English Language
Arts 12
September 18-19, 2014
Bellringer
• In your NOTEBOOK, write today’s date and
answer the following question. (3 points)
What archetype is Grendel?
What archetype is Grendel’s mother?
Reading Workshop
20-25 minutes
• Remember: You need to be reading. Not talking, doing
homework, goofing off, sleeping, distracting others, etc. You
may listen to music as long as it is kept quiet and kept in your
pocket.
• You receive 5 pts. for being present and on-task during
Reading Workshop.
Reading Log
• Choose a “stem” from the reading response
handout and complete your reading
response.
• Remember what you will be graded on:
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Putting the date of your response at the top.
Using a stem to begin your response.
Having proper grammar and spelling.
Having MINIMUM of ½-1 pages.
They say/I say=using examples from the text and then
responding.
Archetypal Settings
Place
Description
The Crossroads The place of suffering and decision
The Underworld The place where the hero
encounters fear or death
The Maze or
Represents a puzzling dilemma or
Labyrinth
great uncertainty
The Castle
The strong place of safety; holds the
treasure or the princess; may be
bewitched or enchanted
Archetypal Journeys
Patterns
The Quest to Know Who You Are
The Quest to Find Knowledge
The Quest to Find the Promised Land or to Build a Beautiful City
The Warrior’s Quest to Save the People and Rid the Land of Danger
The Quest to Get Revenge
The Quest for Fame and Fortune
The Fool’s Quest (a silly person saves the land because of his
innocence or foolishness)
The Search for Love (to rescue the princess)
Class Discussion
• Annotations and Summary discussion of chapter 3.
Character Analysis
• Grendel
• The protagonist and narrator
• Bearlike monster
• Lonely creature who seeks an understanding of the meaningless
world around him.
• An outsider who observes and provides commentary on the
human civilization.
• Grendel’s Mother
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A foul, wretched being
Only apparent family member
Lives in a cave in a vast underground realm
Desperately tries to protect Grendel from the humans
Has either forgotten or never knew how to speak, but at times
speaks gibberish
Character Analysis
• The Ram
• The first creature Grendel encounters
• Stands stupidly at the edge of a cliff and will not budge despite
Grendel’s protests
• The Goat
• Climbs a cliff despite Grendel’s repeated yells and screams.
Grendel tries to bludgeon it to death with stones, but it continues
to climb.
• The Bull
• Discovers Grendel hanging in a tree and attacks him repeatedly
• The encounter with the bull becomes an event that changes his
philosophical views of life.
Character Analysis
• Hrothgar
• King of the Danes
• Has a very powerful and prosperous kingdom
• Shows leadership
• Scyld Shefing
• Legendary king from whom Hrothgar is descended.
• The Shaper
• A harpist and storyteller
• Tells lies of the Danes heritage that are very seductive and
believable
• Represents the power of art and imagination to create meaning
• The Shaper’s Assistant
• A young man who arrives with the Shaper
• Apprentice who will take over the Shaper’s duties when he dies.
Motifs in Grendel
• The Seasons
• The novel completes on calendar year.
• Opens in the spring
• A time when cold weather retreats and
new vegetation appears on the earth.
• Symbolizes growth and new beginning.
Motifs in Grendel
• The Zodiac
• Chapter 1-Aries, the Ram
• The creature whom Grendel is arguing with at the
beginning.
• Chapter 2-Taurus, the Bull
• The creature whom attacks Grendel while he is hanging
from a tree in the human world.
• Chapter 3-Gemini, the Twins
• “Thus I felt, ridiculous hairy creature torn apart by
poetry—crawling, whimpering, streaming tears,
across the world like a two-headed beast…” (Grendel
44)
Motifs in Grendel
• Machinery
• Grendel often uses metaphors as a way of expressing his
frustration with what he sees as pointless, mindless adherence to
set patterns of behavior.
• The ram-instinctually responds to the arrival of spring with ludicrous
behavior.
• Grendel-describes himself as “mechanical as anything else” when
the warm weather causes him to begin attacking men again.
• The bull-when attacking Grendel it never changes its tactics. It fights
by a “blind mechanism ages old.”
• The men-have the ability to make new patterns, to break out of
routine and mechanism, which is Grendel’s fascination with the
humans.
Symbols in Grendel
• The Bull
• Grendel condemns the bull for the unthinking manner in which it
follows patterns.
• In Grendel’s view, animals maintain a tedious routine that is
controlled by outside forces. They never break the routine on
their own.
• Attacking Grendel in the tree is a powerful example of the
unthinking action.
• Comes to represent the world, which similarly acts in a savage,
uncalculated way.