Examples Of Postmodernism In Grendel

One of the major philosophies in the novel Grendel is Nihilism. Nihilism is the rejection of moral and religious principles, and the belief that life is small and meaningless. In the first few pages of the novel, John Gardner states that “He cocks his head like an elderly, slow-witted king, considers his angles, decides to ignore me. I stamp. I hammer the ground with my fists. I hurl a skull-size stone at him. He will not budge.” (Gardner, 5). Here is a snippet of Grendel’s hatred towards life and even nature. Throughout the novel, Grendel proves to the reader that he doesn’t really care about anybody except for himself. In this quote, Grendel sees a ram and tries to make it leave, only to fail. The ram just stays where it is and ignores Grendel, even when Grendel yells and throws a large rock at it. As John Gardner states, “I understood that the world was nothing: a mechanical chaos of casual, brute enmity on which we stupidly impose our hopes

John Gardner wrote his book with a purpose, to exploit Grendel in every way and to give readers an understanding about the way he has become. The Anglo-Saxon's didn't want their loyal

The tone of the author is bitter. “In a billion billion billion years, everything will have come and gone several times, in various forms. Even I will be gone. A certain man will absurdly kill me. A terrible pity—loss of a remarkable form of life. Conservationists will howl (Gardner 70). This simply shows that Gardner can be cruel but intellectual. The author’s voice is suitable for the novel and gives me a sense of the place it’s set. The setting is calm and tranquil but has his own uniqueness that differs from what a typical novel’s setting. In comparison, the world that I live in is similar in terms of the four seasons that they experience every year but it also differentiates from the setting in Grendel. Gardner’s writing style is blunt and clever. “It was a cold-blooded lie that a god had lovingly made the world and set out the sun and moon as lights to land-dwellers, that brothers had fought, that one of the races was saved, the other cursed. Yet he, the old Shaper, might make it true, by the sweetness of his harp, the cunning trickery. It came to me with a fierce jolt that I wanted it... I wanted it, yes! Even if I must be the outcast, cursed by the rules of this hideous fable (Gardner

In the novel, Grendel by John Gardener, Grendel is a human-like creature capable of rational thought as well as feeling emotions. Early on in the story Gardener depicts Grendel as being very observant, critical and somewhat spiteful of the world around him. He describes himself as a murderous monster who smells of death and crouches in the shadows. Grendel watches the humans from the shadows of the trees and at first it seems as though they are the real monsters, slaughtering and pillaging all for the sake of their leaders and for power. This light that the humans are put in gives Grendel a certain charisma about him, making him seem like the one to side with in this novel. Later in the story, however, things change. Grendel seeks out the

            There is a stage in everyone’s life where they feel they are not accepted by someone or something. Whether it is because of one’s age, appearance, or emotional and mental stability, a sense of disproval and isolation appears to be glaring through the eyes of society. Throughout Grendel’s life, he is shunned from humanity for he was viewed as something of destruction and harm. However, not one person ever took the time out to see Grendel’s true personality or really discover what he was all about. When facing the realities of the cruel world, Grendel found himself severely struggling with some psychological deficiencies. After performing multiple psychoanalysis tests on Grendel’s behavior, his

person. Good and evil is one of the main conflicts in the poem Beowulf. How

The story of Beowulf is a heroic epic, chronicling the distinguished deeds of the great Geatish warrior, Beowulf, who travels across the seas to rid the Danes of the evil monster Grendel, who has been inflicting destruction and terrorizing the kingdom. Beowulf is glorified for his heroic deeds of ridding the land fiendish monsters and stopping the scourge of evil, while the monster, Grendel, is portrayed as a repugnant creature who deserves death for its evil actions. However, many have disagreed with such a simplistic and biased representation of Grendel and his role in the epic poem. John Gardner in his book, Grendel, sets out to change the reader’s perception of Grendel and his role in Beowulf by narrating the story through Grendel’s point of view. John Gardner transforms Grendel, once perceived as an evil fiend in Beowulf, into a lonely but intelligent outcast who is actually quite similar to humans, due to his intelligence capacity for rational thought and his real, and at times irrational emotions. Gardner portrays Grendel as a hurt individual and as a victim of oppression, ostracized from civilization. Although the two works revolve around the same basic plot,, the themes and characters in Beowulf and Grendel are often different and sometimes contradictory.

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.”

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

Through Grendel‘s perspective, the humans almost seem as if they resembled monsters and savages more than Grendel. The humans based on their actions, show that of savagery and inhumanity. These actions and traits consist of war, wastefulness, and greed. Grendel observes how the humans kill each other as if they weren’t the same species. This perplexes Grendel for the

I noticed that there was a switch in emphasis on the Christian notion of god rather than the pagan ideals of multiple gods as we saw in earlier stories. In this world of early Christianity, as well as in the stories where pagan gods were worshipped, there is favoritism, and most importantly a “just” victor and this is attributed to god’s favoritism upon the hero. In this case, Beowulf defeated -Grendel not only because Grendel was “evil,” but also because “Beowulf was granted/ the glory of winning.” (Lines 817-818)

Grendel is an unreliable narrator in John Gardner’s book Grendel, which describes his life journey to find truth about humanity and himself. Grendel does not display the qualities of an impartial, authoritative, and unbiased narrator in the story, but instead gives the reader cause for suspicion in his narration of events. Firstly, Grendel is inherently biased as a narrator because it comes from the first person point of view. Grendel has a bias to favor himself more positively in the events that transpire over the course of the novel. He displays personal interest and is directly involved in the conflicts that arise. Moreover, Grendel antagonizes and tortures the humans over the course of twelve long years and can lessen his guilt by being deceptive to the reader. He diverts blame for

While facing the death penalty for his criticism of Greek gods, ancient philosopher Socrates once said “An unexamined life is not worth living”. Socrates’ belief in the necessity of scrutinizing life can be found throughout history, in the form of philosophy. In his novel Grendel, author John Gardner depicts the journey of the main character Grendel through a variety of philosophical beliefs. Grendel frequently examines the philosophies he comes across, in order to determine what would be most practical in his life. Through his interactions with other characters, Grendel is exposed to the philosophies of solipsism, sophism, and nihilism, and ultimately rejects the former two as preposterous and destructive while accepting the latter due to

"The mountains are what I define them as.... What I see I inspire with usefulness... and all that I do not see is useless, a void." [28-29] Grendel then sees that the world is how he views it, and his senses make up everything: reality is dynamic. This important conclusion leads him to begin to look around him and form thoughts and opinions on all that he sees, as well as placing him at the first step down the road of the cynical death he suffers. His first impressions

Though he does not actually remember how he’d learned it, John Gardner’s Grendel speaks a language which is similar to that of the human characters in the book and is, therefore, able to understand them. During Grendel’s first encounter with humans, he pleads to them for assistance when he is caught and wounded in a trap. The leader of the humans is Hrothgar who eventually becomes king of the Danes. When Grendel’s cry for help is mistaken for a cry of attack, the humans attack Grendel and wound him more painfully than flesh could be wounded. The first intelligent, speaking beings, with some similarity to himself, which Grendel has encountered, have attacked instead of helped him. It is in this moment that Grendel forms his first opinions of existence; the outside world does not seem to embrace good as he does. In a one-way conversation he has with his mother after the incident (Chapter 2), Grendel says, “ the world resists me and I resist it. That’s all there is. The mountains are what I define them as.” In the statement, “ the mountains are what I define them as”, Grendel starts to form a belief of a sort of reality which does not actually exist. Life is meant to be lived as the owner wishes to live it; it is what you