What does make a good hero? It almost seems like today our society revolves around this idea that everyone should strive to be a hero, but is being a hero really what we think it is? Or is it something else completely different. First, to define a great hero, we have to define a great monster. A monster that is powerful, bloodthirsty, careless and impulsive, but wait. Isn’t the definition for a hero what we just defined as a monster Then again, not all monsters eat human flesh. Not all monsters are impulsive or careless. Not all monsters fit the description of what Grendel gives us.So what does that mean for heros? Do they not all have to fit into the stereotype that Beowulf gives us? Even though that's what we are told to do as heros. To kill, to seek revenge, and to be impulsive. In essence, are we told to be monsters as we travel down our path of “heroism”? Or is there no difference between heroism and being a monster, because that’s what Beowulf teaches us, right? Beowulf is powerful, and bloodthirsty. He is careless and impulsive, he is indeed almost Grendel's apprentice if you think about it. Does that mean that in some twisted way that Beowulf is not at all a hero and instead, a monster like Grendel? This made me wonder that after all, if “heroism” is not what we see in Beowulf then what is it. We all are heroes, hiding in the shadows in the darkest part of our evil selves, until the time has come to where we can finally become a hero and step out from the dark. A hero can be as simple as giving a starving man a snack bar, or helping an old citizen across a busy street. In other words, a hero does not have to kill, be strong, brave or even get revenge. Being a hero is not some complicated state of rage and revenge. It’s doing the  right thing, even when nobody is looking, because being a hero is not about fame and riches, its about the warm happy feeling you get inside from doing what you know is right. As Gandalf says in The Hobbit “... being a true hero is knowing when to kill and when not to.”

<Dependent Clause><Comma><Independent Clause>

Example: 

If the gerbil flips, it will get hurt.

<Independent Clause><Dependent Clause>

Example:

The gerbil did a flip to get hurt

<Independent Clause><Coordinating Conjunction><Independent Clause>

Example:

The rabbit is jumping. + C.C. + It makes him happy. = The Rabbit is jumping for it makes him happy.

The dew was just setting in, soaking the ground to its core, leaving the dirt floor a soppy mess.The sheep were wet too. Their thick fur now soggy with the mornings evil curse. The rocky barren ground, with  its spikes and jagged knives sticking up everywhere. IN the center, sat a rusty old shak. The shack had been thoroughly weathered and was in the worst state possible. It was rust covered and had scraps of metal all around it, in order to keep the walls up. IT almost seemed tired and dreary, like the sheep and the land around them. The sun was just peaking up above the horizon were the shepherd came around.

“Wake up! Stupid sheep!”

Captain Shepherd, angry at having to do this herding business, was impatient and often whipped the shep with his cane, screaming at them to get moving even though there was no point. The sheep slowly started to get up, wandering towards their normal positions. Horngrass, a white sheep, wandered over to his friend, Pinegrass. When he got there he didn’t say anything. They weren't allowed to. Talking just meant extra work.

When the two  arrived at their stations, they started their 12 hour shift of screwing in bolts to the large dull, round metal sheets, that seemed to come out on to the conveyor belt for ever and ever. As he worked, Horngrass thought of grass, well he imagined it. He had never seen it, he just had to imagine its lush, green color, and it blowing in the wind. His mouth watered, even though he had never tasted grass, he seemed to know everything about it, just by instinct. Just then the shepherd came around.

“Hey, you, Horngrass, get back to work! Now!”

“Yes Captain.” replied Horngrass. He went back to work.

It was a long day, but after they finally were finished, the shepherd gathered them in their rusty old shack.

“I have an announcement to make,”  he said, “ as you know, the Wolves are threatening us with nuclear war. They are the reason that your are here, and as you know you will always be safe with us. However, if you do want to survive, you will have to work and extra two hour every day, in order to protect ourselves. Anyone who does not want to work these extra hours, will be thrown to the Wolves, where they will be treated half as well as you are here.”

The Captain then walked out and was gone, and the lights went out. leaving the musty shack quiet and icy cold. There seemed to be a trance over all the sheep, making them afraid to sleep, for fear the wolves wolves come. Horngrass sat there in the cold dreary shack terrified and shaking, imagining what would happen if the wolves came. Would they shred him piece by piece or would they take him to another labor camp one that served the purpose of torturing him instead of keeping him safe like right now. all the other sheep were thinking the same thing, what was going to happen to them.

The rest of the night, the sheep did not sleep, with the constant fear of the wolves all were at unrest. The next day when it was time to work, more than half of them fell asleep on the “job” and were whacked with the Captain's cane. The new 16 hour work shifts were hard on Horngrass and he felt like he could die, right then and there, but the idea of grass and its luscious green flowing feel. Oh, the grass he wished he could see and feel, with its amazingly indescribable taste. It was too bad that all the grass was gone in the world, that it had been burned and mowed down. The thought was truly awful, why would people do that. To tear down an entire species of plant! Who would do that! If only he could go back and change history he thought. well, that would never happen, he told himself, and he went back to work.

Later that day, when all of the work was done, the sheep wandered back to their shack. However, when they arrived there was Captain Shepard standing in the doorway, with all the sheep gathered outside.

“Inside,” Captain Shepard spoke, “Is a new technology, one that we just created. Now, do not, I repeat do not, touch it, or you shall receive harsh punishment.”

Captain Shepard stepped aside and the Sheep filed in one by one. Once inside, Captain Shepard walked in.

“Quiet,” Yelled Captain Shepard, “As you know, the wolves are threatening an attack, this will tell you what to do.”

The sheep didn’t move, they were all entranced by this new technology the Captain had spoke about. Captain Shepard then walked over to a box on the wall and pushed something. Immediately, a tiny sheep, was on the wall. It was standing in the middle of a giant green flat blob.

“This is a sheep in a field of grass.” A voice mentioned in the room. But it was not a sheeps voice, the voice seemed to be coming from all of the walls.

“As many of you know, sheep once lived happily in the fields and prairies, but then the wolves came.”

Suddenly, the sky above the sheep on the wall became dark.

“The wolves came and killed the grass and ate the sheep, chasing them out of their homelands.”

The sheep on the wall was then covered by a dark blurry figure and red ooze spilled spilled on the grass, killing it, with the first touch.