4.+Grendel

Directions: your group is responsible for compiling and creating responses to all sections and will be graded on the completeness and accuracy of the information provided. In addition, your response must include material covered in class, not information "cut and pasted" from on-line study guides. Assignment is worth 100 points. Remember, you are helping your classmates by providing a complete response.

1) Plot Summary (no more than 250 words please): Grendel by John Gardner is a story based on the epic poem Beowulf. But, instead of the book being told by a third-person narrator, it is told from Grendel's first-person point of view. The book follows generally the storyline of Beowulf but expands and details the life of Grendel before Beowulf kills him. The book starts off with the introduction of Grendel and his terrible and hated mother. It goes through in-detail of Grendel's experience with Earth and humans and how he turns essentially from a naive young boy to a horrid monster. The whole book essentially follows an astrological theme and Gardner views Grendel from a philasophical point instead of a just physical monster.

The first encounter Grendel has with the outside world is when he comes up from under his cave after he decides to explore the light that is coming from above. He encounters a goat and he tries to scare it but it does not work. He figures out here that the world is about peace and harmony. But then later on he adventures up to the surface again but is now up in a tree and encounters humans that try to harm him. He runs off scared and changes his mind about the world. He now thinks it is all about violence and destruction.

We are introduced to Hrothgar, his mead hall, and his army of Danes now. Then later on, while Grendel is walking through the forest, he hears the Shaper tell his stories to the Danes and how carefully they listen to him and believe him. He also believes him and gets lulled into his false lies. Then Grendel meets the dragon which is the turning point in the story. The dragon tells him that basically he is the Shaper and that he is the center of the universe. He does what he wants. When the Shaper dies, Grendel ultimately assumes that he IS the new shaper. Grendel begins to attack the Thanes endlessly night after night. He terrorizes them, kills the soldiers and tears the hall down daily.

Then, in chapters 7 and 8, we meet Wealtheow, the wife of Hrothgar. She brings love and harmony and peace to balance out the hate and evil that Grendel brings. Grendel is temporarily stunned by her and does not attack for several nights.

Then one night when an old blind priest comes to prey to their gods, Grendel appears and pretends to be the god, or the "Destroyer." He says all this rubbish and makes the priest believe him. When the younger priests come and the older priest tells them his story about how he met the Destroyer, they laugh at him.

At the end of the book when Beowulf comes to stop Grendel, Grendel has a sudden change of mind when Beowulf is killing him. He realizes that he has been wrong the whole time and he begs for forgiveness. After Beowulf rips off his arm at the very end of the book, Grendel still thinks that it was just an accident and that it was not meant for him to die.

2) Major Characters, Description, and Relationships:

**Grendel**  - The protagonist and narrator. He is a lonely creature who wants to find out what the meaning of life is and what his purpose of his being is. Since he is an outsider, Grendel looks in on the civilization around him to learn about how humans live and act.

**Hrothgar**  - King of the Danes. Hrothgar’s kingdom is powerful and flourishing until Grendel begins terrorizing the area.

**The Shaper** - A harpist and storyteller in Hrothgar's court. The Shaper provides the town with an image that the world has meaning. Grendel finds the Shaper’s words fascinating, although he knows that the dazzling stories of Hrothgar's court are mostly lies. The Shaper symbolizes the influence of art and imagination to generate meaning in a meaningless world.

**The dragon** - The dragon, cranky and pessimistic, provides a vision of the world being meaningless and empty. Through out the novel, Grendel  intermittently finds himself comparing the fatalist words of the dragon to the angelic words of the Shaper.

**Grendel's mother**  - A disturbing, wretched creature, and Grendel's only family member. Grendel's mother lives with Grendel in a cave in an underground world. She tries hard to protect Grendel from the humans and his fate. She speaks jibberish because she has either forgotten how to speak or never learned.

**Unferth**  - A Scylding hero who is incapable to defeat Grendel in battle. Unferth enthusiastically believes in the heroic principles. When Grendel denies Unferth the opportunity to exercise those ideals, by mocking him, he becomes a bitter and shattered man.

**Wealtheow** <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">- Hrothgar's wife and queen of the Danes. Before marrying Hrothgar, Wealtheow was a Helming princess. Wealtheow represents love, unselfishness, and a picture perfect image of womanhood, bringing peace to her new community.

<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">**Hrothulf** <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> - Hrothgar's orphaned nephew. Hrothulf structures ideas of revolution after seeing the Thanes conquer the Danish peasants.

<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">**Beowulf** <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">- A Geatish hero who comes across the sea to defeat Grendel. Beowulf is big and extraordinarily strong, and shows little emotion or personality. During their battle, Grendel believes that Beowulf has grown wings and breaths fire, comparing him to the dragon.

<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">**Ork** <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> - An old, blind, Scylding priest. Ork is a theologian—one who studies the theories behind religion. He mistakes Grendel for the Destroyer. <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">

3) Literary Terms discussed in class (including a brief definition and how they relate to the text): Grendel’s foe! Pity poor Grendel, O, O, O!” (pg 92)
 * Genre-** Kind or type**.** A class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, content, technique.
 * Gardner uses different genres throughout //Grendel.// The most notable genre is seen in chapters 7 and 8 when Grendel begins to think and speak in stage directions and scene changes.
 * EX 1:** “SCENE: The Arrival of Hrothulf at Hart.” “SCENE: Hrothulf in the Yard. Hrothulf speaks:” (pgs.112 & 113)
 * EX 2:** “He lies on the cliff-edge, scratching his belly, and thoughtfully watches his thoughtfully watching the queen.” (pg 93)
 * Also in Chapter 7 Grendel begins to speak in verse rather than prose.
 * EX 3:** “Pity poor Hrothgar,


 * Prose-** written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure.
 * How Grendel speaks.


 * Verse-** writing arranged with a metrical rhythm, typically having a rhyme.
 * How the Shaper writes his songs, and how Grendel speaks when he is trying out new form of speech.


 * Point of view**- perspective from which the story is told.

//* Grendel// is written in first person, Grendel is the narrator and we hear and see everything from his perspective. The first person point of view helps characterize Grendel because it helps the reader connect with Grendel through his thoughts. First person reinforces the major themes in Grendel because without going in his head we wouldn’t know what he was thinking or how he was feeling.
 * First person-** person in the story is telling the story. (I)

Grendel is referring to the Shaper as being a harpstring scratcher.
 * Kenning-** A figurative, usually compound expression used in place of a name or noun.
 * EX**: “He knew of the Shapers, harpstring scratchers.” (42)

Grendel can be considered allegorical because of the astrological significance during each chapter. Each of the twelve chapters is represented by an astrological sign.
 * Allegory-** a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.
 * EX**: Chapter One signifies Aries because Aries signifies the beginning of a new cycle like the cycle has just ended. Also in the first paragraph, Grendel is fighting with a ram.

EX: “He sang-or intoned, with the harp behind him-twisting together like sailors’ ropes the bits and pieces of the best old songs.” (42) EX: “When he was finished, the hall was quiet as a mound.” (43)
 * Simile**- a figure of speech in which two unlike things are compared using like or as.

4) How has the writer created meaning? In other words, what choices has he/she made in plot structure, point of view, character, setting, tone, style and/or symbol in order to convey meaning?: The author of Grendel created meaning just by writing Grendel the way he did. He could have decided to write Grendel as a direct prologue to Beowulf, but he chose not to but rather write the story as a philosphical novel. A rather odd choice considering the main character is a hero-eating monster.


 * Plot Structure: The Author worked the plot into his greater message. Every single plot event could (and was) intrepreted as something else mentally (philosphically) signifigant. Gardner made most of the book a slahsback to different parts of Grendel's life starting from his "childhood" to his current state in the 12 year "war of idiocy" against Hrothgar. Grendel describes himself as naive as a child, but later goes through numerous stages of intellectual elightenment. his first true intellectual achievement was spurred by his discussion with the dragon, a major plot occurence. Thus, throughout the novel, major plot occurences, or even some small ones, dictate how Grendel percieves the world. (which doesn't seem to usual really)**


 * Point of View: Thorughout the entire novel, the POV is that of Grendel's. (so its 1st person) What this does is to help bring us (the reader) into the story more and allow us to better see into Grendel's mind. This choice is an obvious and nessacary one as Gardner's novel is one of thought, which is best told by the thinker (the person thinking the thoughts...). Besides helping the reader understand the novel's true perpose better (by better understanding the philosphical parts), the POV allows the reader to be entranced or repulsed by Grendel's actions or mindset ultimately.**


 * Character: In Grendel, there are not that many characters who take an action in the novel, but the few who do are imensly improtant and contribute greatly to the story. Humanity as a whole is relatively minor character in the novel, making only token appearances to teach Grendel some lesson or give him some epihany (he has quite a few) The dragon is probably the second most important character as he begins Grendel's journey into thought. Grendel is by far the most important charcter as the story is about (and titled) him. Grendel is both a Dynamic and round charcater (he changes and is fully developed) and is the only one like this in the whole novel.**


 * Setting: The setting is somewhat restricted by the novel's premise (it has to be in Denmark at the time of Beowulf) but nontheless setting plays an important part in the novel. Probably the most important place in the novel is Hrothgar's meadhall Herot. It is here where Grendel's battles take place, where Grendel listens to the mysterious of the Shaper and ultimately meets his doom at the hands of Beowulf. Other notable settings include; Grendel's cave (were his mother lives and where Unferth came to die) the Forest (where Grendel leans his earliest lessons and first encounters man), the dragon's cave and the cliff where Grendel went to die.**


 * Tone: The tone of any novel is important and espically so in a philosphical one like Grendel. Throughout Grendel the tone varies quite a bit, from incoherent rage to melancholy musings in a matter of sentences. Usually the tone of the novel reflects Grendel's mood at that point in the story. So in essence, Grendel's whims dictate the tone (or the other way around if one wishes to view it in such a way).**


 * Style/Symbol: Styles and Symbols play a part in Grendel too, not an overly important part, but a notable one nontheless. Most of the style of the novel is a simple prose style that was used to great effect to convey what Grendel thought about stuff and junk. However, a certain points in the novel, Gardner (or Grendel, depending on how one views the story) varies the Style to resemble a play/poem, almost in the nature the orignial Beowulf was written (or not unlike how the shpaer wove his songs). whether Grendel does this to try and be like the shaper, or mock him is open for arguement. (he does the play thing, however he is kinda sarcastic about it. As with Sytle, there are not too many symbols in the work, however there are a few prominent ones that stand out. (I will list them now) Ram; ignorance, immovable, stubborness Wealthow: peace, love, beauty Shaper; God, mystery Hrothgar; power, wisdom Hrothulf; corruption Beowulf; purity, faith Grendel; ? (human society?)**

5) Themes/Motifs(at least 4):


 * 1.** Coming of age, transitioning from boy to monster (Grendel before and after the dragon)
 * 2.** Peace, harmony versus hate and evil. (Wealtheow and the balance with Grendel)
 * 3.** Philosophical relations with Grendel and the story. (I.E. the astrological signs)
 * 4.** Different beliefs (I.E. nihilism)

6) Quotes from the text that capture major themes (at least 3):
 * 1) "Nothing was changed, everything was changed" (Pg. 75) Grendel's grappling with various philosphical beliefs, deciding which to discard and which to adhere to
 * 2) "The pain of it! the stupidity!" (Pg. 5) A one phrase overview of Grendel's views on life. (or maybe Grendel's own life in a single phrase)
 * 3) "Is it joy I feel?" (Pg. 173) Grendel, at the moment of his death, during his last contemplations.

7) Interpretive Questions (at least 3):


 * 1.** Why is Grendel so obsessed with Wealtheow and why would he want to kill her?
 * 2.** Why does Grendel want to go to the Shaper's funeral?
 * 3.** When Grendel says "It's coming," [pg. 152] what is he referring to?
 * 4.** Why does Grendel think that heroes are only in poetry?
 * 5.** Why is Grendel obsessed with the lives of men, as though they were part of a television show?
 * 6.** Does Grendel long for the glory, beauty, and immortality that man seem to believe they have?

8) Historical/Social/Philosophical Influences on (text include relevant author biography if discussed):


 * Jean-Paul Sartre-** It is believed that John Gardner was supposed to have Grendel model after Jean-Paul Sartre. Sartre believed in “reflective consciousness.” Reflective consciousness is when someone or something makes an attempt to describe or understand the thing in itself. Grendel is like Sartre because he is trying to find his place in the world.

http://www.parisreview.org/media/3394_GARDNER.pdf
 * John Gardner** was never a fan of realism because of the things it seems to commit him to. In Grendel, he was able to end the story in his own way. He understood things about the modern world in light of history of human conciousness better and a little more deeper. He also enjoyed writing the book. He thought //Beowulf// was interesting and that there was no way that the image from //Grendel// could be created as exciting as the reader's mind. John O'Hara's novel were interesting to him as they could've been on television or in the movies. Gardner went for a different type of fiction. He wanted Grendel to give off the effect that a radio play gave or that novels gave off at their best.