The place of dragons in literature is fascinating. At one time the dragon was – in the West – an almost solely evil entity. Now, dragons serve both as heroes and villains, sometimes within the same story!
I think that often these dragons are reflections of the humans who imagine them. Even though dragons are larger, can fly, and often possess wisdom and understanding beyond what humankind have, their mistakes can be very similar. After all, people can be greedy or corrupt, and people can cause as much harm to each other as dragons do in novels, even if it takes more people to inflict the same amount of damage.
Some writers treat dragons as intelligent, sometimes with their own societies and cultures, and others, as purely animals. The sheer versatility of this one fictional beast is pretty cool.
This idea – of the complexity of dragons – was the focus of my Literature Review during the first half of my yearlong Senior Seminar. Next semester, I’m looking forward to writing a short story as my capstone project, which will center around my own version of the dragon.
Pens and Dragons 