Intertexuality Between War and Leadership

War and Leadership
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War and Leadership
The texts Conference of the birds and Song of Roland describe epics with various characteristics and differences. In the Conference of the birds, the birds depicted in text decide to have a meeting, in which they will choose a king to rule them. The group of one thousand birds goes through various disputes in an attempt to achieve their goal of having a legendary leader. In the song of Roland, Marsilla, the king has to make a deal in the quest for peace. The king promises to covert from Muslims into Christianity only if the Franks leave their territory and go back to France. However, the king has just made an empty promise to achieve his goals as a leader. The texts Conference of the birds and Song of Roland reveal multiple similarities and distinct differences.
Both texts describe various actions of unity. The characters in both poems chose to let go of all misunderstandings by making realistic agreements. The Song of Roland reveals that the army leader and his team are tired of fighting (Moncrieff, 2014). The group might have reasons for battling, but the universal unity in their community can't allow them to disagree and have different opinions. Therefore, the fighters agree to suspend the war and look for another way of achieving their desires. In the Conference of the birds, the characters organize for a bilateral meeting to decide on who would lead them in one accord (Heilpern, 2013). Although the plot starts with a significant disagreement, the birds end up listening to Hoopoe and agree to look for a king together. The birds encounter challenges like perishing of some members, but they continue with their mission of even at a small number of approximately thirty characters.
The two settings show that the characters had a common objective of attaining peace and harmony in their communities. Although the story of the Conference of the birds reveals an era without a leader to give directions, the society represented can still reason together in peace on the solution towards having a king. All the characters have the same thoughts on how to get someone to lead the society. All the birds agree that Hoopoe is the wisest among them, and he should take the responsibility of guiding them through the activity of acquiring a leader (Heilpern, 2013). The peace prevailing leads the fleet to attain its goals successfully. In the Song of Roland, the army stops fighting to achieve a peaceful community. The inter-religion wars in the nation have resulted in endless unrest in the state, and the parties involved reveal exhaustion on the issue. The leader in Spain and his army gives up the war activities. On the other hand, Marsilla signed a peace treaty with the opponent, promising to change to Christianity (Moncrieff, 2014). Although the king knows it’s unethical to lie, he has the responsibility of retaining peace in the communities. The actions represented by the characters promote peace in their societies.
In both cases, the characters reveal moral understanding by trying to find solutions to the problems they are facing in the represented settings. In the Conference of the Birds, the characters know that they can't live without a leader. This k...