you fit into me

You Fit Into Me
Margaret Atwood

You fit into me
like a hook into an eye

a fish hook
an open eye 


A fish hook into an open eye. Now, simply typing that down makes my knees buckle. 
Why is it that this narrator is telling an individual that their fit resembles that of a fish hook into an open eye? 

Perhaps it's the duality of love working through this poem. 

When I think about one's significant other, I imagine that he or she fits the other person fairly well, as puzzle pieces fit together to create one whole. From the beginning of Atwood's poem, I understand that she tries to convey this idea of a perfect fit. The narrator states that the partner fits into him or her, stating that this resembles a hook and an eye.

For garments, this idea of hooks and eyes acting as a fit makes sense. One method of fastening clothing together, after all, is known as a hook-and-eye closure. Commonly used in brassieres, the hook-and-eye closure has been utilized since 14th century England. Typically, the hook is a flattened wire bent to fit inside an eye, or an opening onto which the hook can latch itself. 

Initially, the two described in the poem seem to be very compatible with each other, having a fit resembling the hook-and-eye closure. However, clarification is given in the last two lines of the poem, the hook being a fish hook and the eye being an open eye. As it turns out, the fitting isn't all that fantastic.

Fish hooks are used to, obviously, hook fish. Resembling a 'J', a fish hook has a jagged point at its end in order to guarantee a catch. It's designed to pierce the lip of a fish, and its curve prevents the fish from throwing the hook. Part of a fish hook is known as the eye, which is the small hole at the end of it that is tied onto a fishing line. From connotation, a fish hook can represent capture. Fish hooks are difficult for fish to shake free from, so it can also symbolize stubbornness. 

As my optometrist once told me, it takes a lot of pressure to pierce through your eye. Because I get weak just from typing that down, I don't feel comfortable researching the exact amount needed to penetrate the eyeball. However, as the fish hook from Atwood's poem so easily fits into the eye, I would assume that the pressure is great. What makes it all the more sickening is that the eye is open while this is happening. The individual is observing as the fish hook enters his or her eye, which shows that the narrator is not blind to what's going on. He or she knows that the pain will be great and difficult to remove but allows for it to happen all the same. 

This, I believe, expresses the duality of love. Although the two in the poem are the perfect fit for each other, it comes with pain as would come from a fish hook in an open eye. As innocent as love may initially seem, it can also be a painful process.

a Grendel of youth and experience

William Blake, The Great Red Dragon and the
Woman Clothed with the Sun, 1805

Grendel can be characterized as a product of William Blake's works concerning the influences of innocence and experience. 

When he speaks of his childhood, Grendel reminisces of a period free from intrusion of religion, free from the violence that he soon comes to know. He participates in games with "ingenious twists into freedom or new perplexity" (Gardner 15), revealing his preparedness for exploring the world around him. In my mind, I imagine a young Toothless from Pixar's How to Train Your Dragon prancing around a forest, observing various plants and creatures as if they were all new to him. 

However, Grendel mentions that occasionally "the spell would be broken suddenly" (Garnder 16), and he starts noticing large shapes with eyes watching him. Though it's unclear what these masses may be, they make him "feel, all at once, alone and ugly, almost... obscene" (Gardner 17). A shape could be defined, as Blake writes in "Infant Sorrow," "like a fiend hid in a cloud" ("Infant Sorrow," line 4). Although they remain ambiguous in features, the shapes seem to be "hiding" behind Grendel's innocence, waiting for experience to shape Grendel; this could also be seen when Grendel sees the shapes and doesn't understand what they mean, showing that he doesn't yet have knowledge of certain things. 

As Grendel is taught by the Shaper, his mentor could act like the guardian mentioned in Blake's "Introduction" to Songs of Innocence. The Shaper within Grendel fulfills the role of maintaining the naivety and innocence of the Danes; he performs songs that speak to them of "truths" that may be warped in order to protect his people. His character could be related to the piper in the Song of Innocence. The piper within the "Introduction" performs and sings songs of "merry chear" ("Introduction," line 6) for a young child, all of which reduce the boy to tears of joy. These songs, as the Shaper's songs do, satisfy the audience on an emotional level. Before the end of the poem, the piper mentions that he "wrote [his] happy songs, / Every child may joy to hear" ("Introduction," lines 19-20), which reveals that his audience is not only the young boy but all who may wish to hear. As Grendel is eavesdropping on the Shaper's performances, he acts as the young boy, but the audience is made up of all the Danes who listen to the songs. 

The dragon in Grendel could act as the Bard from Blake's "Introduction" to Songs of Experience. Within the novel, the first encounter between Grendel and the dragon can signify the moment when his innocence is lost; the dragon takes advantage of the conversation to try and convince Grendel that the world is all "ashes to ashes, slime to slime" (Garnder 73). It's during this exchange that Grendel learns that his search for love and acceptance may be pointless, and all his efforts will eventually lead to nothing following the end of his life. The dragon supports his claims by telling Grendel that he knows everything, "the beginning, the present, the end" (Garnder 62). This line is remarkably similar to one in the "Introduction" to Songs of Experience, in which the Bard is described as one "Who Present, Past, & Future sees" ("Introduction", line 2). With the similarity of experience between the dragon and the Bard, the two act as sources of "true" knowledge for Grendel, as opposed to the revised songs of the Shaper. 

Grendel's youth represents his period of innocence for which he begins longing for after he participates in war against the Danes. His destructive forces during the war highlight his experienced self, accumulation of knowledge presented to him by both the Shaper and the dragon. Although Blake placed importance on neither innocence nor experience, Grendel's character seems to find the innocent self to be a stage more preferable than the experienced self. 

water and Grendel

According to the dragon in John Gardner's Grendel, life has no meaning. Life is all "a swirl in the stream of time. A temporary gathering of bits, a few random dust specks, so to speak" (Gardner 70). His thoughts suggest that the world eventually come to nothing, and that nothing will have no meaning either - just a "mere ripple in Time's stream" (Gardner 71). 

The nihilism the dragon presents can also be seen in Red Horse, an old man with whom Hrothulf converses. According to Red Horse, "the total ruin of institutions and morals is an act of creation" (Gardner 118). This is a belief reflecting nihilism, in which destruction of political or social institutions is necessary for improvement. Unlike the dragon, however, the old man promotes the idea of revolution and anarchy with the thought that this will allow for a new existence. It wouldn't be the inferior versus the superior, but rather two equally powerful forces fighting for freedom. On the other hand, the dragon finds that an act of destruction "not a real ending of course, nor even a beginning" (Gardner 71), but that it is rather an accident of time. 

Juxtaposition of destruction and creation is a common thread in Grendel. The Danish priests refer to their God as the Great Destroyer, hoping that the Destroyer will "defend the people of Scyld and kill their enemy, the terrible world-rim-walker" (Grendel 127). In destroying Grendel, the Destroyer would also be allowing the Danes to continue with their existence. Because Grendel, the so-called world-rim-walker and evil enemy against the Danes, poses as the Destroyer, he highlights the connection between destruction and creation, as Red Horse implies as well.

In David Foster Wallace's This Is Water commencement speech, he unknowingly presents an argument to counter that of the dragon. Wallace presents his belief that there is no one meaning to life. Instead of one true purpose, he proposes that the individual has the choice to make his or her own purpose. 

Grendel represents an individual who doesn't live his life through his own self-created purpose; instead, he is influenced by the Shaper and the dragon who create a purpose for him. The Shaper sings the song of Cain and Abel whose feud "split all the world between darkness and light" (Gardner 51), with Grendel representing this darkness. Grendel, eavesdropping on his performance, takes his story for truth and begins to mold his life around the idea that he's an evil force. The dragon further reinforces this belief by telling Grendel that he is "the brute existent by which they learn to define themselves" (Gardner 73). By giving him this role of creator, he limits Grendel to act in a way that implies the Danes will act according to his actions. 

Near Grendel's death, it seems as though a wave of realization washes over him, as "the long pale dream, my history, falls away" (Gardner 169). It could be assumed that at this time, he realizes that he's been so engulfed in fulfilling the Shaper's and the dragon's purposes of him that he's dived headfirst against a foe that would be his downfall. This moment of enlightenment has him longing to regress back to his childhood, seen as he cries out for his mother during his final moments. His desire to return to the childlike Grendel, before he met the Shaper or the dragon, can also be found after his attempts to split Wealtheow, when he hopes to kill himself "for love of the Baby Grendel that used to be" (Gardner 110).