling into these bad temptations or fall under peer pressure.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Quintin when he said that darkness is sometimes solved by violence however it is only solves temporarily and solving it with goodness is permanent. I also agree with Kylee A. when she said that it is useless to fight fire with fire. Overall I thing beating Darkness with Light is the best choice for everyone. :)[]
Name?
Delete-Adrian J.
DeleteI agree with Oscar. Beowulf represented the light and Grendel represented the dark. The light from Beowulf drove out the darkness(Grendel). Wealtheow represented love which saved Hrothgar and scared Grendel away. This means that the light and love will drive out the darkness and hatred in the world.
ReplyDeleteThis relates to the Dr.King's quote because what he is trying to say is that we can make the world a better place. Hate is not going to help at all, it will only make things worse. We can only make the world a better place by being kind and showing love which represents the light and hatred represents the darkness
Max Vidal
DeleteI think this quote is very deep. If darkness, or hate, violence, etc, cannot be driven out by even more darkness, it can be driven out by light, or peace, love, etc. In Beowulf, Grendel is the darkness, but by people trying to kill Grendel with swords, that is just more darkness, but the light from Beowulf and Weoltheow, is enough to hurt Grendel, as light is love, peace, and no violence. In our life, many forces are just darkness against darkness. If we want to follow Martin's words, we wont hate them, but just approach them with love and peace. By just living our life to the fullest, and loving your friends and family, you are embracing the light, rather than going into the darkness.
ReplyDelete- Julian M.
ReplyDeleteI once saw a quote- "Childhood is a time when you like Jerry and admire him for his smartness. Maturity is a time when you feel sorry for Tom because of Jerry's shenanigans." Though we all still love Jerry, I think this is a good example. We achieve an understanding of our world when we realize that the monsters are in us too, and the monsters have the opportunity to be enlightened. Sometimes, the monsters aren't even monsters at all. Like Kylee said, Beowulf pitied Unferth, and he understood Grendel. Grendel was just unfortunate enough to have not seen the light, and Unferth didn't have anyplace to go but the dark.
There's a moment in the very first My Little Pony episode (Now don't stop reading because I mentioned MLP) where there's a huge Manticore that's about to destroy everything. All the ponies charge, but they stop at the last minute because something miraculous has happened. Fluttershy, a very kind, sweet pony, realized that the manticore just had a thorn stuck in it's paw. She takes out the thorn, and the two become friends. Fluttershy also is trusted by animals, like Beowulf. Both are known for being understanding, and being insightful.
The hatred of Hrothgar towards Grendel does not kill him, but the strength and power of good by Beowulf does. This proves Martin Luther King Jr.'s quote. The dark did not drive out the dark, but the good did. Time and time again the love finds ways to make things alright. Though this is not true in some parts of the world, we can rest in the thoughts that WE have a choice. We are the beings of the world who have harnessed the power of good, and WE are the ones who must bring evil down.
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Cheers,
Sriha S. =^.^=
P.S. Meow. :3
I like that you are seeing examples of this same theme in other mediums. Yes, even in My Little Pony! :)
DeleteI believe Beowulf and Martin Luther King Jr.'s Quote both have the same idea of what is good and bad. Evil is represented by darkness, while goodness it represented by light. Martin's quote has the same idea used as Beowulf killed Grendel. You could only drive out darkness with light, Beowulf being light, Grendel being dark. The book and quote relate in many similar ways.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the quote is short, it is has a deeper meaning to it, similar to what Julian had said. Darkness could not drive out darkness in Grendel, but lightness did. In the book, Beowulf says he has some darkness I him just like everyone else, but seems to only use his lightness. I believe Beowulf's personality is very important to understand and learn about. People must try to only use their goodness or lightness inside of them and not darkness or hate. Overall, Beowulf and Martin's quote both have important morals.
I think that it is somewhat like a math equation. What the object (for most people) is to get rid of the hatred, to make it disappear in other words. Hate+ hate only adds up to a greater amount of hate, but if we add love instead, then the hate goes away because in this equation, love is the greater 'number'. Love is stronger. (I feel as if this won't make sense to some of you guys.)
ReplyDeleteThis relates to Beowulf because in the scene where he rips out Grendel's arm, he talks about how "Light holds him". Grendel is the darkness and Beowulf is the light. And as I said before, love is the stronger one in battle. I think that this relates in our lives by like when a friend is having a really bad day then a you might cheer them up and visa versa.
In the Christian bible, it says in Matthew 5:43- 47 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?" And it also says, I think somewhere in Luke, there was a parable of a man that was slapped and offered his other cheek and a man that was robbed and he offered his coat.
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P.s. Ryan Higa did a video called: How to Stay Positive. It's on how to look on the bright side of life. (It's a joke, although, and you shouldn't really do the things he says if you're going to watch it and follow his advice.)
~Sofia K.
I believe King means that if you try to fight anger with anger, you will just add to the problem. To rid the world of evil we must show it how to be good. If not it's like teaching a toddler to hit harder. But if we show said toddler to be nice they would learn to be nice. However, it would take a lot more than one person to do.
ReplyDeleteI believe the way we could pull this off is by having just a person for each country to teach about peace. People would follow this person and would spread it. Now everyone is taking the way of peace. All evil would be forced to switch due to just pressure alone. Then we can apply jobs for people to retain that peace.
I think the king means that only light will make darkness go away. Like in beowulf grendel won't be defeated my someone dark he was defeated by beowulf who represents light.He relates to our life because you cant fight bad people with bad you have to fight bad with good to overcome them.
ReplyDeleteLike kylee said you can't fight fire with fire. Also as Lauren said if we use Dr. Kings words and put out love and kindness we could make our world a better place.
To me, I believe that Martin Luther King Jr is meaning to say that when you try to hide evil with more evil, you will only make it worse. In addition, you can only make it better by adding light and good to the problem. This relates to Beowulf because Grendel can only be defeated by the light and the goodness of Beowulf. This quote also relates to how we live our lives in which we should approach our issues with good instead of evil.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Tyler because if you attempt to fight evil with evil you will only add to the problem instead of making it better. I also agree with Ian and Julian that this quote is very deep and meaningful. Using these words, we can approach life in a different perspective and make this world a better place for every one of us.
-Jackson Troutt
I think that Martin Luther King’s quote means that we can’t defeat something we don’t want by putting more of it into the world. The only way we can get rid of it is by putting what needs to be out there like light and love instead of dark and hate. Like many before me mentioned, you can’t fight fire with fire because then there will be more fire. You have to learn to fight fire with its weakness, water. We have to get rid of the hate in this world with love. The more the love the less the hate.
ReplyDeleteThis quote is a great description of Beowulf because of the way that Beowulf, our epic hero, fights Grendel and “She”, our epic failures. Grendel and “She” strongly represent hate and darkness while Beowulf is the light and the love. The only way Beowulf got to these antagonists head is by using their weakness, light and love. Beowulf doesn’t need to show strength in swords and fighting, he shows strength in confidence and faith that love always wins.
Even after all these years we can still give this quote life because the world cannot get enough light and love. A common problem today is bullying, but to stop this, we can’t be bullies to the bully. We have to try and talk to them and maybe show some sympathy for what may be happening in their lives. This quote can teach us that these elements help form better people.
Like I mentioned about the problem with the bullies, we can incorporate Dr.King’s quote into the way we handle problems to make things an easier and better place. Though it is guaranteed we will find ourselves in a tough situation where we feel like using anger, just try to think of how good Dr.King’s quote would help your situation.
-Eva S.
You are so right to apply this concept to bullying -- racism, Dr. King's particular fight, is basically bullying based on the color of one's skin!
DeleteI totally agree with Eva "I think that Martin Luther King’s quote means that we can’t defeat something we don’t want by putting more of it into the world." For example put more love out there instead of hate put more light out there instead of darkness put more kindness out there instead of hatefulness, just do the opposite of the bad then maybe in result there will be a lot of the good things happening. I also agree with Tyler that "I believe King means that if you try to fight anger with anger, you will just add to the problem." For example if you talk down to someone and they is talking down to you also, the situation is going to end up not the way many people want it to be like a fight or something, but MLK is trying to say when something bad happens and you something else that conflicts off of that the situation just gets worse. - Carlvesi L.
ReplyDeleteI think that Martin Luther King's quote means that you can't get rid of negative things with other negative things. You can get rid of the negative things with good things. This relates to Beowulf because he drove out Grendel's darkness with his light. Beowulf defeated his enemies using the goodness within him. This relates to our lives because sometimes if someone is mean to us, we be mean to them back to have them stop.
ReplyDeleteIf someone is bullying us we shouldn't bully the back. We should show them kindness. We must be positive even in the face of darkness. Showing positivity can help us embody lightness and love.
-Julianne R.
This quote means that something bad won't fix something that is already bad. He says that only good actions can fix bad actions. This is very related to Beowulf and "Why?" you may ask. Well in Beowulf, Beowulf, the light and goodness, defeats Grendle and Grendle's mother, the darkness and evil, with the strength in his words not in his sword. The quote Martin Luther King says relates to this story greatly.
ReplyDeleteThis relates to Martin Luther King's quote because he says you can't defeat darkness with darkness, only light can do that. In Beowulf, Beowulf realizes that since Hrothgar couldn't defeat Grendle with fighting, he needed to figure out another way to defeat him without violence. Using that thought, he defeated two of his most fierce opponents. I think that Martin says this quote to prove you can't fight evil with evil, that will only add more evil. The only way you can defeat evil is with good. All we have to do to make this true is to instead of looking for the evil in people, look for the good in them first.
-Eliza A.
To me, this quote is basically the theme of Beowulf in a nut shell. Like Oscar had said, adding darkness to the dark will only make it darker. The way to make the situation better is to shine light upon that darkness, or in other words adding love to hate. This quote from MLK reminds me of a quote very often repeated, "Fight fire with fire". This just means adding hate with more hate which just creates a bigger fire, or conflict.
ReplyDeleteIn Beowulf, Grendel and "She" were representations of the darkness, hate, or fire, or whatever you want to interpret it as. Beowulf, Hrothgar, and Queen Wealtheow, however, represent the light, the love,or water. Beowulf killed Grendel and his mother by his light shining upon them which they did not like. Although it made them angry, it solved the problem. This is a lesson everyone should take into consideration. When walking in the woods and its dark at night, you bring out a flashlight, not a pair of sunglasses. Just like if someone is sad and crying, you should sit and comfort them, not tell them discouraging things. I think that some people live as this quote says, but I am positive that Beowulf represents it well.
Great analysis of Beowulf!
DeleteI think that Dr.King means that love and positive thoughts will drive out hate and darkness. This relates to Beowulf because Grendel and Grendel's mother are the darkness and Beowulf is the light. Since Beowulf is full of light, when he touched Grendel's mother, the "light" made her weaker because she hated the light. This is like when people are scared of the dark. they think there are monsters around but when they turn on the light, the monsters will go away.
ReplyDeleteWe can drive out hate if we always think positive and love one another. We can treat others like how we treat ourselves. There is always a good side in us but there should never be a bad side. :)
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the a's were supposed to be a smiley face but nevermind.
DeleteI think that Martin Luther kings note means that two wrong don't make a right. You can't fix your problems by making new ones. I think that you can only fix your problem with a good solution. You can only fix your wrong with a right. I think that he was trying to say that you have to fix your problems .
DeleteHe might also be saying that you have to kill something with the opposite as it is. If you wanted to kill the light you must do it with darkness. If you wanted to kill darkness you must kill it with light. Both of these ideas work but they both bring on the same message. Fix your problems with a better solution.
I agree with Dr. Kings quote. I think he means that, basically, you cant fight fire with fire. You need something else to put it out. If you fight fire with fire, theoretically speaking, then all you'll end up with is more fire. This fire will keep growing if you keep feeding it more fire, or giving it more fuel. Instead, you need water to put out the fire. This relates to Beowulf because both accept the concept that good is light or love and evil is dark or hate. All of the past men to fight Grendal used weapons and hate but they all lost. When Grendal finally died it was because of Beowulf who didn't use weapons, all he used was his "goodness" or "light". This story showed that all you need is good and love to overcome or driveout darkness and hate.
ReplyDeleteThis quote relates to our lives because there's a lot of darkness in this world. Many people are sad, depressed, or mad and they don't know how to handle it. One of the best ways to help them is to give them love or show them that you care. To drive-out the darkness with light and love. We can follow Dr. Kings words by always remembering to be positive and to be good, be light in general. You always have to continue embodying light and love even in the face of darkness and hate because you just have to remember that light drives out darkness , and love drives out hate.
I think the quote means that you can't drive out something with the same thing. Like King said, you can't drive out darkness with darkness or hate with hate. So, you have to drive it out with the opposite thing. For example, drive out dullness with colorful ness. This quote can also fix many problems. Which is the strategy Beowulf used.
ReplyDeleteWhen Beowulf was defeating Grendel and his mom, he used the power of his own lightness. He did this because he knew the only way to drive out darkness, is with lightness. This is pretty much what made Beowulf so wise. He knew how to to drive out something with the opposite of it. That is what I think King's quote means and how it is related to Beowulf.
I think that Dr.King's quote means that you can't defeat bad with bad. Only good can defeat bad. It can relate to Beowulf many ways. He knew that fighting Grendel with a sword wouldn't work. He knew that using something that wouldn't work (bad) couldn't defeat Grendel (bad).
ReplyDeleteThis quote relates to our lives because people use hate everyday. People can do hurtful things to someone but never bring light upon that situation by forgiveness. We can follow his words by being forgiving of our wrong doings. We can also spread light upon a dark situation. We have to share lightness and love while fighting darkness and hate.
-Kailani
I think that Dr. Kings quote means that you cannot fight bad with bad. As Talyssa said, you can't fight fire with fire. Only good can defeat bad. This can relate To Beowulf many ways. Beowulf couldn't has a sword to defeat Grendel. That is like fighting bad against bad. we should fight the bad with good.
ReplyDeleteThis quote relates to our lives because since there is a lot of sadness or bad things in this world you cannot get rid of it with sadness or bad.
I agree with kalila, I think that only light can drive out hate. Only hate can drive out love, so love can drive out hate. In beowulf, grendel was thought of as hate and darkness. So when Beowulf came along, he was thought of as light. MLK said that light drives out darkness, and thats exactly what happened. We have to love others to make the hate go away.
ReplyDeletein beowulf, the book said that grendel was burned with light. That heppened when Beowulf was holding grendel's arm. He ripped of grendel's arm using the light. He also used the light to scare grendel. Everyone saw the light in Beowulf, thats why Hrothgar said that if anyone could destroy Grendel, it was Beuwulf.
-Asha A.
I think he means that darkness can only be defeated by light. This quote relates to Beowulf because Beowulf represented light and Grendel was darkness. This relates to us because Beowulf said that he had a darkness inside of him.Beowulf was the figure of light standing up to the darkness.
ReplyDeleteI think everyone has a darkness inside of them. Though its their choice to let it show. They can become consumed by darkness and become evil. I think that we should fight to get rid of the darkness.
I think this quote means only you can change yourself. This relates to Beowulf because Beowulf didn't kill Grendel, he only helped him kill himself. Beowulf didn't stab him he only talked to him about how he would help defeat him. He didn't do it all. The good in Grendel did that.
ReplyDeleteDr. King meant only the other side of you can change what you did. For example, the good in you can drive out the bad. I agree with Eliza when she says two wrongs don't make a right. Good doesn't defeat all bad.