Violence In 'Grendel' By John Gardner

In the novel Grendel by John Gardner, written in 1971, there are numerous concepts of the human nature portrayed and discussed. With the progression of the novel, the humans become develop to be described as increasingly careless, vicious and futile. Starting with Grendel 's first encounter with the humans to the death of the protagonist, Gardner illustrates an unusual view of the humans and their interactions with one another. Grendel begins as a creature similar to the people he observes, with many shared characteristics and thoughts, even though not all of the their actions are understood. His lasting wish is to be accepted into their society, as they accompany each other and he suffers of loneliness.

When shown that our world is but a loop, we choose to continue. When shown that everything we do is simply the same struggle, over and over, forever the same waste of time, we don’t break away. We still go down this path of the least resistance, because we believe that that’s the way the world is. No matter what we as human beings do in life, we seem to be forever trapped in cycles, whether it be a cycle of work, a cycle of love, or any other type. But why do we follow monotonous cycles in life and even conform to such cycles?

In the 1790s, there were two men who had different beliefs regarding how the United States should function. The two men were Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was the leader of the Republican party and Hamilton was the leader of the Federalist party. The political parties were created by Hamilton and Jefferson based on their differences in opinion on how the country should run. For example, Jefferson believed that the government should be self-governed and all of the power should go to the individual states.

Two different views, two different types of people, but both share the same purpose to help the country. The American revolution was successfully won, but the struggle to on how to govern this newborn country was up for debate. The Articles of Confederation were instituted, but soon they proved to be inadequate to govern the United States after the incident with Shay’s rebellion. Shay’s Rebellion was a group composed of farmers and veterans who were overtaxed and the government had not compensated their efforts in the American Revolution. This group planned to overthrow the government by raiding an arsenal, but the state militia from Massachusetts was able to help.

The New England and Southern Colonies at first came across as very similar. Both of the colonies had a big group of people that came from England. The motivations that the two colonies had were different which caused them to go into two completely different directions. A big difference that they faced was that the New England colonies had a very strict religion. The Southern colonies were primarily focused on the economic prosperity.

Both Grendel in Grendel and The Captain in The Sympathizer are conflicted in their own ideas as society’s influence on their beliefs corrupts and alters their mentalities. They find themselves in situations in which they cannot choose between themselves and the world. Although both characters are fundamentally different from others in each respective story because of their unique dual natures, they cannot escape the clutching forces of assimilation to the expectations of the world and society. Grendel and The Captain are able to create their own foundations in their own beliefs, but they are challenged in life through the exposure to the world and its expectations. The major problem explored throughout Grendel and The Sympathizer revolves around how each of

The United States government today is still very similar to the way the colonies worked. There are also many differences between our government and their government. Since then, we have broken away from England and we the people get a say in our government and in the way we run things. Throughout the years the basic workings of our governments have stayed the same. Citizens now and colonists have and had meetings to voice what we want and believe.

When it comes to the government multiple questions are raised, particularly whether they control us or if we actually have an effect on their decisions. Personally I feel the government is definitely controlling us. As a student, I am confined to doing the grueling daily task put in place by the government. Attending school is a prime example of the excessive power the government has. America is supposed to be a nation of freedom founded by our ancestors in the late 1700’s , how much freedom do Americans really have?

Whether the death penalty should be banned for all crimes punishable by law or it ought to exist for certain felonies has been a highly controversial issue since the beginning of the 18th century AD with the rise of the abolitionist movement, the latter being strongly influenced by the enlightenment era and especially the works of Montesquieu and Voltaire. Yet, according to historic evidence, capital penalty as a punishment imposed by a state dates back to the 18th B.C, when King Hammurabi established it for 25 crimes in Babylon. We can also notice that the death penalty was enforced in many of the World’s greatest and most influential empires, such as the Roman Empire. However, as it was mentioned above, no one dared to question the

The six basic principles of government apply to the three branches of government by establishing itself as a foundation for the three branches. Each of the six principles is the backboard in which everything that is done is based upon the rules and ideas the principles acknowledge. If these ethics were nonexistent, the branches would be unsystematic. The logic behind the importance of the principles of government would be the fact that they make sure that our government will not be too powerful and that it will not be able to take our rights away from us very easily. Adjoining to this concept, the popular sovereignty principle is brought up because this is what allows the people of a region or state to create and sustain the authority of a government, and all elected representatives are the major source of political power.

The Green Knight and Grendel are two characters that represent the face of evil and horror. Grendel is the typical monster. He is massive and malicious. On the other hand, the Green Knight is innovative and capable of living decapitated. Both being similar in the fact that they are meant to portray the same type of character (antagonist), they are different in the way they challenge the protagonists and how they grow as characters.