Grendel+2+(D+Block)

Jinna pak 10D Eng //“The world and everything in it is unplanned accident, existence is meaningless; the past is irrelevant; nothing matters.”//

// **Outline** // 1.Unplanned Accident i) Most events are not even planned, no future according to the Dragon. ii) Grendel believes there is no purpose for life.

2.Existence is meaningless i)Conversation with the dragon ii)Dragon tells Grendel that there is no God, and Grendel asks himself, 'What is the purpose of life?' iii) If there is no God, there is no future = no purpose in life.

3.Past is irrelevant i) Nothing is relevant to the past ii) The past is past, and we can not to anything about it to fix it. iii) Grendel has to live his life as Grendel, and he can't change his being.

4.Nothing matters i)Conversation with the Dragon ii) Nothing matters in the world iii) Dragon gives Grendel some advice that he should not care about the world, and do nothing due to the fact that there are none left for Grendel.

//** Statement Argument **// Grendel is a character who believes that there is no point of life. At first, he is depressed by the fact that the God created his existence. Later on throughout the novel, the Dragon influences Grendel a lot by giving him life-experience advices. First, Grendel believes that all events are done by accident, and there are no plans for the future. Mainly, Grendel thinks that the birth of himself was also an accident. Therefore secondly, there are no purpose of life. "I would fall, if I could, through time and space to the dragon. I cannot. I walk slowly, wiping the snow from my face with the back of my arm." (Gardner 137) and "Imagination, I knew. Some evil inside myself pushed out into the tress. I knew what I knew, the mindless, mechanical bruteness of things, and when the harper's lure drew my mind away to hopeful dreams, the dark of what was and always was reached out and snatched my feet." (Gardner pg.54) This quote shows how Grendel is pessimistic about his existence. According to the Dragon, Grendel exists just to fear human beings, which he believes is meaningless. Thirdly, Grendel believes that time does not matter and is not affected at all. "Such is the end of the flicker of time, the brief, hot fuse of events and ideas set off, accidentally, and snuffed out, accidentally, by man. Not a real ending of course, nor even a beginning. Mere ripple in Time's stream." (Gardner pg.71) This quote shows the insignificance of man and that time is just a time, which no one can change. Even though Grendel regrets his birth, he can not adjust it and past is just the past, and it has no relevance to the present. Lastly, due to the fact that there is no God, future, and purpose in life, nothing matters. This is proven by the quote, "I understood that the world was nothing: a mechanical chaos of casual, brute enmity on which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears. I understood that, finally and absolutely, I alone exist." (Gardner pg.27)

//** Letter Reflection **// After reading over the letter from John Gardner, I was able to get a better understanding of both novels, //Grendel// and //Beowulf//. Furthermore, this letter helped me to learn the philosophy of the novel that I have not quite realized after I finished the novel. For instance, I thought Grendel was laughing at Beowulf because he loved to fight, and kill people. However, after understanding the philosophy, I learned that Grendel was laughing at Beowulf due to the fact that he wanted to end his pointless life. John Gardner and his letter provides these kind of specific textual evidences from his novel to restate who Grendel is and the main themes of the novel (Does God exists?). In //Grendel//, there are mainly two point of views; God exists, which means one can make values in life. On the contrary, one can make no values in life and think life is meaningless. John Gardner was a great author, I believe, because he thought in all perspectives to answer the question he was interested in. He also stated who true heroes are, and that Beowulf is not a true hero after all but was just an irony. Beowulf was just a strong character who was infamous. Gardner mentioned George Washington and that he wasn't a hero himself, but people made him a hero. Likewise, Hrothgar was not a hero until Shaper praised him. Overall, this informative letter taught me to rethink what the main topic was, and to get a deeper knowledge of //Beowulf// and //Grendel//. Apprehending such more information from the author, I believe it will benefit me during the trial to support my point of view, Grendel.