A Short Story : The Story Of Gretel

From a young age Grendel understood that everyone around him was mechanical and he was alive. As revealed in the book Grendel by John Gardner, “Then little by little it dawned on me that the eyes that seemed to bore in to my body were in fact gazing through it, wearily indifferent to my slight obstruction of the darkness.” He tried to talk to the only person he could which was his mother but alas she could not talk only listen and hold him. She was very limited and never speaks. As specified in Grendel, “She’ll tell me, in time, I thought. But she told me nothing.” But Grendel understood that his mother still loved him. As detailed in Grendel, “She loved me, in some mysterious sense I understood without her speaking it. I was her creation.”

Terrorizing a town for 12 years Grendel kills countless men and woman in the epic of Beowulf. Banished to an underwater dwelling when descendants of Cain were banished and killed, many warriors faced him but few survived. Many have herd of Grendel and his tale of horror, but who is Grendel?

John Gardner’s Grendel is the retelling of the heroic epic poem Beowulf; however, the viewpoint has shifted. Grendel is told from the viewpoint of one of Beowulf’s antagonists and the titular character of Gardner’s work—Grendel. In Grendel, Gardner humanizes Grendel by emphasizing parallels between Grendel’s life and human life. Through Gardner’s reflection of human feelings, human development, and human flaws in Grendel, this seemingly antagonistic, monstrous character becomes understood and made “human.”

In the poem “Gretel in Darkness”, the author Louise Gluck writes based off of the classic Brothers Grimm fairytale “Hansel and Gretel”. Gluck visualizes herself as Gretel, seeing and feeling from her point of view after being faced with her terrible encounter with the witch. Gretel is distraught and feels as though no one is there for her or cares about what she is feeling. She is overwhelmed with this certain sensation of darkness. Darkness is a word filled with a strong meaning. It represents the absence of light, an important aspect used in sight. As a result darkness denies humans this sense which can make a person feel trapped, unable to see or protect oneself. The speaker is haunted by her past unable fulfill her expected “happy

The Old English epic Beowulf is the earliest recorded poem in Old English. The story is set in Scandinavia with the antagonist Grendel. Gendel is a monster and an insensitive character. Grendel was born into a monster and was cursed his entire life. Although Grendel was strong he wasn’t very brave because he only attacks at night when the guards are asleep. He has many characteristics that a monster would have. First and foremost, he was raised to be evil, and never had the chance to be good. Also whenever he would hear joy, he would be filled with anger and hatred. Grendel likes killing people he doesn’t feel any remorse after killing people. An example from the story that shows this is “Snatched up thirty men, smashed them unknowing in their beds and out with their bodies (Genesis,pg 4).”Talking about Grendel ties in with our next evil antagonist known as Cain. Cain is the son of Adam and Eve. He was a farmer who was jealous of his brother who was accepted by God and when Cain was rejected he decided to kill his brother Abel. Unlike Grendel Cain believed in god he just didn’t

Being misunderstood is not against the norm for anyone in life. At some point or another humans will feel different from those around them, and while Grendel is not human he is no different. Despite executing years worth of raids, it is evident Grendel is a sympathetic Outcast due to his mother’s actions, his experience with the men in the forest, and the tales the scops sing of Grendel.

John Gardener’s ‘Grendel’ depicts the monstrous Grendel, previously portrayed as the vicious villain in ‘Beowulf, journeying through his life, attempting to achieve some kind of self-realization. Spending much of his time observing humans, Grendel develops a great disdain for religion. Gardener reinforces Grendel’s with anti-religious quotes from poets and philosophers, like William Blake and Francis Nietzsche. As his spiritual void increases, Gardener slips into an existential despair, fueled by the talk of the Shaper, who’s strangely persuasive words confuse Grendel’s underdeveloped mind. Finally, as Grendel slowly recognizes he is separate from men, his encounter with the dragon drives him to the self-realization that he is a monster

When the lens created by the anglo-saxon society is removed the main antagonist in the classic Beowulf, Grendel, is revealed to be a tortured beast who is targeted by a religion crazed society. As stated by Chris Colfer in his novel The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell “A villain is just a victim whose story hasn’t been told,” yet for many this lesson falls on deaf ears (9). For many Grendel is a thing of nightmares, a beast straight from hell that no villain can match. But when the society that villainizes Grendel is examined more closely one realizes that Grendel is really just an animal who is poked and prodded by an unrelenting society of savages. This savagery is seen in the way that the society calls the animal an anthropomorphic

AJ Voltarel Grendel Essay 10/31/2014 Mrs. Alhman When Grendel was still young, he spent his time exploring his confined world, untroubled by the outside universe or philosophical questions. Grendel’s finding of the lake of firesnakes and the realm beyond it is his start to his first adventure in a larger world, one full of danger and possibility. As such, crossing the lake is a crucial step for Grendel in his move toward maturity. When the bull attacks him, he climbs into a tree and sees that the world is chaotic, following no pattern for no visible reason.

In Grendel, the main character Grendel ends up being the villain of the story. Grendel does not exhibit any of the basic heroic qualities it takes to be described as one. The baseline definition of a hero (provided by dictionary.com) is “a person noted for courageous acts or nobility of character”. Grendel is known to the people as a monster that is only searching to fulfill his desire for blood, which is not heroic nor noble. Grendel took this definition, though, and expanded it (somewhat mockingly).

While comparing the two poems, "Gretel in Darkness" by Louise Gluck and "Hansel and Gretel" by Anne Sexton with the original Brothers Grimm tale "Hansel and Gretel", different perspectives, point of views and messages are shown.

In the poem Beowulf, the most evident theme is the importance of the Germanic heroic code. The heroic code was what made Beowulf so famous and god-like during his renowned life. The code is displayed in the opening lines of the poem and continued to show up throughout the duration of the poem. Heroism is often painted with a protagonist, which causes some acts of heroism to be overlooked when an antagonist follows the heroic code. Throughout the poem, there are many acts of heroism displayed, but many people overlook the way that Grendel’s mother followed the Germanic heroic code. Grendel’s mother follows the Germanic heroic code by showing courage, strength, and honor as Beowulf does throughout the poem, something that is frowned upon in the Anglo-Saxon culture.

Throughout this scene, repetition

It was said by an anonymous author, that war changes the inherently good and unique spirit of the human race into the brute savages that they once had been. In The True Story of Hansel and Gretel characters have never known freedom from this war torn Europe. Bloodshed and violence are all that these characters have lived with and therefore we see no other traits other than those that are a direct result of these unfortunate and gruesome circumstances. Throughout this book, the actions of Major Frankel, although looked upon as always evil, give the reader a sense that before these atrocities were committed he had an inherently good heart.

Set in Poland during the German occupation, “The True Story of Hansel and Gretel” is told as a fairy tale, utilizing many of the elements that are common to fairy tales.