Cocky versus Swagger in Beowulf and Sir Gowain

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Cocky vs. Swagger

In entertainment, no matter if it is movies, music, or plays. One can almost always look in the story line and find a hero. The hero is perceived to be the character that everyone looks to step forward in a time of need. The hero can be like a savior and is expected to be like a savior by the other characters in the story in any and every situation. There is also a case in stories where the hero has to be found and is more of the unsung type of character within a story in which that character has to learn how to adjust to the advantages and disadvantages of their heroism and how it may affect the other characters in the story. Beowulf and Sir Gowain posses these types of characteristics and by actually reading the pieces of literature that they are featured in. These characteristics are evident and are exposed within their respective stories. The characters may come off as being cocky or extremely arrogant, but one may have a different opinion on this situation for the simple fact that there is a difference between being cocky and arrogant or just having confidence in oneself along with a swagger about oneself.

Confidence is defined as belief in oneself and one's powers or abilities, self-confidence, self-reliance, assurance. Confidence is something that these characters must have in the stories that they are in. Confidence is something that every person should have in order to succeed in anything that they do. Being cocky and having a swagger all comes from having confidence. Heroes in every story are known to have tasks that they must take on things and overcome obstacles that are more challenging than any other character in the story. The tasks they take on can be anything from realistic everyday life pro...

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... from humble beginnings not making him behave cocky and arrogant like Beowulf. Because of his near death experience he was not that way. This is the model demonstration of the differences between being cocky and having a swagger.

In closing, the differences of being cocky versus having a swagger are evident. It is understood that it is a number of ways to conduct oneself just being a regular person. It should be understood that it takes a different type of attitude to conduct yourself if you are a true hero. Depending on exactly what the resume of the hero is, he is entitled to have either a cocky behavior, or a certain swagger that sets themselves apart from the rest. Whatever the case may be, the hero as earned it because if he had not, he would not be a hero.

Works Cited

Sir Gowain and the Green Knight trans.Constance Hieatt.

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