Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Chapter 7

Libra - the balance. Are things in balance here? How does Grendel feel about Wealtheow? Poor Wealtheow....

23 comments:

Vivi said...

What is Gardner's purpose in changing his writing structure in the beginning of this chapter. It's as if Grendel were now in a play instead of a novel. Is this to make the reader feel as if none of this were real?
"There is no limit to desire but desire's needs." -P.93 He speaks as if desire is always present. maybe it is, but the root of all suffering, as well as all happiness, in my perspective, is desire. How can you be happy without knowing what sadness is? It's a never ending cycle if you choose to accept it. To accept desire, that is. It makes very much sense though, as well. Without the balance of understanding between desire and need, then you would never be able to categorize just how much someone wants something. Balance-Libra-October. Huh. Life works out in a funny way.
John Gardner, near the end of the chapter introduces Wealtheow. Gosh, she seems so innocent, so pure, like nothing could touch her and I think this is the reason why Grendel wants to kill her so very much. She seemed like the only woman in the kingdom, sexy and beautiful.
When Grendel came to kill her, my eyes widened and my imagination screamed in horror. Grendel wanted to kill her slowly, burning her baby maker (THAT. IS RIDICULOUSLY PAINFUL)and also doing it while she's naked, in front of the eyes of many men. HUMILIATION! He then wanted to squeeze the poop out of her?! She's not a barbie doll that he can rearrange and mess with, she feels, she hurts, too. Oh gosh, that sounds so extremely painful. Grendel sees her 'ugliness' between her legs, and they were either bleeding, or she was having her period. It's only ugliness when you show it to the world, Grendel.
Why does he say Cut A or Cut B?

Anonymous said...

Yeah... So Grendel's crazy as hell.
His ranting at the beginning of the chapter was particularly strange. I can't quite figure out if the jumps between first and third person are going between Grendel's narration and Gardner's or if it's all Grendel hopping between the two in his own insanity. He seems to do a lot of self observation so either seems like it could be true.
His descriptions of how he plans to kill Wealtheow sum up his craziness better than anything. Before this point I knew he was nuts but to have the burning desire to "Squeeze out her feces between my fists." Is one step beyond.
My kinda book.
-Charlie B.

Darby said...

Grendel is REALLY scary in this chapter. He is also REALLY obsessed with Wealtheow. He watches her when she walks around the mead hall, and he watches her when she sleeps. Kinda like Pedo-Bear except less happy smiley, and more "Om nom nom nom nom!" on humans. And then he tries to kill her and rape her. So much for love. Poor Wealtheow, she was going to be killed by Grendel in a horrible way, but luckily for her he didn't. What a dumb name, Wealtheow. I suppose her brother renamed her Wealtheow because it sounds like "wealth". Stupid bro...

Anonymous said...

Wow. This chapter makes me actually start to hate Grendel. At the beginning I felt awful for him and thought that he was actually very interesting, but now he scares me. However, I think that Grendel is still a good guy deep down, and maybe the reason that he attacks Wealtheow is that he loves her in a way but doesn’t know how to handle it being the monster that he is. When he sees her he gets very upset and angry at the way that she just gives herself up to the Scyldings and he comments on how beautiful she is. Grendel has never met another of his kind other than his mother and maybe he has a little crush on Wealtheow and just doesn’t know how to handle it. That would explain why he follows her around and watches her all the time, but it doesn’t justify what he did. He really has turned into a monster and if he doesn’t start being more careful, it is going to lead to his death in the end.
-Robin

Evan said...

Wow, haha... This chapter was just wow.... Grendel turns into a maniac in this chapter.... I mean like really, He just watches the kingdoms unite for one half of the chapter. Then, he can't hold in his rage any longer, rage for the kingdoms, rage if the princess.... I honestly think that he is somewhat upset that, he can't have this prize. The princess. I think out of all things, he just wants her. He always complains that he is lonely and has no one to talk to.... And he goes into detail on what she looks like, from her beautiful red hair, to her freckled hands. And every time he mentions her and what she looks like, he has to call her beautiful. I really think he likes her and is brutally upset that he knows he can't have her and never will. That's why he almosta kills her, so no one can have her. But he doesn't, because it won't change anything if he does or doesn't.

Vicenteeeee :3 said...

This chapter shows Grendel being really creepy. He still continues to watch the kingdom except, this time they are uniting instead of fighting amongst themselves. Wealtheow seems like the one thing in the whole kingdom/universe that has driven Grendel "over the edge". Poor Grendel just snaps because he is so lonely and there is finally someone he likes and wants to talk to but can't. Grendel is not very happy in this chapter. Especially when he attacks Wealtheow. Grendel is really graphic in explaining the way he wants to kill Wealtheow. O.O

Devon said...

Grendel is a fucking lunatic. I... I don't even know. He is crazy in that he is obsessed with Wealtheow, and wants to do horrible things to her! Not only does he want to rape and murder her, but he wants to rip her apart and squeeze the crap out of her! LITERALLY! Then he talks about the "ugliness" between her legs and says that he wants to cook it?! WTF IS WRONG WITH HIM! He's a monster, but he used to be so funny and sarcastic. Now he's a crazy, raging, asshole-lunatic! Then when she screams for help, NO ONE COMES.

'Oh sorry, Wealtheow, but I'm too caught up being a piece of worthless shit!'

Grendel isn't crazy with love, he's just plain F-ing CRAY-CRAY, MANG!!!

(p.s. I apologize for the cussing)

Noah said...

Grendel is losing his mind it seems. As soon as he finds purpose and sees the world in a nihilistic view, he sees Wealtheow. This gives his life more meaning ass he watches and observes her. He is obsessed with her. It's almost sweet until he tries to kill her. He seems to be frustrated by his own thoughts again. Being driven to kill her to prove she is meaningless, but then realizing, killing her is meaningless. It almost seems as he's becoming more animalistic. This chapter also seems to show how Hrothgar is gaining power by uniting the tribes. Perhaps Gardner is foreshadowing something?

Eliana said...

I was a bit confused by the change in writing structure at the beginning of this chapter. When I was reading it, I felt like a different author had wrote that section. I wasn't sure if it was Gardner's intention or Gardner's intention for Grendel. It was kind of weird how it said either what he was doing or what he was thinking about doing, I wasn't really sure. On page 91, it says things like "(Sigh.)" and "(Do a little dance...)". And then the small poems felt a little out of place to me.
This chapter kind of throws away all the admiration I had for Grendel. He was so interesting and thoughtful, but now he shows the truly monstrous side of himself. When he starts describing what he wants to do to Wealtheow, it was horrible, disgusting, and quite frankly, creepy as hell. He said he wanted to burn her and crush her (along with some other threats too revolting to repeat) as if it was a game called, how many ways to kill a woman. He was laughing at these terrible thoughts, which made him seem all the more scary.
But then he changed his mind. He went back to his philosophical self and said "it would be meaningless, killing her." I think he realized what he was doing as an amusing activity, was stupid. Then he just left and started talking to himself, which he does a lot and which also makes him seem like a lunatic.
I did not understand the last two lines. "Balance is everything, sliding down slime..." and "Cut B." just didn't make sense to me. Since when is there slime and what is cut B???

LoReN said...

Grendel is so intimidating in this chapter. I was so used to thinking of him as an innocent little monster but he's growing up fast!! Killing humans and falling in love.. he's changed a lot in a horrifying way. His love/obsession/desire to murder Wealtheow is unsettling since he can't make up his mind whether to throw himself at her feet or rape and kill her. I assume his craze over eating and terrorizing the humans won't stop and eventually he will meet his demise.

Bailey said...

In this chapter it gets very interesting. There are many different things that happen in this chapter. In this chapter it starts to change you from liking Grendel to disliking him because of what he is doing. In the previous chapters Grendel seemed complete innocent and would never be bad, but in chapter 7 it all changes. I can't wait to see what he is going to be like in the later chapters in the book.

Matthew Mannucci said...

In this chapter, I find it so great that Grendel gets feelings for someone for the first time. I think he is like a human that doesn’t understand these feelings he gets. I think he is like a human in that aspect that is much younger. I mean he starts to feel confused and angry, which are things that can happen to younger human who gets these feelings for the first time. I don’t really understand why he would want to cook her vagina though, I think that might be a little extreme. Another aspect of the chapter that intrigued me was how Grendel just changed his mind in the end of the chapter. What was interesting was that Grendel was feeling all these emotions about Wealtheow and was about to kill her, and then it was like all of a sudden, the nihilistic part of his brain kicked in. Then once the nihilistic part of Grendel’s brain kicked in, he was just like, “okay, well there is no meaning to this like everything else.”

Anonymous said...

Grendel seems to loosing himself more an more as the story goes on. I guess more than loosing himself, he's finding a new self. He misses the old Grendel. The sweet and innocent Grendel. But as he changes, his emotions seem to swing farther than they have before. For a while, he is absolutely obsessed with Wealtheow. He follows her everywhere in secret, watches her all the time, and thinks about her. Then, he is possessed by a mad urge to kill her slowly and painfully in front of everyone else. I think what's happening to Grendel is really sad. His mind was messed with too much... Something seems to have snapped... (And if this comment seems a bit fragmented, sorry. It's late, and I'm tired.)

-William

Chris said...

In this chapter i found it interesting that Grendel was attracted to weltheow. This is strange to me because grendel is an enemy to the danes and does not interact with them in romantic or social ways much. I found it interesting that the monster would be attracted to someone on the inside of the dane crowd. His impulses to torture and kill her were also interesting, for it seems to me that someone who is socially observing the danes would know a bit more how to interact with them.

Max Fishman is Awesome said...

In this chapter you begin to see the romantic,tortured side of Grendal. Its interesting because Grendal is supposed to be a big scary monster, but he has this ability to show emotion but for some reason he has a weird response and is not used to feeling these emotions. Again you learn more about Grendal and what he goes through.

Anthony said...

This chapter made me turn against Grendel. It's not that Grendel is drawn to Wealtheow, it's that he wants to do disgusting things to her. He was thinking of raping, murdering and ripping her apart. The only thing that prevented him, was the fact that it would be meaningless, (going back to his philosophical self). I dont know....I guess that I'm not used to the "poor, innocent" Grendel changing into the creepy, malicious Grendel.

sophia said...

Grendel is a nutcase. It was really interesting to see him deal with love and his feelings towards Wealtheow with the love and hate mixed together. For every action there is an opposing action, right? I think simply Grendel has a school boy crush on her, I mean she's beautiful, fresh, innocent, womanly. What's not to love? But since he is a monster and was brought up by his own thoughts and his careless mother, he doesn't know how to handle that emotion. Love. So he handles it in the most disturbing and unjustified way. I do like Grendel though, I mean he is still a monster and maybe he just couldn't help himself.

Sydney said...

I think that Grendel has a weird way of showing who he likes, especially with his first encounter with Wealtheow. I know that having emotions toward a human must be confusing, but that doesn't mean he has to hang her upside down and have an urge to burn her right down the "middle." in my opinion, I think that might be a little obscure. Moreover, I find it ironic that Grendel is turning out to be his own Shaper. In my opinion, I think that referring himself to a Shaper, he confuses himself even more. It's kind of funny how Grendel refuses to kill Unferth, but kills others around him, while Unferth is literally begging for him to be slain by Grendel. Instead of doing that, he embarrasses him, and that's a lot worse than being killed by a "monster." In the end of this chapter, I think that Grendel has an interesting way of entertaing himself.

Cameron said...

I like the fact that Grendel is starting to tell his own story, like the poet he actually is! However, as for the whole Wealtheow bit... well... why? I get he's in love, I get he's confused about that, it's new, it's foreign to him, but all that about killing Wealheow... NO!

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Anonymous said...

Vivi has no clue what she's saying... Shut up Vivi.

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