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Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Grendel Reading Questions (Due 9/25)

Directions: Answer the following reading questions using complete sentences in the comments section of this post. Begin your comment with your name (dconlay-p3). Be sure to number all responses to correspond to the questions. Be sure to use textual references in all responses. Suggestion: Write your ansers to a word document (avoiding extra formatting) and then copy your response to the comments.

Character
1. What do you know directly (and what can you infer) about Grendel after reading only the first paragraph?

2. What, if anything, do you think young Grendel learns about himself and the world while he is trapped in the tree?

3. Describe the quality of Grendel's relationship with his mother.

4. Grendel is a fairly close and curious observer of humans throughout the book. What does he think of them as a young monster, before he meets the Dragon, and then after the dragon-encounter?

5. Describe the effect of the Shaper's songs on Grendel's sense of the world, of humans, and of himself.

6. Why do you think Grendel does not kill Ork or Wealtheow when he has the chance?

7. What physical and psychological traits does Gardner give to the Dragon?

8. In what ways is Grendel a "modern" monster?

9. How does Grendel create for Unferth a fate worse than death? Why does he do this to him?

10. Could Hrothulf be seen as a "typical" teenager or young adult? Why or why not?

11. What seems to be Hygmod's dominant personality trait? How do you recognize this?

12. Is Beowulf the same kind of hero in Grendel as he was in the original poem? How is he the same? How is he different?

Point of View
13. Why would John Gardner choose to retell Beowulf from the monster's point of view? What is to be gained from such a shift?

14. How does Grendel's telling of his own story affect your response to him? How is this response different from the way you thought of him in Beowulf?

15. Try to imagine this novel written from the third person point of view - though still from the monster's side. What does first person narration add to Gardner's tale?

16. Imagine that the author of the original Beowulf epic has just read Gardner's book. What would his reactions be? What might he like about the novel? What would confuse or upset him?

Theme

The Meaning and/or Meaninglessness of Life
17. What gives meaning (a sense of purpose and value) to the life of each of the following characters: Hrothgar, Wealtheow, Unferth, The Dragon, The Shaper, Red Horse, Ork, Hrothulf, Beowulf?

18. Grendel's narration is full of references to a mechanical universe. Why do you think he uses this image? What does this reveal about his own sense of the meaning of life?

19. Why does Grendel do all he can to mock and deny the idea of The Heroic?

The Power of Art/Song/Language/Shaping
20. Describe the effect of the Shaper's songs on Grendel's sense of the world, of humans, and of himself.

21. How do humans in the novel change the world and themselves through their craft and art?

The Need for Community
22. Grendel is an outsider, but he does sometimes express or show a desire to be part of a community - even the human community. Describe some of these moments. What are the outcomes of his need to belong?

23. What does Grendel see as some of the strengths and weaknesses of the human community?

Good vs. Evil
24. Although Grendel in Beowulf represents all that is evil, Gardner seems to take a different, more complex approach. Identify some signs of potential goodness in Grendel. What prevents these "seeds" of goodness from developing?

25. What exactly makes Grendel a monster? Consider not only his physical appearance but also his moral and spiritual understandings.

26. Where does Grendel find Evil in the world? According to Grendel, who or what are "the bad guys"?

27. Who or what is Good in Grendel's eyes? Of what does that goodness consist?

Freedom vs. Determinism
28. How much (if any) of Grendel's behavior is determined by Instinct or Nature? How much (if any) is determined by his own Will (conscious choice)?

Setting

The Cave
29. What is it about caves and monsters? Why are they so closely asociated with each other? How might the cave in this novel be used in both literal and symbolic ways?

Hart
30. From Grendel's point of view, what is the most interesting thing about Hart? What does Hart seem to represent to him?

31. What does Hart mean to the humans?

The Natural World
32. What does Grendel think and feel about the physical world through which he walks?

33. Discuss the ways in which Grendel's language (his choice of words and images) is colored and shaped by the natural world around him.

The Human World
34. How effectively do you think the physical conditions of the human world are portrayed through Grendel's eyes? What does Grendel find most striking about the way these humans live?

Grendel in Other Contexts
35. Does Grendel in this novel remind you of any character in another book or film?

36. It has been said that Gardner used this ancient tale of Grendel to tell a very modern story about the nature of Evil and the quest for a meaningful life in the 20th century. In what ways do you find this to be true?

37. Discuss John Gardner's creative use of anachronism in this novel.

38. Discuss the meaning of The Heroic in both the original poem of Beowulf and in Gardner's novel. What does it mean to be a hero? Could it be that Unferth is the most honorable character in Gardner's novel?