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___|: |___|: \ ___|: \ DizDate: 12/95
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ŦŽŽŽŽŽŽ| |: | |____| ___|ŽŽŽŽŽŽŦ
ŦŽŽŽŽŽ| | |: | |: |ŽŽŽŽŽŦ Subject/Topic is on:
ŦŽŽŽŽ| |: | |: | |ŽŽŽŽŦ [Contrast of Mark Sway, Client]
----\___|: |\__ |\__ |---- [Dirk Pitt, Dragon and Beowulf]
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Grade Level: [ ]Grade School Type of Work: [x]Essay/Report/Term
[x]High School [ ]Informational
[ ]College [ ]Notes
[ ]Misc
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>Chop Here>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ>ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
A woman her late thirties bellowed "My Baby! My Baby!", as her baby
carriage rolled towards the bottom of the great hill. Off in a distance, a
man of around early thirties heard these desperate calls for help. The man
dashed out from his house and immediately followed pursuit of the blue baby
carriage. Within one minutes, he safely reclaimed the carriage and the
baby girl was safely returned to her mother without harm. This is an
example of how the young man is showing traits of heroism, the traits being
courage, intelligence, and strength. He was courageous to help return to
the young woman the baby carriage, intelligent to act quickly and actually
catch up to it, and his strength is shown by his ability to outrun a racing
carriage down a deep hill. Different books use different characters to
display heroism within their characters. Mark Sway of The Client is a
story of a young boy's heroic battle against the Mafia and the FBI. The
story of Dirk Pitt of Dragon is a story of how a older man of the nineteen-
hundredths can overcome evil. Beowulf of the story Beowulf is an example
of how even hundreds of years ago, heroes used the same traits as today.
Heroes of every culture of all ages share courage, intelligence and
strength.
Courage is a prominent feature of all heroes. Within these three
books, each character, Mark Sway, Dirk Pitt and Beowulf, display signs of
Courage. Mark Sway was a courageous boy at his age of 9 years old. Mark
would never quit from continuing with an idea of his if it was for good:
"`We can't let them take the body, Reggie. Think about it. If they get
away with it, it'll never be found.'"1 What this phrase points out, is
that Mark did not want to leave the Mafia men to retrieve the body of the
Senator Boyette, for if they got the body, his efforts to keep quiet about
the whole situation would seem fruitless. Dirk Pitt used courage in order
that he can continue perusing the enemies. Dirk never gives up exposing a
plot of death and trickery of another person. Beowulf displays courage by
fighting off the Troll, the Troll's mother, and the Dragon. Beowulf would
not forfeit a fight with one of those people despite their gruesome
reputations. Beowulf made a journey to the bottom of a pool to defeat the
mother, showing his ambition and his courage to enter upon her domain and
defeat her. Mark Sway, Dirk Pitt, and Beowulf each possess the quality of
Courage amongst them.
Intelligence is a third trait which the 3 characters share together.
Mark Sway had immense intelligence which he showed many times within the
book The Client. An example of this was when he broke out of jail faking a
collapse. He showed intelligence also when he scared the men working for
the Mafia away from the buried corpse in the garage. Dirk Pitt displayed
intelligence against his enemies, also. Dirk Pitt was very experienced in
using all the objects he was given to work with during a certain situation.
"He rapidly twisted off the connectors to a pair of six-volt dry cell
rechargeable batteries... It wasn't what Jordan and Kern would call an
earth-shattering plan, but it was all he had."2 This passage shows while
he was locked in a room in Japan, his mind continued to work to find itself
a way in which to get out. His plan he made worked and by the end of the
story was freed from the clutches of evil. Beowulf showed signs of
intelligence during his battle with the Troll. He slept in the main hall
where the Troll killed the people, leaving one eye open to watch out for
the devilish creature. His intelligence in setting the stage for him to
overpower the Troll, helped to decide if he was to win, or to lose. Mark
Sway, Dirk Pitt and Beowulf all show signs of Intelligence throughout their
books.
Strength is another apparent trait of a hero present in all three
books. Mark Sway used his emotional strength to continue on in the face of
danger. Even when Mark Sway was confronted and scared by the Mafia men
within the hospital, he continued to use his strength and push on to find
the actual body, and keep the FBI from knowing where the body was to be
found. Dirk Pitt used strength throughout his book in many ways. One
prominent way, was when he was attacking Kumi near the end in a great sword
battle which cost Kumi's head. Beowulf displayed signs of strength
throughout his book in many ways, also.
"Reaching out with his open hand, the fiend was about to
take hold of the hero on his bed. But Beowulf at once saw
the hostile move and propped himself up on his elbow.
The archbeast soon realized that nowhere in the world had
he ever met a man with such might in the grip of his hand." 3
The above passage shows how his strength was more powerful than that of a
creature of the underworld. Beowulf was the strongest whom the treacherous
creature has ever been put forth against. When Beowulf is fighting the
Troll's mother within her murky pond, he shows more signs of strength.
"During the struggle he saw a sword which had won fame
in battle. It was a prize weapon, an ancient blade forged
by the giants. But for the fact that it was too large for an
ordinary man to use in combat, it was a choice weapon. ...
He swung its whorled blade and furiously struck, so that the
sword caught her on the neck and clashed clean through her
backbone into her doomed body." 4
This passage shows how he was able to carry and use successfully a sword
created for the giants and which "too large for an ordinary man" to use.
Mark Sway, Dirk Pitt, and Beowulf all displayed different signs of strength
throughout each of their books.
The man that saved the baby from imminent death in the first paragraph,
clearly possessed the same traits that heroes of every time and culture
have possessed from years passed. Even in today's society, we have heroes
who go out of their way to help another whom possess courage, intelligence,
and strength. Mother Theresa uses her courage, intelligence and strength
to help the sick and children who are not as fortunate as you and I. After
working on this essay I realized that these traits are constant throughout
history to the present as Beowulf is a sharp contrast to the books of
today. All heroes share at least three things in common, courage,
intelligence and strength.
Footnotes
1. The Client by John Grisham. Page 516
2. Dragon by Clive Cussler. Page 372
3. Beowulf translated by David Wright. Page 44
4. Beowulf translated by David Wright. Page 64