Learning from Others: Essay
Learning from Others
Looking at different perspectives through literature is an essential key to better understand important aspects and develop metacognitive skills. In other words, this process can be generalised as learning. Although learning can occur in many different situations, I was able to acquire a solid understanding of Grendel by looking at Leon Manjyoume’s insightful perspective on his character analysis, as well as by improving his arguments, and thoroughly perceiving my own metacognitive learning process.
Manjyoume’s character analysis reveals intriguing concepts that trigger our cognition which enables us to think deeper into his mind. His observations of Grendel are crucial elements which illustrates the whole idea of Grendel being a villain and an intellect simultaneously. He also did not overextend on describing the details of Grendel’s characteristics, and tends to keep his point straightforward. There were also literary factors that changed my perspective in his writing. He used a unique style of pacing in his writing. His sentences are rhythmically paced within paragraphs which creates a smooth flow, defining his own writing style. Moreover, he also used literary devices like hyperboles and similes in order to illustrate a better image of Grendel. Although there were areas to be improved and tweaked, his predominant theme in his writing displays the intuitiveness of Grendel’s character.
As discussed earlier, Manjyoume’s predominant theme shows the genuine significance in Grendel’s character, however, his delivery of his content could be only understood by people who has prior knowledge to The Epic of Beowulf or John Gardener’s Grendel. That being said, I tried to revise his content so it would be accessible for all audiences. First things first, I added introductory sentences so the reader can expect what they are about to read. For example, the original sentence, “Most of Grendel’s aggressive behavior came from the resentment that the Danes gave towards him, and due to this, he wanted to cause harm onto them for what they did to him” seems too long and quite vague for the audience to understand (Manjyoume). Then here, “consequently, his distressful feelings of injustice and jealousy resulted him to turn against the Danes…” shows how I concisely explained Grendel’s cause and effect of his character in a simple manner (Dotiyal). Secondly, I elaborated more on important details that had to be emphasised, therefore making the content clear for the audience to fully understand Manjyoume’s arguments. As I mentioned earlier about Manjyoume’s paced writing style, I noticed that his style smoothens the sentence itself, however it does not create a balanced flow in his paragraph due to his excessive use of these sentences. Thus, I used long and short sentences to create a smooth flow within the paragraph itself. Last but not least, I also added concluding sentences and transitional phrases to sum up the main idea and foreshadow the next paragraph, respectively. For example, I added a transitional sentence, “Grendel had no choice, so he had to stand up for his rights” to the end of the third paragraph to illustrate the forthcoming message that is revealed in the conclusion (Dotiyal).
By revising Manjyoume’s character analysis, I was able to overcome the conflict that had ignited in my cognitive process. The main struggle that I faced was retaining Manjyoume’s original content and perspective while trying to improve his content for refinement. As a writer, it is undeniably difficult to restrain yourself from incorporating your own thoughts to the piece while revising. Since everyone has a different perspective on what defines excellence, it’s hard for people to rationalise why they refined it their way instead of keeping the original. I had to find the border between what I have control over and which areas I am able to touch for improvement. After going though a full revision once, I caught a few mistakes along the way in the second revision. Yet, when I started on my third revision, I was surprised at the further improvements that I could still make. I realised that learning was an continuous process that required patience and proficiency. The revising process enabled me to open up to more perspectives which was rather interesting to see how another person can think in a completely different direction. Furthermore, I was able to learn amusingly from taking a glance at Manjyoume’s cognitive process because his insight served as food for thought.
As people strive to enhance their understanding of the world and its people, literature can be elucidated as an exemplary approach to observe and fathom the world through different lenses. Understanding, enriching, and learning from one’s work effectively developed my intellect to a higher level which enabled me to think open-mindedly and metacognitively, according to how I struggled and solved my problems to refine Manjyoume’s character analysis. Confucius once said, “He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger,” stating that thinking and learning are two essential concepts that continuously occur when absorbing new information. Learning through a certain perspective can help widen your capacity by reflecting on how you can use your learned knowledge to apply it to your life. Think about learning, learn about thinking.