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Instructions: Read the Novel Grendel by John Gardner. Then Write a 4-6 page essay where you answer one of the following questions about Grendel. Remember, no matter which one you choose to answer, you need to have examples and details from the reading. Make sure that you avoid summarizing the plot. Take it for granted that your professor knows the plot. I want to know your thoughts on the story. I want to see that you read and thought about the story on a deeper level.
1. Tell me why you think you failed to understand Grendel. Be specific in your explanation and use the terms and definitions that you’ve learned this semester.
2. John Gardner believed that all great literature should be moral by nature. He argued that morality was absent in modern art and fiction. Remember the Oxford English Dictionary definition of moral: “a. Of or relating to human character or behavior considered as good or bad; of or relating to the distinction between right and wrong, or good and evil, in relation to the actions, desires, or character of responsible human beings; ethical.” Gardner said fiction should attempt to “test human values, not for the purpose of preaching or peddling a particular ideology, but in a truly honest and open-minded effort to find out which best promotes human fulfillment.” What do you make of this argument? Does fiction need to be moral?
3. Gardner said that he “wanted to go through the main ideas of Western Civilization… through the voice of the monster.” The main ideas have to do with art, religion, and language. Write an essay where you explore these ideas individually and then as a whole in the context of the book.
4. Writer Jane Smiley essentially said in an interview that the character Grendel is a metaphor for evil as a necessary counterpoint for good, in which the hero can only be as great as his antagonist. What do you make of this statement? (It might be worth taking an approach where you incorporate Prompt 3 and its questioning of art, religion, and language in the book with your ideas about protagonists and antagonists.)
5. Is this a book about the division of the cultivated and uncultivated part of a person? The animal in us versus the human in us? If so, what is the role of art, religion, and language in this divide.
6. What is the role of the dragon in the book?
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