Grendel Essays

In the epic poem, Beowulf, Grendel is presented as a horrible and vicious monster, who was "spawned in that slime," a reference to the biblical story of Cain, who slayed his brother Abel, which was a horrible sin. In Beowulf, Grendel was never given a chance; his ferocious nature was innately inside of him. But in Josh Gardner’s, Grendel, we are offered a different side of the story as to why Grendel is the way that he is. In the book, Grendel was not born a ferocious killing machine, but instead

Beowulf is an Old English epic poem about a leader of the Geats, a Swedish clan, who defeats three monstrous creatures. The novel Grendel, written by John Gardener tells the old tale in the perspective of one of the monsters. This novel reveals many philosophical messages and also the different mindsets and emotional structure between humans and creatures, specifically monsters. Both novels differ majorly due to the different choice of perspectives. The novel written by John Gardner is much more

Grendel: A Human Within a Monster After years of terrorizing the town of Hrothgar and being looked down upon as the monstrous descendent of Cain, Grendel is locked up in the darkness and is gaining resentment and hostility toward mankind. On the outside where he appears as a terrifying demon, he inherits humanistic, animalistic, and supernatural characteristics on the inside. With his ability to eat flesh, garner super strength, and express human emotions, these qualities exhibit Grendel as more

for the successful society he pictured. Grendel has observed the actions of Hrothgar and his leadership for a long time. He witnessed first hand the successfulness of his strategies. Hrothgar acquires men from all over the land to be his loyal laborers. All the people would gather at the hall and peacefully listen to the Shaper's words. Unlike the humans Grendel did not appreciate them and did not like the motivation for the Shaper’s songs. Grendel thinks about how lonely he is and how the Shaper

Grendel, once the epitome of fear and evil, is now modernized by Gardner to nothing more than a naïve and misunderstood creature. Grendel by John Gardner is a classic take of “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. Grendel maintains animalistic physique, in both Grendel and Beowulf, however in Gardner’s book the creature has more humanistic personality. Gardner dwells into the mind of Grendel giving the true conscience motivations behind Grendel’s actions, developing the monster as a character, and in

two different stories of Beowulf and Grendel portray Grendel, his mother, and the dragon in different ways. In Beowulf, because the protagonist of the story is a human and not a creature, the focus of the story is portraying Beowulf as a hero and his rivals (Grendel, his mother and the dragon) as monsters. No thorough analysis of the creatures is incorporated and they are mainly judged by their frightening appearances. Contrast to that, in Grendel, because Grendel is the narrator, his perspective and

To be Evil or Not to Be Evil Throughout the story of Grendel, the deemed ‘monster’ ,Grendel, is shown as the villain most frequently due to his violent acts towards humanity. However, it seems Grendel’s savage ways are not due to his own cold heart but infact the cold hearts of the humans around him. His monster acts are only mimicking what he witnesses mankind do to each other. Grendel shows remorse, resentment, and loneliness which are all qualities shared not only by monster but also by man proving

times is Grendel, an antagonist in Beowulf that is bent on killing and eating people. In this epic, Beowulf is a well renowned hero that has great strength and abilities. He is sent to defeat the monster Grendel that has been wreaking havoc on the Geats, located in present day Sweden, for 14 years, murdering and eating their people. Grendel is portrayed to be a typical

John Gardner author of Grendel and an Unknown author of Beowulf wrote these to compare one another into one mega story. Grendel is about a "monster" who has been at war with humans for over 12 years. Over time he became fascinated by the way that humans live. At the end, Beowulf fights Grendel, and Beowulf pulled his arm off, and then runs away. Beowulf is about how the Danes built a great mead hall to gather and Grendel came and ruined it, killing a lot of the Danes in the process. Beowulf accepts

Nihilism in Grendel Although John Gardner’s novel Grendel simply is a recount of Beowulf’s antagonistic monster going about his life and interacting with different people and creatures, it explores many profound themes such as nihilism. As the story progresses, Grendel has a series of realizations about and encounters with nihilism that greatly shape his way of thinking and view of the world. He progresses from a simple, easily satisfied creature, to a cynical and pessimistic monster. The effect

Grendel and Beowolf both seem to impact a reader’s outlook upon societal systems, and how treat things in our society but do they actually have much of an impact at all upon the outlook of the reader? Not only does Beowolf question a system that most, if not all, people of that time lived by. Beowolf also questions what we’ve been taught, and what we have been shown to believe in since birth; that, there is a system all of society falls into, no matter who you are, from the rich, to the poor, from

If someone were to pick copies of Antigone by Sophocles and Grendel by John Gardner and read them, he or she would find that the two pieces of literature are very different. Antigone is an Ancient Greek play that was written in or before the year 441 BC, while Grendel is a piece of fantasy written by an American author over 2000 years later. Antigone depicts the story of a woman named Antigone who is angry at King Creon for choosing to not bury her brother Polyneices. She then decides to bury him

Don't Judge a Person by their Looks: The Good and Evil in Grendel Imagine… A monster so hideous that it has “a voice to scream with, but no language; a presence to strike the heart with dread” (Gurewitsch). This monster's name is Grendel. The author John Gardner wrote Grendel to show the choices Grendel made to transform him into a monster. Grendel represents evil because he has made terrible choices all of his existence to become the monster that everyone feared; however a handsome, fearless, pure

They both showed the humanity of Beowulf and Grendel, the foreshadowing, and the and the temptations of Beowulf. He was seen as a monster in society and that he was made this way by society. Also, Beowulf was seen as a god because during the poem they said he was really strong, like godlike strong

in the poem. Throughout the extract it is not made explicit what type of creature Grendel is. The language used to present him is largely animalistic and inhuman: he is described as ‘hunting for prey’ (713) – not only painting Grendel as a predatory figure, but reducing the men inside the hall to little more than helpless creatures to be preyed upon, encapsulating the vicious nature of Grendel’s character. Grendel is further described throughout the passage as a ‘fiend’ (707) and ‘the captain of

multiple people's body parts, the other a giant, angry, man eating monster, the monster from Frankenstein and a monster named Grendel. Grendel is a fictional character first introduced in the novel Beowulf. He is the protagonist to Beowulf, exiled from civilization. Grendel was born an outcast from society then slowly became what he was always told he was, a monster. What makes Grendel such a successful villain is his lack of remorse for anything. The Monster from the novel Frankenstein, is the creation

Or so it seems. In the novel Grendel by John Gardner diagnoses the ruthless monster in the tale of Beowulf. He is the epitome of wrong judgement. Grendel is an intellectual. He was naturally curious about human society. He tried to understand their ways nevertheless, he became frustrated with humans. Therefore, He started a twelve year war

In the story “Grendel” by John Gardner, the monster Grendel is portrayed as a beast. Grendel is shown as a villainous monster in the epic poem, Beowulf. Throughout the story, Grendel shows characteristics including jealousy and bitterness. These features substitute Grendel's murderous intentions and turns him into an evil creature. Near the end of the novel, Grendel’s villian trends transforms his life into a never ending battle for acceptance. His only desire was to be accepted by the humans. While

reality and live in it and that is completely true. Within the two unique stories of Beowulf written by an unknown author and Grendel, also written by an unknown author, these two stories prove to the readers that you have the ability to create your own reality and flourish in it all on your own! The stories of Beowulf and Gredel come together to inform their readers about how Grendel was the embodiment of the physical and moral evil of heathenism. Beowulf's struggles to overcome the monster are thought

However, in John Gardner’s Grendel, we see that Grendel has morals and feelings, contrary to how he is portrayed in the poem the novel is derived from, Beowulf. Similarly, the monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein shares the same emotional characteristics as Grendel, along with innocence at birth, the desire for a companion, and the pain of being an outsider. It is believed by many philosophers that humans are born innocent; we are good until exposed to evil. Grendel said early in the novel,