2/10/20 Alexandra Shinkareva Period 8

Modern Mythology 2020

Alexandra Shinkareva PD 8 #25

February 10, 2020

Aim: How does Gardner’s characterization and employment of flashback illustrate and develop Grendel’s hatred of men in his novel, Grendel?

Do Now: Pop quiz on chapters 2 and 3 of Grendel

The class began with a silent partner writing assignment, where each group created one google doc and instead of discussing the question, each group member got to write about it in that google doc. 

Partner Silent Write Now: At the end of chapter 3, Grendel describes himself as a “ridiculous hairy creature torn apart by poetry.” He goes on to say that: “I gnashed my teeth and clutched the sides of my head as if to heal the split, but I couldn’t.” How and why is Grendel “torn apart by poetry”? Identify “the split” to which Grendel refers. Use evidence from the text in your response.

Kenton began the discussion by saying that the split that Grendel refers to is the difference in validity between the Shaper’s poem and what Grendel himself has seen. The Shaper described the Danes as heroic and brave people while Grendel saw that they were actually bloodthirsty and fought violently very frequently. Grendel has trouble understanding how people can just say good-sounding lies, while ignoring (what seems to Grendel to be) the blatant truth. Sara mentioned that the Shaper discredited history by falsely praising the Danes and having them believe the lies. Winston added that the split was one half of Grendel’s mind being a creature trying to live and survive, while the other half was an intelligent being having an existential crisis, clutching his head trying to understand his purpose. Kayla said that the Shaper is shown to be able to manipulate the truth. She also said that Grendel’s description of himself emphasizes how different he is from humans. 

After this, Ms. Fusaro asked a follow up question, directing the discussion more towards Grendel’s description of himself.

Helen said that Grendel sees himself as a monster, but is still part human. Poetry helped enforce his human side. Brian added that Grendel thought that humans are weird, even though they speak the same language as him. The description shows how Grendel begins to think that HE is the weird one, compared to them. Laura then mentions that Grendel seems to hate himself. He has been observing humans for so long and can understand them, but they can’t understand him and he cannot befriend them. Grendel does not like being different from humans.

Then, Ms. Fusaro asked another follow up question: How many creatures do you know get torn apart by poetry?

Lucas said that even though Grendel cannot comprehend the meaningless violence of humans, he is still torn apart by their poetry. This split between violence and poetry shows how humans are the monster in most literature. Humans are capable of creating beautiful poetry, while still committing horrible acts of violence. Ruby added that the split is between the truth and lies. Grendel is the only one that knows the truth and he knows that the Shaper is lying. However, Grendel is frustrated with the fact he is obligated to share the truth but is unable to.

To wrap up the discussion, Ms. Fusaro said that Grendel is a poet that no one can understand. He is torn between the human and monster world. Grendel is, in fact, us because everyone has experienced at least one instance when they know the truth about something but they cannot communicate it because no one would believe them. In that case, it seems as if it's easier to just live the lie.

At the end of the period, we talked about how each chapter of Grendel represents a zodiac sign. Chapter 1 represented Aries (ram), chapter 2 represented Taurus (bull), and chapter 3 represented Gemini (twins). The twins in chapter 3 were the two sides of Grendel’s mind.

Reflection

The most important thing that I learned today was that humans are both monster and poet. This theme is repeated across a wide variety of western literature. Grendel, a monster, being emotionally moved by poetry showed that while humans can create and be affected by something meaningful, such as poetry, they are still monsters deep down, just like Grendel. I also learned that there are times when we have to live in a lie, despite knowing the truth, but being unable to communicate it. This is applicable to real life because we can connect to Grendel when he is frustrated with the fact that he knows the truth, but because he can’t communicate with the humans, he can’t tell them that the Shaper is lying. He has to deal with the pain of keeping the truth silent, which is what we sometimes go through in our personal lives. We are forced to keep the truth silent in those situations because no one wants to believe us.