The Naked Beowulf Analysis

In life, everyone goes through experiences, good or bad, that shape the person they become. Other than these experiences, a deciding factor on how a person is shaped is the society or community they are in. A soldier going through war experiences with his platoon will most definitely come out differently than a student experiencing high school with his friends. But ultimately, which one has more of an impact when it comes to shaping an individual’s identity? In Karen Armstrong’s “Homo religiosus,” Tim O’Brien’s “How to Tell a True War Story,” and Susan Faludi’s “The Naked Citadel,” we can see the changes, or lack thereof, characters undergo due to certain experiences and more importantly the society they are a part of. First off, without going
“The Buddha always refused to define Nirvana, because it could not be understood notionally and would be inexplicable to anybody who did not undertake his practical regimen of meditation and compassion” (Armstrong, 16). This lays it out quite clearly; without experiencing the Buddha’s regimen, one could not reform their identity and reach Nirvana. The lack of an experience leaves such a void that it even seems “inexplicable” to these people. To continue, the outsider in O’Brien’s story is Lemon’s sister, whom which Rat wrote his heartfelt letter to. “Rat mails the letter. He waits two months. The dumb cooze never writes back” (O’Brien, 316). Without going through the experiences Rat and her brother went through together on the battlefield, Lemon’s sister felt no connection or change within her that made her want to write back to Rat. The situation must have felt “inexplicable” to her, which explains why her identity was not changed at all or at least enough to warrant a reply to the letter. Lastly, in “The Naked Citadel” when the topic of women entering the academy is brought up to its former president, he says the following: “You cannot put a male and a female on that same playing field,’ though he couldn’t say exactly why. Of his own Citadel years he conceded, “I’ve not the foggiest notion if it would have been different’ had women
The process these people go through is almost always painful or difficult, but where they differ is the type of “society” or group they are with; and this small distinction plays quite the role in deciding whether or not these people successfully become “whole” being. Basically, becoming a complete and mature being can only be accomplished when these people are a part of a positively driven society. For starters, the followers of Confucius in Armstrong’s essay had to go through a difficult process in order to achieve ren, a sort of enlightenment or end goal to their religious journey. Someone who achieved ren was thought of as a complete or “whole” being, and the fulfillment of an arduous process was needed to reach this. Yan Hui, Confucius’ most talented disciple, said the following about attempting to achieve ren. “The more I strain my gaze up towards it, the higher it soars. The deeper I bore down into it, the harder it becomes. I see it in front, but suddenly it is behind” (Armstrong, 18). This quote clearly shows how the path towards ren was a difficult one, but it gives some obscure insight towards the society of these religious peoples. People who followed religions were more connected to themselves than to their peers; but, they had one thing in common. All of them were in the same situation, going through the same confusing process, in order to