Fanny Li 2/6/20 Period 2 - Blog #2

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

Do Now: THINK-PAIR-SHARE
Discuss: “I ask the sky. The sky says nothing, predictably. I make a face, uplift a defiant middle finger, and give an obscene little kick” (6)

• Grendel had asked the sky “why can’t these creatures discover a little dignity?” 
• Josh said that he interpreted this quote as the sky represents God and showing the lineage between Cain and Grendel. 
• “Predictably” shows that he has asked the sky multiple times and he knows what the sky would do. It also shows that Grendel wants some answers, but his mother never gave him any and neither would the sky, which is why he is very angry. 
• Kevin interpreted this quote more literally as Grendel is very isolated and childish, and he is always angry because of his monstrous features and his lineage to Cain. 

“So childhood too feels good at first, before one happens to notice the terrible sameness, age after age” (9) 

•  We always think of childhood as a time of no stress, freedom, happiness. It was the same routine but at one point, you realize that it is the same thing over and over again. 
• Childhood is also the time when you are the most adventurous and curious. After a while, the same routine will get boring or meaningless, such as how Grendel torments the same place day after day, expecting the same things. 
• As you grow up, you become more aware of the world and the darkness that is present. When you’re a child, you are naive; when you grow up, that fades and you become more aware of the things going on around you that you haven’t noticed before. 

Philosophy in Chapter One 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 the cycle

Discussion Main Topics- What do you do when your next year isn’t planned out for you? What is your next step in life? Grendel longs for meaning but rejects it as meaningless; he can be compared to us. We have our school years planned out for us and it changes each year, but what happens after you graduate from college and receive your degree? Society creates definitions of it and sets out a basic layout. 

Grendel was written in the late 1960s. What was happening politically and socially in the US during this time period? 

• Vietnam war
• Civil rights movement
• Counter culture
• Cold war - communism 

What did they all have in common?

• A society 
• People were no longer confident in the government 

Read John Gardner’s life and history.

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

• Usually, as a protagonist, the audience sympathizes with them. In this story, Grendel is the protagonist, and he is the descendant of Cain. Cain killed his brother. We learned in the biography of John Gardner that when he was young, his brother died in front of him and he didn’t do anything to save him. The guilt stayed with him until his death. This compares to how Gardner thought himself to be responsible for his brother’s death, as Cain killed his brother. 

Reflection: 

In today’s lesson, I learned Grendel’s point of view and the reasoning behind his actions during the events previously learned in Beowulf. Grendel was a childish creature who lived out his life without help from his mother or the sky. He illustrates the life cycle of all humans - you start out as a naive child, full of happiness and freedom. However, as you grow up you have more insight on things that you haven’t thought of before. When you have no set path for you, you have to create your own. I feel this is important because after graduating from college, I would need to create my own path to success and figure out who I truly am without a layout plan. We also learned the background story of the author, John Gardner. He wrote the book in the 1960s, a time when society was changing and people started to lose faith in the government. We learned the connection between Gardner and Grendel - Gardner had to live with the guilt of his brother’s death until the end of his time which was compared to how Grendel is the descendant of Cain, who also killed his brother and had to live with that guilt for eternity.