Two sides to every story

Something that we started to discuss but never got to finish was the discussion on how as readers we perceive villains to just be born bad and not actually seeing their point of view. As readers, we almost just accept it because it has become so common in works of literature. In Grendel, we saw a whole new view on Beowulf. Instead of hearing from the "hero," we were able to hear from the "villain." Grendel was able to provide us with information on why Grendel acting the way he did. Grendel wasn't evil. He was dealing with the emotions of alienation and the fact that society rejected him. Grendel wanted to be accepted. However, he started to see the humans as hypocrites and wasteful. When he felt that he needed to intrude on the humans because he disliked their ways, he was pronounced a villainous and evil. His approach to the situation may have not been the best but his approach to changing the wrong among humans is just a human nature characteristic. There are other books that show the point of view of the considered "villain" of a story. Wicked is similar to Grendel as in that the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz never meant any harm but was considered evil because she looked different and she stood up for what she believed in. We can also see it in Wuthering Heights (from what I read so far!). Heathcliff seems bitter and somewhat evil because of his behavior. When you learn however what happened in his past, you can somewhat understand why his behavior is expected. He is acting on emotions which is part of human nature. It starts to become the question on how you see it, who is really the villain and who is the hero? We see this every day in our own lives. Everyday we turn on the news about terrorists and we see them as the bad guys, the villains. However, in other areas of the world, they turn on the news and see these "terrorists" as people fighting for a good cause. This is an example of how society picks the villain and hero because its the view point you see it from. Another example is the media. The media has so much influence over who we see as the evil person and the good person. It happens all the time, especially during election times with politicians. Commercials are shown every commercial break with slandering comments about the other politician. Depending on what commercial you see, you may see one side as the bad side while the other side is good. I think that we don't feel we aren't willing to see two sides to a situation. We tend to want to be right and sometimes that makes us ignore the facts or opinions given from another view. I know its cliche to say "There are two sides to every story" but its very true. Sometimes seeing both sides help influence one's decision or even strengthens one's opinion.