02/25/2020
Christy Ng
Period 2
Modern Mythology 2020
Aim: How does Grendel’s obsession with Wealtheow illustrate his struggle with identity?
(Do Now) List everything Grendel is not.
Some things that the class said: human, queen, fair, woman, ginger, kind, selfless, natural, belonging, stupid, happy, mature
"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"?
He is creating a false sense of purpose for himself. It gives him a purpose by creating these parameters and goals to continue to attack the Danes systematically. He has something to go by and he has a reason to live and something to do to pass time. After the “fun” of doing something has disappeared, you need to create a form for yourself to follow to appease your sense of purpose. "Form is function" means that having a structure creates purpose in life
Chapter 7: Libra (Scales)
(On one side) Dragon: Humans are inevitably violent and will destroy themselves. Everything is pointless. Past/Present/Future, it doesn't matter
(On the other side) Wealtheow: Humans are capable of compassion and selflessness. Especially women. With a word, the past is the past- changing future.
Grendel admires Wealtheow because she is like a candle in the darkness. Grendel is conflicted between his philosophies from the Dragon and his admiration for Wealtheow.
Examples in Humanity: Pining over a lost love, Addiction - a struggle to separate what is best from what we think we want
Our goal is for our hearts and our minds to be the same.
A Closer Look at Figurative Language and Syntax Structure
Grendel seems to be speaking to himself in parentheses, almost in the fashion of a screenplay. Why?
It refers to nihilism and how nothing matters. Time is one block in the chapter and the timeline is not completely clear. There’s no emotional attachment and Grendel is just telling his story. His narration style changes and he kind of acts as his own director.
Innocence and Beauty are Futile
Grendel views Wealtheow as a child: innocent, youthful, and pure.
In Western culture, adjectives like “naive” and “innocent” are insults. We seek to go against this image of purity because being pure is not fun. With thrills in life, come consequences. Grendel feels lonely and isolated after he terrorizes and hunts humans. In the end, these “thrills” are only temporary satisfaction and in the end, we are left feeling empty.
Children live in a world of ignorant bliss. Grendel views Wealtheow’s innocence as something to be protected, as he himself is jaded. When he sees her genitalia, his image of her purity is corrupted because of the fact that she has slept with Hrothgar.
This serves to show how Grendel’s “candle in the darkness,” his only hope in the world was corrupt herself. Grendel’s view on mankind is completely ruined: they cannot help but destroy every beautiful and pure thing it sees.
Reflection:
In this lesson, we continue to see parts of Grendel that can be reflected in ourselves. We continue to see Grendel being torn apart and confliction in his character. When Wealtheow comes into the picture, he finally sees some hope in a world that he thought was completely hopeless.
Firstly, we see that Grendel creates a purpose for himself by terrorizing Hrothgar and the mead hall. Even though he is exposed to nihilism, the dragon, he creates a purpose for himself to help pass the time. Systematic approaches to life, setting parameters and goals… these are all things that give us a sense of purpose and fulfillment in our own lives, not only Grendel; Form is function. Despite everything being pointless, when we have these goals and aspirations for ourselves, we find that life is bearable and may even find enjoyment in it. This is something that has been really prevalent in this course.
With Wealtheow, we see further conflict in Grendel’s character. He is torn between the Dragon’s idea of nihilism and admiration of Wealtheow’s purity and innocence. As we can see that Grendel is incredibly jaded, he finally sees light in the darkness, hope in mankind. But at the end of the chapter, we see that this hope is killed when he realizes that Wealtheow is also corrupt. This conflict that Grendel faces is extremely relevant to our own lives. Everyday, we face conflicts between what our minds know is best for ourselves and what our hearts want. Even though we may know what realistically is best for ourselves, we still find ourselves giving into our emotions, which is not always right.
We had this lesson today because of how relevant and applicable the conflicts that Grendel faces are to ourselves and our own lives. Everyday we strive to find a purpose and a goal to fulfill, we follow a system. We try to find thrills in our lives even though we will have to face consequences for them. We face conflicts of our hearts and our minds. Grendel as a character reflects many flaws that we have as humans, but when we learn more about them, we realize our purpose for existence. We hold onto hope, as Grendel does with Wealtheow, and we create purpose for our life, as Grendel does with terrorizing Hrothgar and the mead hall. This is applicable in real life because we get a further insight and stronger understanding of our existence and purpose as humans.
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