Unsa Munir 2/24/20 Period 2 - Blog #2

Unsa Munir

2/24/20 PD 2


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


We started off this lovely Monday morning with this quote:


Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: First Series, 1841

"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… "


Followed by this question:

How does Emerson portray heroes and heroism?


While second period is usually home to extreme varying opinions, this seemed to be something everyone agreed upon. The general consensus was that heroism is subjective. It’s not what the majority thinks it is, or doesn’t have to be for the “greater good” (whatever that means), it’s all about what it means to you. Heroism is about staying true to yourself, and reaching towards the path you see yourself going down. We can’t see anyone else's path, which may be why we don’t understand other people's definitions. For example, Mrs. Fusaro brought up those helping with the Underground Railroad. At the time the majority frowned upon their actions, but today we honor them. While no one else could understand their paths, they still chose to pursue them because they had the passion to do so. This definition could also be applied to the other side of the spectrum like Nazi Germany but it should be made clear that their actions aren’t approved because of this.

    Now while I did say everyone agreed upon those statements, I really meant almost everyone. Spoiler alert: I was the one to think differently. I even created a formula to help you understand my thoughts:
                Heroism = Selfishness (until it doesn’t…)

I always thought the concept of wanting to die a hero was inherently selfish. We can live a life full of horrible decisions but as long as we die a hero then what does that matter? People will always defend and remember us because of it. To me it just seems like an easier way out. While it does take a lot of admirable qualities to sacrifice yourself, it also takes selfish ones like wanting to be remembered or seen in a better light. Perhaps I feel this way since I just did a government project using Hobbes ideologies (all people are naturally evil), but maybe Hobbes isn’t so wrong. I connected this to a line from the quote above, “Heroism is an obedience to a secret impulse of an individual’s character.” Now while this can be seen as “Heroism is true to you!” I saw it as “Well, doesn’t everyone want to be known?” I just believe that this is all a cover up for the real paths we are meant to go down, or the ones we have already explored. However, there is a second part to my genius formula which states that there are some (rather rare) cases of heroism. These are the cases that start early on. The people who want to live a hero, not just die one. The people who always do their best to make themselves/the people around them/the world the best it can be. Or better yet, those who act this way and don’t care about dying a hero/being remembered since they know that affecting at least one person in a positive way is all that matters. Changing one soul is changing the world afterall. I kept these opinions to myself though, since I quickly realized everyone else though differently and well, I can’t talk when I’m constantly shoving whole grain Cheerios into my mouth.


…….Anyways…..We then moved on to text related questions.


1. What insight is provided by Unferth's ability to understand Grendel's language? Why is he the only one?

Grendel's origins relate to Abel and Cain, a story that Unferth's life mimics. The bond (that came from killing their brother) is what allowed them to be able to talk to each other.

Grendel throws apples (wonder where I’ve seen that before) at Unferth. The apples represent knowledge (hmmmmmmm) and realism/nihilism. Unferth desperately wants to become a hero but Grendel tells him that nothing matters. His idea of heroism, his existence, anything & everything has no value. He says this all in the dragon scented cave of course. This obviously has connections to the story of Adam and Eve and Grendels actions are directly related to the speech the dragon had given him. (To recap, the dragon said that in the spectrum of time we are nothing, so why do we believe our actions matter? This led to Grendel having a mid life crisis and then passing the message on to Unferth. Kind of like every teens texts at 3 am.)


2. How does our prior knowledge of unferth provide greater insight into the dialogue between unferth and grendel?

When taking notes on everyone's answers I wrote “Unferth be jealous and prideful 4 no reason cuz son couldn't throw hands” which I will now attempt to translate. Unferth was known for being a jealous person - this was constantly seen in his interactions with Beowulf. He tried to make himself look like the hero, or at least make Beowulf look worse, yet he had no achievements in comparison. He didn’t kill Grendel and hid in the water when he came around. In other words, he talked the talk, but simply could not walk the walk. In ‘Beowulf’ Unferth is seen as a bitter coward - a “retired warrior” if you will - but in ‘Grendel’ Unferth is seen as a young man with high hopes of becoming a hero. This is most likely due to the events that happened in ‘Grendel’, such as Grendel refusing to let him be a hero by not killing him, that later had a huge impact on his personality.


We then discussed this quote:

“A hero is not afraid to face cruel truth… [Grendel,] you talk of heroisms as moble language, dignity. It’s more than that, as my coming here has proved. No man above us will ever know whether Unferth died here or fled to the hills like a coward. Only you and I and God will know the truth. That’s inner heroism...Except in the life of a hero, the whole world’s meaningless. The hero sees values beyond what’s possible. That’s the nature of a hero. It kills him, of course, ultimately. But it makes the whole struggle of humanity worthwhile.” - Unferth


We discussed inner heroism and connected Grendel's/the dragons ideals to our initial opinions on heroism. Since everything is meaningless, that means it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks anyway. Everything is up to you. This relates to the start of the lesson where we said that being a hero means to follow your own path and that it’s not meant for recognition or to gain approval from others.

Grendel didn’t harm Unferth because Unferth wanted to go down as a hero but Grendel didn’t want him to have that title. That could be achieved if Unferth killed himself but he didn’t so he was stuck looking cowardly and being ashamed of what had happened. Grendel demoralized him and destroyed his idea of inner heroism. He told him the cold truth - that he is not a hero. What the dragon did to Grendel, Grendel did to Unferth, and Unferth did to Beowulf.


Reflection

This lesson taught me about being open minded. I started off saying that heroism is 99% based off of selfishness, but after hearing everyone's opinions I realized that there are so many stories that aren’t documented, and so many ones that are twisted. I also recognized that just because I don’t understand someone's actions, doesn’t necessarily make them wrong. In the end I still steer towards the selfishness aspects, at least when it came to this chapter, since Unferth is desperate for a title. The lesson also taught me about being open minded when it came to everyday life. This all started with the dragon talking to Grendel in a previous chapter, but it was repeated through Grendel here. It’s true, nothing really matters. What to do with this information is up to you - nothing matters so why bother, or “you only live once that’s the motto #yolo.” Yeah, Drake really said it best. Seriously though, “life’s what you make it, so let’s make it rock” said Hannah Montana in her hit song ‘Life’s What You Make It.’ Okay okay I’ll stop with the song references now. But you get the point. Do what you want! Never knew a myth class would be the one to teach me that...