You Probably Went to High School With Beowulf

Beowulf is a classic tale highlighting the ambiguities that exist between good and evil. What place in our culture weaves a better narrative of heroes and villains than the American high school? Some may argue that it’s too rudimentary to boil such complex characters down to such trite teenage tropes, and to them I say, “You’re probably right.” But just as Beowulf blazed bravely into battle against Grendel, I too will face my own foe: high school social structure.

Beowulf as The Popular Guy You Didn’t Like But Could Never Really Pinpoint Why

           

http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/troy-bolton/images/2142394/title/troy-photo

Maybe he was a standout athlete, or the star child of the arts department.  Or, if he was truly a 16-year-old Renaissance man sent to walk among the masses, both. No matter his forte, this kid was loved by your teachers, your classmates, and probably even some of your friends. You, on the other hand, could detect some underlying disingenuousness. You really didn’t have concrete evidence as to why you thought this guy was secretly a jerk, so you certainly didn’t try to rock the boat and expose him for the person you suspected he was. There was just something about the way he walked around performing deeds of manly courage and name-dropping his dad that rubbed you the wrong way. But, you decided to just go with it because everyone else seemed to like him. Everyone else but one…

Unferth as  The Perpetually Angry Kid  

http://meangirls.wikia.com/wiki/Gretchen_Wieners

The Perpetually Angry Kid was not-so-secretly jealous of the popular kids and made it their mission to defame them all.  Perhaps the student was born that bitter. Perhaps they were popular until The Popular Guy came to your town from Nebraska and took all the glory. Perhaps The Perpetually Angry Kid killed their brother and has just been really sour about everything since then. No matter the tragic backstory, this kid made it their mission to let everyone know that they were truly deserving of admiration and everyone else wasn’t good enough. How did we learn to cope with such insufferable creatures? It can certainly be credited to one of the most valuable of all high school treasures…

Hrothgar as The Teacher Friend

http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Rupert_Giles

 Just as Hrothgar plays an important role in Beowulf’s journey to heroism, The Teacher Friend played an important role in your journey to graduation. While it’s likely that your Teacher Friend didn’t give you the OK to slay beasts on behalf of their classroom, they probably did let you make photocopies sometimes. And although your Teacher Friend (hopefully) never gave you a ring, they certainly did give you sage advice that you may or may not have implemented.  One mentor’s warning against extreme tenacity and pride is another mentor’s warning against college application procrastination.

 After this brief jaunt through the halls of your high school memories, I hope that you, too, can see how nearly every character has a classmate counterpart from your past. While some stories are naturally more difficult to teen-ify, it’s certainly still easier than trying to figure out where to sit in the high school cafeteria.