Journals

{Journal 1} Fighters of the Fires

            In our world today, firefighters are true heroes to our communities and their people. Every day, firefighters face not only the danger of entering burning, collapsing buildings in order to save those trapped inside, but they also are the first ones to respond to those that have been hurt. They rescue those who are in danger inside and outside of the fire-filled threat. The firefighters do this mainly because they care. They’re heart is heavy for those who are helpless and in grave peril. This is the drive that brings them to risk their life. All they want to do is help. They do it for their loved ones and for the loved ones of people they have never even met; they know that each victim is the child, parent, sibling, or close friend of someone in this world. Firefighters represent true heroism, saving complete strangers. They represent true love, knowing they may lose their life to save someone else’s. They represent strength, fighting through heat and pain and the loss of their fellow firemen. Firefighters are the true epitome of a hero, examples of virtues and of the heart we should strive to grow in ourselves.

{Journal 2} Beowulf and the American Soldier

           Beowulf, the dragon slayer in Beowulf, is a hero created hundreds of years ago. Yet, he inhabits the qualities of the modern-day United States soldier. Beowulf, firstly, is proud. He is sure of himself and of his cause. The U.S. soldier of today knows what he stands for. He fights for his country and follows the orders given to him no matter what. He has pride for what he is fighting for and, like Beowulf, will do it to the death. Beowulf and the American soldier of today will both whole-heartedly go after what they must in order to gain their rights and save the rights of others. Beowulf is fighting for the Danes’ freedom from Grendel. The American soldier is currently fighting not only for the U.S.’s freedom, but for the freedom of those in the Middle East and around the world who are under oppression. The American soldier resembles the ancient Beowulf in pride, determination, and spirit.

{Journal 3} Grendel and Language

            Grendel begins his story as an unintelligent but curious monster who plays around with words and language in the confines of his cave. He cannot speak, learning from his mother who can only grunt and groan to communicate. As he ventures out of his cave, though, he begins to pick up on words. He starts by simply mimicking the words of the humans, only understanding what he is saying up to an extent. As he continues to observe the humans, his language develops further, and, after meeting with the dragon, he is soon able to speak fluently (though it is difficult for the humans to make out what he says). His language begins to deteriorate, however, after being faced with what he sees as the truth of the world: that it is meaningless and empty. As he sinks into a kind of manic depression, his language and the importance of language to him decrease. He becomes nearly a mindless monster, soon to resemble his mother, with his last phrase being a simple, “Poor Grendel’s had an accident. So may you all.”

{Journal 5} Grendel: Monstrous or Misunderstood?

            Grendel, fierce and nearly undefeatable, is a monster forced by society to become who he is. He grows up in a remote cave with only his mother as company. He is deemed evil at his first encounter with humans and shunned and fought after following the encounter. He his described only with terrible, ugly words by the humans and is isolated (they are frantically afraid of him) from the rest of the world. Because of the humans’ Biblical belief that Grendel is from Cain, they automatically believe that he is evil and full of malice and rage. The character Grendel is portrayed as vicious and murderous, though he may not have been, as seen through the possibility of his true motives, the actions of the people, and the words used to describe him.

            Grendel is a long-lasting creature, tormented as a result of man’s fear. He was born long before Herot and his people, but lost his rights to their ignorance. He could have meant no harm and could have only wanted to befriend the humans who had just begun to inhabit his world, but they gave him no choice. Grendel’s original motives are unknown because he wasn't able to express them. Herot’s people take on a defensive stance against him to protect themselves. However, they only assume that Grendel wants to hurt them. “Went he forth to find at fall of night/that haughty house, and heed wherever/the Ring-Danes, outrevelled, to rest had gone” (63-65). Grendel may have only wanted to observe the way of these strange humans whom he had never encountered before and could have been scared or threatened into the murders he committed. His motives are unknown and untold in the epic of Beowulf.

            Instead of looking further into what Grendel really wanted with him, the people automatically attacked him. Their views of him from the beginning are that of an evil creature. They believe he is part of “Cain’s clan,” originated from the son who committed this first murder. Therefore, they push him into a corner, attacking him and giving him no choice but to become the killer they have declared him as. “So Hrothgar’s men lived happily in his hall/Till the monster stirred, that demon, that fiend,/Grendel, who haunted the moors, the wild/Marshes, and made his home in a hell/not hell but earth” (15-19). Grendel is cursed to the life that they have ruled for him. The humans’ rages from their fear have caused him to fight back and kill. Because Herot and his people do not give way to find out Grendel’s true motives and because they automatically antagonize him, they inherently give him the title “murderous creature,” which in turn is followed by the actions of said being.

            Along with this title, the descriptions of the people show him to be a terrible monster of malice. The humans’ assumptions and stereotypes also play into him becoming a true monster. Their Biblical beliefs lead them to statements such as that he is a creature “conceived by a pair of monsters,” “banished by God” and “punished forever for the crime of Abel’s death.” They see themselves as the Abels of their being killed. Their Cain, however, is their own creation. Their misfortune, therefore, is also their fault. “So Grendel ruled, fought with the righteous,/One against many, and won; so Herot/Stood empty, and stayed deserted for years (59-61). Though they view themselves as righteous, they have cause Grendel to become the evil they are so afraid of. The humans’ words and descriptions come true only because they forced them too.

            “Murderous creature” and “demon” and are the word used to describe who Hrothgar and his people may have turned Grendel into. Because his motives are not observed or taken notice of, it is unknown whether Grendel really was who he is described as before humans came into the world he had lived in for so long. They isolated him from fear, though they didn't know whether he was evil or not. He had to become that monster, though, because no matter what, the people would have tried to kill him. Man’s own tongue and fear may have caused the blood-shed done by Grendel. He may have only been a misunderstood creature, tormented by man’s prejudice and ignorance.

{Journal 6} Grendel's Journey Through the Philosophical

            Grendel’s life journey is partly guided by a journey of philosophical beliefs. Each event in his life makes way to and affects how he sees life. Throughout the story of Grendel, there’s a slow but steady flow of events and gradual changes from a belief in Existentialism, the belief in the absence of God and any kind of meaning in life, to a belief in Nihilism, the belief that there is no objective basis for truth. He is affected by people, by happenings, and by changes in the world around him. As Grendel goes through his life, his beliefs and how he sees the world, his philosophy of life and this world, changes over time.

            As a babe, Grendel is fairly naïve and simple in thought. He knows nothing apart from his cave and his mother. He finds everything to be meaningless. He seems to have no purpose in life, and doesn't seem to ever have considered that he could have purpose. He just is. He just does what he does because he does it. This is Solipsism, a form of Existentialism believing that the only thing somebody can be sure of is that he or she exists, and that true knowledge of anything else is impossible, at its peak. When Grendel is attacked by the bull and then the humans, he begins to become conscious of the world around him. He makes a conscious decision on what he believes about the world. He begins to believe that only he exists and nothing else does in the world—Solipsism.

            As Grendel matures and he experiences more of a world inhabited by humans, his philosophy begins to change. The humans and their culture and beliefs begin to have an effect on him. He takes on their Old-Testament Bible belief that every creature originates from Cain and Abel and that he himself is evil and has originated from Cain. This is when he decides that his place in the world can only be as an evil monster. When he goes to the Dragon for advice, he is introduced to a philosophy originated by Alfred Whitehead. This belief is that natural existence is best understood in processes rather than things. It is a self-centered system, stating that nothing has any meaning in the world except for you yourself.

            As Grendel becomes more involved with the humans, not only observing them closely, but having encounters with them, he accepts that other beings exist besides himself. He sees them, however, as all being enemies. He chooses to be the terrible monster that he is expected to be by all. By the end of the novel, Grendel has taken on a philosophy on life that is even bleaker than anything he has accepted before. He chooses the belief of Nihilism, a form of Existentialism that says that everything is valueless and nothing can be known or communicated. He believes that he has no purpose in life other than to be the evil thing he believes he must be because he is. His original philosophy has sunken into the darkest of all believes and he dies seeing the world in this way.

{Journal 8} Beowulf’s Lampoon, Grendel

            A parody is a mocking imitation of a work of literature; it imitates the serious manner and characteristic features of a particular literary work in order to make fun of those same features. It can also be the imitation of a very serious piece of literary work recreated in a nonsensical way. John Gardner’s Grendel was written as a parody of the ancient epic, Beowulf. Beowulf follows the journey of an epic hero, Beowulf, as he fights to slay the monster that torments the Danes. Grendel, however, follows the story of that very same monster, looking into the events before and after Beowulf arrives to slay him. While Beowulf shows Beowulf to be a brave, strong hero who dies for his people, Grendel is written to show Grendel as the protagonist who dies an unfair death. John Gardner takes Beowulf and modifies it to resemble a more recent period of time, where Grendel mimics the language and ways of the humans by using curse words and giving the middle finger. Gardner also gives Grendel human-like qualities, giving him the ability to feel strong emotions and to react with true feeling to situations. In Grendel, Grendel is no longer only a malicious monster, but a creature who feels, responds, hurts, and gets angry. Gardner writes Grendel from Grendel’s perspective, rewriting and adding to the events of Beowulf and causing you to feel almost bad for the misunderstood monster and to see him as an epic hero of his own kind.

{Journal 10} Grendel the Narrator

            In Grendel, Gardner chooses to tell the story with Grendel as the narrator. I believe this is so that the story would have a more interesting point of for the reader and to provide a new perspective to contrast that of the original Beowulf epic. The story is shifted in this way by using a monster who has been alive for all of the changes caused by humans to tell it. Grendel has seen his world destroyed and the destroyers fight over what is not even theirs. By having this monster narrate, the reader is able to see the evil and wrong-doing of the humans as well as the evil and anger of Grendel, the narrator, who was the original antagonist of the epic. Instead of viewing Grendel as total evil and as one who holds all of the wrong actions of the epic, the reader is able to see the cause of his actions and the evildoings of the humans as well. The story is now told from a less biased perspective and from a new, unique point-of-view to draw the reader in and give them new eyes to see from all angles.

Ahyicodae. Dragon. Digital image. Zuzu Top. WordPress, 22 July 2009. Web. 24 Oct. 2012. http://zuzutop.com/2009/07/we-have-selected-30-eastern-dragon-illustrations-some-are-cute-some-are delicate/>.