Have you ever taken a risk so big that you pushed yourself to do everything in your power so that things would work in your favor? Sometimes taking a risk seems like the only way to achieve your goals, as there are a few things that are truly guaranteed, and not taking a risk may mean never achieving a set goal.
In the movie, Meru, by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, there is a group of men who made it their mission to reach the top of a mountain, despite the difficult challenges presented. In the movie, Miracle, by Eric Guggenheim, coach Herb worked very hard to train his team who started off lost and disorganized, until he eventually led his team to victory in the Olympics for ice hockey.
Lastly, in the book called Beowulf, by Burton Raffel, Beowulf kills Grendel with his bare hands and Grendel’s mother with a giant’s sword that he found in her lair. Later in his life, Beowulf becomes king of the Geats and finds his realm terrorized by a dragon. People ambitiously take on challenges in order to achieve their goals, which are all necessary to succeed their future goals.
Risks are what people take when in need of achieving a ambitious goal, even though that may mean getting hurt physically or emotionally. People set goals for themselves everyday and try to accomplish them for success and satisfaction. In the script of Meru, Renan talks about his goal when he says, “oh, man. Survival mode. It’s broke.
We’re Himalayan big-wall climbing, and we broke our portaledge (Chin & Vasarhelyi 1). Jimmy says “athletic tape…two eye screws, and- and we’re back in business. Whew.” (Chin & Vasarhelyi). In the movie Meru, the mountain climber group, Renan, Jimmy, and Conrad set a goal for themselves no matter how hard to circumstances were. Through all the struggles and tough times that occurred during the climb of Meru, they always remembered that in the back of their minds they had a goal which was to reach the top.
When the portaledge broke, they thought that their climb journey was over and had to head back down. Their hope was strong, so they all thought of ideas to fix the portaledge to continue the journey. In the movie Miracle, Coach Herb set forth a goal for his ice hockey team to win the Olympics, which is why he was a very strict coach. Nearly the entire ice hockey team did not like coach herb because he was very tough, strict, and demanding on the players. At one point, even the assistant coach knew how relentless the coach was and how the team was feeling.
Coach herb demands the team to do laps on the ice when he says, “Again. Again.” Assistant coach Craig says, “Herb…” Herb replies, “Come on, Craig. Blow the whistle. Again.” (O’Connor 1). Both Meru and Miracle have connections because they both set and achieve goals throughout the film. In Meru, the set goal was to train the American ice hockey Olympics team to lead them to victory. After all the hardships and doubts the team and coaches had, they managed to win the Olympics for their country and achieve their goal. In Miracle, the set goal was made by the group of mountain climbers to climb a very challenging and difficult mountain, named Meru.
Of course, they had an unbelievable amount of times where they thought they would not have made it, but the group worked hard together and fought their bloodthirsty obstacles. Have you never needed or wanted something so badly where you would do anything for it? “Though Grendel is dead, Grendel’s mother still lives and wants revenge for the death of her son. She enters Heorot and seizes a man, waking the other warriors. Frightened, she takes Grendel’s arm from its place under the roof, and flees.” (Burton Raffel).
The almighty powerful, Beowulf killed Grendel. Grendel’s mother wanted payback and grievance on Beowulf, so Grendel’s mother attacked Herot, also putting her own life in danger just for vengeance for her son. In Meru, the group of climbers was desperate when Renan got injured. Renan tried very hard to recover by training and working out every day with a passion. The group did not go to any expeditions until he was recovering from his head surgery. Renan had put his heart and mind into recovering. And the way that he had progressed was…almost inhuman.” (Chin & Vasarhelyi).
Both Beowulf and Miracle had characters showing despair. In Beowulf, Grendel’s mother shows despair because she went out to risk her life to attack Herot and fight Beowulf for grievance of her son. In Miracle, the character Renan shows despair because of his injury when he cracked his skull, he had surgery and he was working on recovering everyday after because he still had his dream about climbing Meru.
