2/6/20 Iandra Ramos PD 7

Modern Mythology | February 6, 2020

Iandra Ramos PD. 7

Aim: How does Gardner establish tone and characterization during the expository chapter of his novel, Grendel?

For the Do Now, we are asked to analyze the following: “I ask the sky. The sky says nothing, predictably. I make a face, uplift defiant middle finger, and give an obscene little kick” (6). 

• Allan makes the statement that Grendel is angry at the world showing disdain at everything. His cursing out God and calling out to the skies with no response interestingly relates to Cain when he doesn’t get a response from God after his sacrifice. (He gets 30 points right off the bat with his profound answer.)
• Steven adds (though reluctantly, because like all of us, he thinks Allan’s answer cannot be topped) by saying that Grendel’s hatred for this world reflects his loss of self esteem. He hates God for subjecting him to a sad lonely existence. 

Ms. Fusaro then asks us to think about how Grendel is being characterized in this first chapter. He really just seems like a petulant angry teenager, alone in the world. (So basically, Grendel is us, and we are Grendel.) 

As a follow-up to the Do Now, we are asked to analyze the following: “So childhood too feels good at first, before one happens to notice the terrible sameness, age after age” (9). 

• Edmund says that as a child, Grendel has always been innocent, and he doesn't know what's going on in the real world. “Growing up, he realizes how society has always treated him as a monster, making him feel like he has been abandoned by society in general.”

Ms. Fusaro then asks us to look back on our childhood and remember the things that worried or upset us. Because obviously, children have too many serious problems. 

• Allan recalls being bored and not having the freedom to do things on his own. He connects this to Grendel’s own feeling of being held in captive. “He’s like a baby in a crib who can’t do anything on his own.” (I think some of us can still relate to this though…)
• Dominic recalls being so stressed out because the Beyblade show would come on just before he had to go to school. (He definitely had his priorities straight.) 
• Shannon responds to this prompt by saying she used to be such a picky eater, and that she would be upset when she couldn’t leave before she finished her food. Now, however, she thinks it’s not that big of a deal. “We have to worry about our own family’s health.”

Ms. Fusaro summarizes the class discussion by saying that our problems change. What we used to consider to be big problems when we were younger are no longer as significant now that we are older. Age changes the way we characterize things as “problems.” DEEP. 

Philosophy Chapter 1 

1. Orphism: the endless cycles of life
1. Grendel deals death in the war with Hrothgar
2. He faces his mortality when he speaks of chasms
3. He longs for meaning, but rejects it as meaningless
4. He sees the funeral scene: the celebrants of cycles.

After reading the information above, Ms. Fusaro says the following: There’s always a next step for us when we’re younger; when we get older, these steps are a little less clear. Today, there is really no sense of self; no sense of seeking what you want to do for yourself. Society tells you to follow this orphism, this endless cycle of something you must do. Society gives you these categories and these rules. BUT WHY??

(At this point, I realize where the discussion is going. Ms. Fusaro asked a rhetorical question; if we as individuals really want to fully realize ourselves, we may have to diverge from what society wants us to do every now and then. #rebelactivity) 

We are then given an activity. Write on the Board: Grendel was written in the late 60s. What was happening politically and socially in the U.S. during this time period? 

Here’s what we wrote down:

Ms. Fusaro then responds to what we wrote down with: Even with the rise of counter-culture, the 50s are what we idolize as conformity. “When I hear 1950s, it literally goes black and white in my head.” People became fed up with the government and lost faith in it, which led to counter-culture.

Then we do some Spirit Reading, followed by a discussion.

Read Aloud: John Gardner’s life and history.

Whole Group Discussion: How might the social/political/cultural feeling of the late 1960’s combined with Gardner’s life experiences have influenced Gardner to write “Grendel,” a novel that takes a classic antagonist and makes him a protagonist?

• Dejon says that Grendel is a classic antagonist according to Beowulf, where you don’t really feel for him. Gardner saw himself as a monster, just like Grendel, and it was clear that it haunted him up until his death. With the culture in the 60s, he wanted to highlight that there is a different perspective to everything and that you can even humanize the bad guy. 
• Taya agrees, and says the 50s were very black and white, the 60s were more complex and colorful. This book, written in the latter time period, humanizes Grendel. 

Reflection on Today’s Lesson:

    Today’s discussions were very interesting because they provided the class with a different perspective on a character we previously knew to be destructive and a monster in all sense of the word. In previous lessons, Ms. Fusaro had drawn some similarities between human actions and Grendel’s and his mother’s actions in the epic (Grendel with his feasting, and his mother with her avenging her son). It wasn’t until today’s lesson that these similarities, particularly to Grendel, gained more substance in terms of his characterization. This lesson also reminded me of the power of writing books as allegorical pieces. Similar to how The Crucible was written to allude to the period of McCarthyism and the Red Scare, Grendel was written to reflect the changes in American society during the 60s, as well as Gardner’s unfortunate guilt from his brother’s death. By humanizing Grendel, Gardner boldly implies that even antagonists can have complex stories, and that they are only human. Because in the end, it’s all relative.