Verdict+Hijo

 Verdict • concise 250-300 words (word count excludes quoted material) • states clearly why Position 1 or Position 2 ‘won’ the trial • use at least one piece of textual support that was key to the winning argument

Was the following statement PROVED OR DISPROVED in the trial? “The world and everything in it is unplanned accident, existence is meaningless; the past is irrelevant; nothing matters.”  

 After listening to many witnesses and judges, I have concluded that Position 2 won the trial. The position2’s was the team that disapproved “The world and everything in it is unplanned accident, existence is meaningless; the past is irrelevant; nothing matters”. Because there were more witnesses on Position 2, I thought that there were more advantages in winning this trial. Fewer witnesses made the Position1 vulnerable when cross examining. However, as a judge, the Position 1 tried their best to defend their position. In addition, there wasn’t not enough time to have a full cross examination to Position2 witnesses. There are few evidences that convinced me to believe that the Position2 had won. Shaper’s example helped me to believe that existence is truly meaningful. "The people listen silent and solemn to the old Shaper's song on the young man's lips, and the pyre where the old man lies stands waiting for fire"(p.147). Although Shaper died and is no longer in the world, people reminisce him by remembering his stories. If his existence was meaningless, people wouldn’t have celebrated his death or a new young man singing his song. In other words, his existence was valued as significant. Furthermore, another example that helped to win this trial was Wealtheow’s sacrifice in order to saver other people. She had done it because she thought that everyone was important. Also, I thought that the relevance of past was well proven by Hrthrogar. Beowulf came to the Danes to help them no longer suffer from Grendel, He risks his life to save the Danes because his ancestry and good relationship with the Danes. The past makes us who we are now. Many of the textual evidences shown from Position2 helped them to win the trial and disapprove the statement.