Sam Ng, Period 2, 5/8/23

Sam Ng

Period 2

5/8/23

Creativity & Fiction

Craft a piece of FAN fiction related to any of the reading we’ve done in class that addresses one or more of the following: 

Literary elements (i.e. structure, tone, diction, mood, irony, and figurative language) to craft a narrative.

Structural features of drama (stage directions, character attributions/tags, dialogue, monologues, and/or soliloquies) to craft a script.

Multidimensional characters to develop themes and create socio-political metaphors.

Reading of Choice: Grendel by John Gardner

Grendel's Mother's Backstory:

I wasn’t always this way… I used to be able to communicate with humans. My mother cohabited with a small group of villagers and we lived happily. We would hunt together and build homes - we had our physique and the humans had their intelligence. Together, we were strong. There was no obstacle we couldn’t overcome. If we wanted vegetables, we would work relentlessly in the field while they worked on creating better tools and cooking processes. 

We could have easily expanded our dominance to our heart’s content, but that’s not what we wanted. We were content with living with what we had, our self-sufficiency. The people treated us as equals, we learned in the same classrooms, played in the same streets. 

Mother warned me about a mysterious figure. She said he was not to be trusted. I nodded my head, I would not be anywhere near this figure. This man, as I later found out, was a descendant of Cain. One day while I was bringing freshly picked beans into the kitchen, I tripped. I yelled out in pain and he rushed over to my assistance. 

I initially flinched, startled by our proximity. He attempted to lift me up but I refused to let him. Instead, he gave me a cloth to bandage my scratches. I didn’t want to use it but the blood was starting to flow from my knee. Hesitantly, I wrapped the cloth when I saw that he had started to walk away. He turned back and it almost seemed as if he smiled, ever so slightly.

Later that night, while I was eating dinner with my mother and the townspeople, she asked me how I got the bruise. I told her that I fell but I didn’t tell her about my encounter with the man. Maybe it was because a part of me knew it was wrong. But still, I couldn’t keep my mind off him…

A few days later, I saw the man walking by himself and I ran up to him. “Here’s your cloth, sir. I cleaned it. Thank you.” He seemed shocked that I went up to him, but quickly changed his demeanor to a friendly, happy one. We sat down in front of the steps of his house and chatted.

A neighbor must have seen us talking because when I got home, mother was furious. She wouldn’t hear any of my explanations. I tried to be nice and calm but her refusal to hear things from my perspective annoyed me. I left out of anger and went to the man’s house.

…

When Grendel was born, everyone despised him. He was an outcast and by that same nature, I too was outcasted. My mother didn't want to recognize me and told me she doesn’t have a daughter like me. This was my curse by the people and mother I grew up with. 

It didn’t stop there. The man told me he couldn’t have anyone knowing about his existence. He subsequently killed off everyone I knew and loved. He couldn’t bear to kill me because of our affection. He chose to remove my ability to speak. 

Since then, I have traveled from town to town, looking for anyone who would understand me. Nobody did. Nobody. Looking at Grendel, I knew we would never be accepted. It was then that I decided to raise him in the bottom of this lake.

Grendel looks at me with eyes of disdain, I know. He hates that I can’t speak with him. He hates that I raised him here by himself. Yet, I love him to death and would die for him. I hope that before I die, I will have the opportunity to tell him how dearly I love him...