Emily You, Period 2, 3/20/2023

Literacy & Learning

• Write about your thoughts regarding any of the fiction or nonfiction covered in class.
• Reflect on any new information you have learned in English class by considering how that learning influences your critical perception.
• How is what you’re learning applied to any other classes/the world around you?

During the semester we covered both stories of “Beowulf” and “Grendel”. It was fascinating to learn about the counterpart of the story “Beowulf”, from the perspective of “Grendel”. Throughout the story, we see a new perspective on a side of a monster, a creature that could not be understood by most. It’s interesting to see a side of the story of who Grendel was and why he massacred so many people, as well as what happens that led from one event to another that connects the story to the plotline of Beowulf.

During our discussions, I gained an understanding of the unfairness of the world and how a story can change how people feel based on their perspective. We learn how Grendel is perceived as a monster and could never be understood by others which influenced the way he became. His appearance was one of the reasons he was viewed in such a way because it’s shown that just by the sight of him the humans get scared off. We could see how he is portrayed with human-like traits unlike in “Beowulf”, where he is portrayed as a senseless monster that kills for no reason. In “Grendel”, he has shown feelings such as jealousy, greed, and anger towards the unfairness of the world because of the way he was born.

The story can convey the perception of a creature who only had a little role in someone else's story, and it makes me wonder how a scenario from real life can seem different to two different people. For example, the first encounter between Grendel and the humans shows how he was excited to meet people he could potentially become friends with but to the humans, he was an unknown creature they couldn’t understand. The humans tried to kill him and it caused Grendel to dislike them. He didn’t feel like what he did was wrong because he felt like the world was against him which causes him to hate humans but the humans felt like they were unjustly slaughtered by a mindless beast. “Grendel” shows the character development of a monster with a child-like mindset which opposes the narrative created in Beowulf, as well as his story which we could never have understood in “Beowulf”.

What I learned from this story connects to the world of media, where people change the narrative based on their perspective which can lead to so many different articles from one scenario. An example of this could be the political issues of the world, such as new Anti-LGBTQ+ laws in which many sided with the laws, many protested against them and many just watched on the sidelines. The “Don’t say gay” bills were controversial because they bill bans the education system from teaching about sexual orientation in school. The LGBTQ+ community will view this as harmful and those against the LGBTQ+ community will view this bill positively. Many other controversial topics can be portrayed in a different way depending on who is viewing the topic.