​This short exposition on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (which one can download from the button above) is an example of my growth as a writer over the years I have spent at South Piedmont Community College. It was written over the course of a few hours on March 3rd, 2024, for a 12-week course on British literature. This essay essentially goes over my thoughts from reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, tying together elements in the story with other concepts in Christian theology and literature. Specifically, I connected the central themes of bravery and chivalry to the Medieval Christian ideas of Memento Mori and Marian devotion respectively. I also reflected on the tension between Sir Gawain’s youth and inexperience with his high calling as a knight. 

 

There were two main goals I had as regards the writing process behind this work:

 

Goal #1: Present an understanding of the material being analyzed.

Here, my reflections on the different elements traceable in the story demonstrate at least a passing familiarity with the text, and present them in a way that shows attention to patterns and threads in the story. For example, I looked at how Gawain’s character is portrayed as noble yet imperfect, and shows him as stiving but sometimes failing to reach the high standards set for him as a knight. There have been previous assignments where I have been tasked with reading a text and answering questions about it (especially in history classes), so learning how to process and interpret information from a textual source and then articulating my own understanding and thoughts certainly contributed to this more free-form assignment.

 

Goal #2: Tie in relevant concepts and ideas that inform the explication in a helpful and clarifying way.

I demonstrated connections between themes in the narrative with other concepts that are connected to or perhaps even informed how the story was shaped. This helps give a better understanding of what is going on and why these aspects of the narrative are there. For example, I examined the Marian themes that are woven throughout the tale, showing how they connect to the contexts in which such ideas are invoked and fit into the wider frame of Marian theology held by Christians of the time. Like with the other goal, other written assignments have aided me in learning how to connect ideas together and present them as a cohesive unit.

 

One of my favorite things about this assignment was that it allowed me to connect concepts from my personal studies with my academic endeavors, and gain more familiarity with the way that textual criticism interacts with other fields of higher learning. I believe that, despite its short length, it demonstrates that I have gained some experience in understanding texts to the extent that I can engage with the ideas presented there thoughtfully and thoroughly, and re-present them in an original and insightful way.