Amanda Cheng, Period 8, 2/15/22

Amanda Cheng

Period 8

2/15/2022

Beowulf and Grendel were intriguing texts to read, showing the duality of a “monster” from two different perspectives. Written from the hero's perspective, Beowulf displays the story of Beowulf. The story treated Grendel and his mother as monsters with the sole purpose of terrorizing the town. By extracting the emotional aspect away from Grendel, the text made him seem like a body that just kills people. However, Grendel by John Gardener brings so much more depth and thought into Grendel’s character. Grendel exhibits behaviors like a teenager, where he rebels, explores, and is easily influenced. Grendel struggles to find his purpose in life, and feels alien to everyone else while not knowing where he came from. I enjoyed reading both stories because the different perspectives change how I view what a monster is. 

The concept of nihilism and existentialism was extremely thought-provoking to me. Personally, I’ve gone through these thoughts occasionally of “why does this matter?” to “what purpose do I serve in this world?” Especially since college applications are over, my thoughts of second semester senior year are split into both philosophies. Sometimes, senioritis would tempt me to care less about my learning than before, since “it doesn’t matter as much” which correlates to nihilism where my performance in school and my extracurriculars at the moment does not impact my college acceptances. However, my thoughts are combatted with my strive to be successful in college and after graduation, where the classes I take now is an advantage for the classes I take in college. Additionally, I still don’t know what I want to do as a career but hopes to make some sort of impact, which leads me to question my place in the world. Overall, the passages we read in class displays philosophical ways of thinking that are still applicable to the world today.