English 12: Grendel test will be Friday 11/14. The following material will be directly referenced:

You will need to identify and explain specific instances from the novel where the following quote is applicable:

The novel Grendel, it seems to me, is essentially a novel about faith and reason. Grendel is again and again given the opportunity of believing something which western civilization has held up as a value. For instance, heroism is one of the subjects taken up in the book very explicitly. A young man named Hrothgar decides he is going to be a hero. Just on faith he believes in heroes--he hasn't really thought about it--and he's willing to die for this principle. Grendel, who doesn't believe in anything, that's why he's a monster, makes fun of him and makes him doubt the idea of heroism. He gives you all the good arguments, like, only the young are heroic, they go out because they're stupid and they run up the hill at the machine gun. Or, heroism is a knee-jerk response, it's not a free will response, and so on . . . Grendel is given the opportunity to believe in love. Freud can prove to you, if you are willing to listen to proof, that love does not exist, that it's an illusion. It's mutual need or something like this. Any value that we have can be rationalized out of existence, reasoned out of existence. At some point you just have to say I don't care, here I stand. But until that last moment of the novel Grendel is unable to make that leap, and then he makes it because he's sort of pushed over the ledge and driven to it. So that's a book of faith.

-John Gardner
You will need to be familiar with the general theme of the poem Cartoon Physics and how it relates to Grendel.

You will need to pay special attention to the "young Shaper" on page 165 and his words. Juxtapose this against what Grendel says from the middle of 173 to the end.

The irony in Grendel and Beowulf's battle at the end and how it serves as a reflection of the entire novel's philosophies.

Be able to explain how one of the philosophies is fully realized through the course of the novel.

English 10H: Glass Castle/Memoir discussion. Individual project group meetings.