Warren Shum #27 PD 7 2/25/2020 Modern Mythology 2020
Aim: How does Grendel’s obsession with Wealtheow illustrate his struggle with identity?
We started off the lesson with the Do Now: List everything Grendel is not.
Some suggestions were that he was not happy, stagnant (he is always changing) and hes not understood.
Ms. Fusaro then asked “Who is purely evil?”
Steven started off the conversation by saying that no one is completely evil- e.g. people at Herot thought that Grendel was evil, and Grendel thought they were evil. Billy agreed and said that there are two sides to the story nothing is purely good or evil.
“What will we call the hrothgar-wrecker when Hrothgar has been wrecked”- what reason does Grendel give for not finishing off the Danes? Why does he pace himself with “form is function”?
William suggests that Grendel sees “hrothgar-wrecker” as his sole purpose- once he destroys Hrothgar, he has no purpose. Billy says that Hrothgar is the form that gives Grendel function.
Ms Fusaro explains that we seek form all the time- in school we sit in certain places, even when there are no rules to where you sit- we yearn for form because without it we have no function.
- Grendel fails to meet the Dragon… and what is a dragon, exactly… how do these images create perception and understanding to the Dragon’s contrast to how Grendel sees Wealtheow?
- To Grendel, Wealtheow is innocence, beauty, art, balance, compassion, sexuality, femininity all in one. How do these concepts in western philosophy compare and contrast? How does Grendel struggle with the embodiment of all of these concepts in one?
- A “bildungsroman” is a coming-of-age novel. In what ways is this true and false in Grendel?
Shannon notes that Grendel is extremely indecisive- he thinks that Wealthow is beautiful, but then decides to kill her, and then changes his mind again. She points out the connection to this chapters sign, Libra which is often denoted by a balanced scale.
Billy talks about what Wealthow to Grendel. He says that she symbolizes what is beautiful in life, she is everything that is good in the world- this contrasts with his now nihilistic viewpoint of the world.
Allen says that Grendel hasn’t felt love, but he sees Wealthow and feels love, but then realizes that she’s an animal just like the other humans and thus returns to nihilism and says that nothing matters.
Ms. Fusaro talks about the human struggle of trying to find the balance between the heart and the mind- finding the balance between what you want and knowing what is good for you. The slides say “When the heart and the mind are on two different platforms, we struggle, we fear, we ache.”
Grendel seems to be speaking to himself in parenthese, almost in the fashion of a screenplay. Why? (Consider the time period this particular chapter refers to.)
Ms. Fusaro says that there is a lot of time jumping- as time is meaningless to the dragon who can see everything, time here is meaningless- past, present and future are all the same and has no meaning.
Student Reflection:
Today’s chapter focuses on Wealtheow and her meaning to Grendel. Grendel sees Wealtheow as a beautiful innocent being, but also as an unclean monster. I also made the connection between the theme of the chapter (balance) and how Grendel acts during this chapter. Wealthow is neither completely pure and innocent, or a debased “fallen woman”. Today’s lesson helped me understand that things and more importantly, people, aren’t always black and white and that there are often more sides to a story.
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