Cristina Diaz, Period 8, 3/1/22

 ​Russian forces just attacked Ukraine, and I can’t help but think of all the parallels between the invasion and Grendel. Every person who criticizes petitions as being useless reminds me of Red Horse, and my team discussed the similarities between Putin and the Shaper. I only wonder how much of the news we are receiving has been Shaped. This novel has really made me question my views, more than anything I’ve ever read before. They seem most similar to Hrothulf’s, but he seems naive and all too susceptible to Red Horse’s radical ideas of revolution. What makes me question my own ideas even more is when Grendel’s rationale begins to make sense. In some places he seems wildly bitter and almost reasonable in others, and I wonder if I am the one whose mood has changed between instances. 

​I’ve never really bought into the ideas of nihilism, if only because I need to believe in some kind of larger purpose to serve as motivation. I think a lot of it is personal choice rather than absolute truth. Grendel has all these outside forces trying to sway him, when belief and philosophy should really be introspective. Obviously I can’t compare my formative experiences to Grendel’s, but I think if he spent time with Ork and Wealtheow early on, rather than the Dragon and his mother, he might not think of himself as a monster, or the world as meaningless. 

​It’s easy to question the Shaper, and say the media and all of history has been skewed, but it was a lot harder for me to think about Ork and the priests. I consider myself to be fairly religious, but I don’t know if I could ever exhibit the blind faith Ork has in the King of the Gods. I don’t want to be as cynical and hypocritical as the priests, but I also know I would probably react similarly to how they did if presented with an old priest who claimed to see God. I’d like to say I could outgrow that, but I think people tend to trend towards cynicism rather than away from it. I just hope I can minimize that, and remember all the good there is in the world.