2/24/20 Fiona Wang Period 8

Modern Mythology 2020

2/24/2020

Fiona Wang Period 8 #29

Aim: How does Gardner’s employment of characterization provide conflicting views of heroism & integrity in his novel Grendel?

Today we began the lesson by analyzing a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote about heroism:

"Heroism works in contradiction to the voice of mankind, and in contradiction, for a time, to the voice of the great and good. Heroism is an obedience to a secret impulse of an individual's character. Now to no other man can its wisdom appear as it does to him, for every man must be supposed to see a little farther on his own proper path than any one else."

Ruby started the discussion by mentioning how the quote implied that the definition of heroism depends on the person—each person has their own ideas, so heroism has to be subjective. Brian added that an act of heroism is more of a selfish act because the “hero” is trying to be remembered in history and Ryan concluded that Emerson is essentially saying that heroism does not exist. At this point Ms. Fusaro jumped in and said that according to Emerson, heroism is having a vision and forging forward with it. She explains that we’re supposed to redefine and understand what a hero is, and what Gardner wants us to do is to question whether heroes exist after all.  

We were then given a couple questions such as “What insight is provided by Unferth’s ability to understand Grendel’s language? Why is he the only one?” and “How does our prior knowledge of Unferth provide greater insight into the dialogue between Unferth & Grendel?” Alexandra explains that Grendel always felt misunderstood by everyone and Unferth just happens to be the one to understand him, which may be because they both represent sin (Grendel is the descendant of Cain and Unferth killed his own brother). Stanley adds that they both are also looking for something in themselves—Unferth is trying to become a hero and Grendel is trying to find himself. 

Next, we had another discussion about the philosophies of heroism in the novel. We were given another quote, one from Unferth, and asked to discuss these questions:

How do Unferth’s beliefs compare with Emerson’s? Why won’t Grendel kill Unferth? How does Unferth’s speech here most likely contribute to Grendel’s decision to return him unharmed to Hrothgar’s mead hall? As with the “apple fight,” Grendel leaves Unferth physically intact, and yet he undoubtedly plays the role of a destroyer. How? And what does he destroy?

Throughout our class discussion, we came to several conclusions. When Grendel leaves Unferth, he not only destroys Unferth’s dignity, but also his reputation because when Unferth comes home unharmed, leaving Grendel alive, people are going to assume that he fled the scene. In addition, Grendel threw apples at him because while he wanted to beat Unferth and humiliate him, he didn’t want to make Unferth a hero. The apples, like Unferth, can be connected to sin and through this, it’s implied that Unferth can’t get away from the doubt as long as Grendel is there. The two of them understand that life is meaningless without an enemy, and that a hero is nothing without an opponent, but when Grendel makes Unferth understand that there is no purpose in being a hero, he destroys his will, or inner heroism, to be a hero. Apples also represent knowledge, and this can be shown in the novel as Grendel giving Unferth the knowledge that nothing he does matters in the end. This encounter shaped the Unferth we knew before reading Grendel—the Unferth that believed that there were no such things as heroes.

Reflection:

Today we learned that Gardner’s Grendel dives into the topic of heroism in order to make us think about what a hero really is and whether they exist. Grendel gives two views of heroism: it’s defeating an opposer or it doesn’t exist because there is no purpose in being a hero, with the latter being emphasized more in the novel. Unferth’s belief in heroism is dependent on there being an enemy or a monster, but when Grendel simply refuses to fight him, he destroys Unferth’s idea of heroism and his purpose because Unferth doesn’t have a monster to defeat anymore. While we learned that the novel expresses the idea that heroism doesn’t exist, we also understood that it in fact does. Like Harriet Tubman and many others who had a vision, we need to forge ahead with our own visions and plans in order to be, in some form, heroic.