“Grendel” Discussion Chapters 1-2

john-gardner-grendel

For discussion and reflection (and maybe a journal entry or two):

  • Why does the ram make Grendel angry..why is he so angry period?
  • Contemplate Grendel as other characters from lit. Does he remind you of anyone? For me, it’s Holden from Catcher in rye, The narrator from notes from underground; what is genesis of frustration in all these characters?
  • What does Grendel think of the humans behavior as they’re observing him in the tree
  • Pg. 13– “I understood that the world was nothing: a mechanical chaos of casual brute enmity in which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears” discuss
  • Page 16 is crucial… “suddenly I knew I was dealing with the most dangerous creatures I had ever met— pattern makers”
  • Middle of 17 also.. “all that I had come to understand— the meaningless object ness of the world, the universal brutality
  • Why, at the bottom of 18, does he state aloud what perceptions he is experiencing?
  • What is meant by, “ I observe myself experiencing what I observe”?


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