Grendel

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-book review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Why doesn’t Grendel name himself?

A) He doesn’t view himself as important.

B) He has a name given by his mother.

C) He views himself as part of nature.

D) He wants to be an unidentified killer.

2. Why is it significant that the Danes name Grendel?

A) He targets them while ignoring others.

B) He has no language for communicating.

C) He personifies their battle with evil.

D) He destroys their forested home.

3. Which idea of Grendel’s shows him to be an existentialist?

A) He believes in God and redemption.

B) He struggles with meaning in his life.

C) He practices a natural version of religion.

D) He acts as a god over the Danes.

4. What speaks to Grendel’s vulnerability?

A) His attacks on Hrothgar’s hall

B) His empathy for the ram

C) His sympathy for the bull

D) His appreciation for poetry

5. What motif is suggested by the presence of a ram and a bull?

A) Astrology

B) Astronomy

C) Astrophysics

D) Aeronautics

6. What does the meadhall symbolize for the Danes?

A) Cowardice

B) Reward

C) Fear

D) Optimism

7. What is Grendel’s relationship to the biblical Cain?

A) Cain is punished by God.

B) Cain is isolated from society.

C) Cain is misunderstood.

D) Cain is forgiven by his family.

8. What is the novel’s climax?

A) Grendel’s awareness he is replaceable as a brute existent

B) Dragon’s explanation of time as something ongoing