Response to "The Griffin and the Minor Canon"

I. Introduction

Even though “The Griffin and the Minor Canon” is fairly easy to read, its meaning is ambiguous—not clear and obvious. We might consider this story a parable of sorts—a story that uses symbolism to illustrate or teach a "truth" or moral lesson. There are interesting, meaningful, and puzzling details in the story, but it is up to readers to determine what the details mean and what sort of moral lesson or "truth" the story communicates to us.

Now that you know what happens in the story, I want you to CHOOSE ONE of the questions below and WRITE A FULLY-DEVELOPED PARAGRAPH in response to it. To develop your ideas, your paragraph will need to use evidence and significant quotations from the story, as well as carefully-explained reasoning.

II. Choose One Interpretive Question

1) “Whenever the people wanted something difficult done for them, they always went to the Minor Canon” (3). Why do the people of the town go to the Minor Canon with all their problems, but never treat the Minor Canon with respect, compassion, or love?

2) The Griffin eventually stops gazing at his own likeness and begins to follow the Minor Canon around. Why does the Griffin do this? What exactly is it about the Minor Canon that the Griffin finds to be “good,” likable, or admirable?

3) When the Griffin teaches the class, why does he “use no severity” toward the students and instead try to imitate the mild and gentle tones of the Minor Canon (11-12)?

4) Why does the Minor Canon need the Griffin's help to get respect and honor from the town's people? 


5) Why does the Griffin sacrifice himself rather than eat the Minor Canon?

6) Is the Griffin good, evil, or morally ambiguous?

7) In literature, a dynamic character is a character who changes in the course of a story. How is the Griffin a dynamic character, and what causes the Griffin to change in the course of the story?

8) Who is the more powerful force of good in the story—the Griffin or the Minor Canon? Why?

9) Because of the way the town’s people treat the Minor Canon, the Griffin calls them “cowards” who are “ungrateful, selfish, and cruel” (15). Given the fact that the Griffin has spent days looking at a statue of himself (which seems a very selfish act), why is the Griffin so offended by the selfishness of the town’s people?

10) A parable is a short story that uses symbolism to illustrate or teach some truth or moral lesson. What lesson or "truth" does this story teach us about morality--about what makes human beings treat one another with goodness--and how does the story teach us this "truth" or moral lesson?

III. Guidelines for Your Paragraph

• In order to develop your ideas fully, you must use evidence from the text (which includes quoting important passages) and explain your reasoning clearly.
• For an A, effectively incorporate at least two significant quotations from the story, and explain how the evidence in each passage helps illustrate your main idea.
• For a B, effectively incorporate at least one significant quotation from the story, and explain how the evidence in the passage helps illustrate your main idea.
• For a C, effectively incorporate specific, relevant evidence from the story, and explain how the evidence helps illustrate your main idea..
• As always, don't just "shove" your quotations abruptly into your paragraph. Instead, transition smoothly to each quotation; before the quotation, clearly explain the quotation's context (i.e., the speaker and situation) for the reader.