Dominik Hric, Period 7, 2/28/2023

 Dominik Hric Period 7 2/28/2023 

Literacy & Learning

In class we read a fiction book written by John Gardner called “Grendel”. To be honest I thought that the book would actually be pretty boring. We read Beowulf before so we knew that the main character in “Grendel”, Grendel, dies. I never thought that the book would go into such detail about his journey and why he became so aggressive to the Danish people. But I was wrong. The book was very interesting. There were alot of ups and downs in the book. The ups were when Grendel seems to be a not good but not bad person. He had a moral compass so he didn't just go out and kill anyone and anything. The downfall was when he realized that life was meaningless and at that point he lost his moral compass. He killed anyone and anything including women and children.  There also were questions asked in class like if the book should be taught in our contemporary culture. 

I believe that we should keep teaching Grendel in our contemporary culture because the book hits all the main issues that are being discussed with us in modern times. I believe that the book brings more value to teaching lessons than just being nonsense. The book asks questions that are more sophisticated like what is the meaning of life and what pushes someone so close to the edge that they go over and lose their moral compass. These types of questions take actual brain function and thought power unlike questions like what is the plot of the book. Modern culture now teaches us to push our minds outside its comfort zone and ask questions like what is the meaning of life. Also, Grendel had a lot of layers that we needed to unfold. We would ask our questions, and think we got it right, but then there is a little part of him that opens up a bit and we realize that we were wrong. Being wrong is also a part of our modern culture so reading and being constantly wrong prepares us for when we are wrong in the real world.

I think that after reading Grendel I questioned myself alot. I myself thought about what the dragon told Grendel and thought of ways that I can relate to what the dragon told grendel. The way that I related my personal life to what the dragon told Grendel was that I do have a purpose in life. Even though the dragon told Grendel that his purpose was to only kill humans and bother them, my purpose is more hopeful. I think that my purpose in life is to help people. There were a couple of things that have happened to me recently that made me finally realize what that purpose was.