you cant take it with you
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You Can't Take It With You
"And their soldiers, the bravest and strongest of men are destined to die, their time ended, their homes, their halls empty and still?" (Beowulf 3062-5) No matter what the world says, nobody can escape the fact that gold and glory does not matter in the big scheme of things. In the time of Beowulf, most people believed that gold, guts, and glory stayed with a person even after they die. This, however, is not the case. The story shows the effect of the spread of Christianity in the early paganistic world that values heroic deeds and bravery above all else. In the poem, Beowulf, the storyteller uses diction to promote both an admonishing and didactic tone, which contributes to the overall theme of the heroic weakness that is greed and the influence of paganism in heroism. The greed that is so apparent in Beowulf is not necessarily a hunger and want for material things; in fact, in the poem, he is hungrier for heroism and glory. This perfectly shows Beowulf's want for self-fulfillment, but not in the traditional way of fulfilling oneself to grow and become a better person. Beowulf's paganism-induced dream of self-fulfillment is fueled his want to be accepted as a hero in society.
Greed and hunger for power is one human and more specifically, heroic fault that has the potential to pull one down to the lowest level of humanity...