So I know it is a little late, but I dosed off last night reading Grendel and I woke up this morning and I am very busy and I am just getting to it right now. So on we go...

I think that I am royally cofused.. I don't think that I quite understand the signifigance of the Shaper. I think that he is the story teller? right? But is he the kind of story teller that would tell the Beowulf story?? And why is Grendel so obsessed with him?

An intereasting article that I agree with for the most

part. War and natural agression does become a large

part of our society. We glorify those who fought in

the wars to protect all of us, and keep our freedom.

We see the need for peace, and we had a whole decade

opposing it; the 60's, "Make love not war" idea. But

we are always in contridiction; we need to make these

multi million dollar weapons to ensure our safety, and

to keep the peace. But isn't it that same build up of

arms that have led to so many conflicts between

powers? But we are taught, and even some of it is

given to you at birth, the primal instinct of

survival. Children are always fighting over this or

that, and the wanting to be dominate over some one

falls into Darwin's theory of evolution; The strong

will survive, while the weak fail. No one wants to be

the weak one. So we ruffle our feathers, and puff out

our tails to make ourselves look big and bad.

I waver a little on his thoughts about women. It is

true that we have always been the weaker of the two

sexes. But that is slowly starting to change. Women

in the Civil War were only alowed to help with the

medical aspect of the war. In WWI and WWII they took

on a slightly larger role. Today we are fighting

along side the men, but we are still not equals. We

are not allowed to fly fighters in wars, and we are

sexually abused at the training camps where we are

fighting to prove that we a stronger than previously

thought. But many men still need to feel superior,

and so they torment their fellow female soliders.

Hopefully some day in the near future we will finally

be allowed to do our part in the service of our

country.

I do disagree with Alexis when she says that the pain

men go through in war is not compareable to a woman

being raped. She said that men should be prepaired to

fight, and die, and see death. And there is no way to

prepare for a rape. But there is no way to prepare

for the atrocities of war either. They are trained to

be strong, they are taught tactics, and how to kill.

But ther is no way to teach what it is like to see

people die in front of you from gas, fire, shelling,

unwanted amputation, or being blowen out of the sky or

water. There is no way to prepare your self for an

order to kill innocent women and children, just

because they are the wrong race. There is no

possiable way to do so. These night-mares live with

you forever, and no one who hasen't fought in a war

will ever really understand what you are going

through. Like in All quiet on the Weastern Front.

the main character feels totally abandoned, ostrisized

from his home and previous pleasures because they will

never really understand what he went through, and he

will never really be able to explain it. The same is

true for a rape victime. They feel alone, and they

will live with the horror forever, just like all of

our war heroes.

Agression, tension, and power are all big movers and

shapers in our society, and I don't think that that

hostility that is inherent in all of us will ever

dissapear compleatly. Maybe some day it will lessen,

but the will to survive, and to overcome are strong

powers, and they will not ever dissapear, and

therefore neither will the violence.

If you read all of this you are insane. I didn't

really pay close attention to what I was writing, and

I'm not going back and rereading it, because I'd be

just as crazy as any of you who read this. Any way,

enough of my blabbing, see you later.

Jess