Mulan and Beowulf, Epic Heros

Mulan can be compared and contrasted to the epic hero Beowulf. Both Mulan and Beowulf are very brave and successful in battle, but on the other hand, their motivations and their status in society are different. In the end, they both accomplished a greater goal by gathering the courage to fight.
Mulan is a young female from China who has no real status in her society. She is restricted in what she can or cant do and how she should and shouldn’t act. She tries to be what society wants a young women like her to be but she struggles with being that image because it requires her to be something she is not. While Mulan tries to be this young women the society accepts, she horribly fails and brings dishonor to her family. Mulan’s father is called to fight in war but he is old and crippled. Mulan is worried about her father going to fight so she decides to go for him instead. Mulan’s motivation for going to war and continuing on even when things get tough for her is the worry and love she feels for her father as well as to bring honor to her family name.
Beowulf, on the contrary, is an adult male from Geatland. He boasts about himself and seems to seek attention from anyone and everyone. He is a war hero, well respected and highly looked upon in his society because of all of his accomplishments. Beowulf’s motivation for his journey to Denmark and the battles he faces is his ego, pride and he wants uphold a promise his father made to the king of Denmark. Beowulf and his troops set off for Denmark to aid the king and help protect the people because they herd that there was a great monster terrorizing the kingdom. Beowulfs ultimate plan is to find and kill the monster as well as to be able to boast about another accomplishment. Though it is very clear how different Mulans motivation to fight and her status and role in life is from Beowulfs, they are both very brave and successful in battle.
It is under exaggerated how brave both Mulan and Beowuf were. Mulan dressed as a man and trained to fight for war, this was very dangerous because women were not aloud to join the army and if she was caught she could have been sentenced to death. She fought well when the time actually came in war and she never gave up when things became hard for her. Mulan put herself at a huge risk all for her father and to bring honor to her family name. I believe that not only shows her bravery but clearly makes her a hero.