Kevin Coughlin, Period 8, 4/12/21, Day C

Kevin Coughlin

4/12/21

Period 8

Day C

Write about your thoughts regarding any of the fiction or non-fiction covered in class.

Over the past six weeks, we have been reading Grendel by John Gardener in class. Personally, I have found this read to be very challenging, but also incredibly enjoyable. It is a very dense novel, but if you give it time, it is worth it to read because everything can be looked at from so many angles. From the connections to Beowulf to the similarities between Gardener himself and Grendel, this book is jammed packed with allusions, symbolism; everything a book nerd can enjoy. I also can relate, to an extent, to Grendel because he is just like us. We are all just confused teenagers trying to make sense of the big world. As we prepare to make the jump from high school to college, we, too, will have to adapt to changes and overcome obstacles if we want to succeed (hopefully we don’t go on murdering sprees like Grendel, though).

Reflect on any new information you have learned in English class by considering how that learning influences your critical perception.

When we were first introduced to this book, we read an essay about the author’s life. It was a tragic life, unfortunately cut short by a motorcycle accident. Throughout his life, he carried the immense guilt for his brother’s death when he was a child. The death was an accident relating to farm machinery, and Gardener blamed himself for the rest of his life. We can see this paralleled in the book by the character Unferth. Unferth had killed his brother before the story began and was never able to be respected by anyone because of it. He tries to kill Beowulf to advance his status within the kingdom, but never succeeds. This is similar to how Gardener views himself. He can never be rid of his very own ‘kinslayer’ moniker, no matter how much he tries to redeem himself. The only difference is that Gardener’s struggles are in his head. If we had not learned that prior to reading the book, we never would have seen Unferth through that lens.

How is what you’re learning applied to any other classes/the world around you?

Like I mentioned earlier, in order to get the most out of  this novel, you have to consider many perspectives. By learning that skill, we can apply it in a variety of ways. For example, if we are doing a science experiment in class, we can use this to apply the data in different ways. It can have many more uses than are immediately apparent. Maybe we got one result that inadvertently could be used to explain another process. Or, maybe in a government class, we can analyze how many different sources of pressure influenced the way that a bill was written. This class teaches us the importance of looking deeper at things; trying to find hidden meanings that may not immediately be apparent.