Grendel's Use Of Objectivity In Chapter 8

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

However, in John Gardner's book, we are given knowledge about Grendel, exposed to his existentialism, and provided many different examples of theories that the Anglo-Saxon's would violently shriek upon hearing. Yet he still portrays him as a monster? One philosophy we are exposed to in Grendel is Plato's "Allegory of the Cave". In this philosophic viewpoint, a man is chained to the ground all of his life facing nothing but a cave wall. The only things he will ever see are the shadows of the objects people walk by the fire with. If a vase were to be held, how would he know what it was besides knowing what the shadow looked like? If he were let out into the real world he wouldn't recognize anything because he would be ignorant to everything but shadows. In Gardner's book, Grendel himself was kept in a cave representing ignorance for most of his childhood. When he finally came out he did nothing but terrorize and eat the people. Is ignorance really such a bad thing under certain circumstances?

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

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 novel, Grendel, the images of isolation and darkness enhanced the character development of Grendel as he encountered loneliness, developed hatred, and became evil. Isolation and darkness were two important images used throughout the novel. In the beginning, baby Grendel was an innocent being. Initially, he did not kill humans for fun, and he only killed animals for food. With each image of isolation and darkness being portrayed, Grendel began to transform into a lonely, depressed, hateful, and ultimately evil character. The primary burden that Grendel had to endure was that he had nobody to develop a relationship with and nobody to love him in return. Therefore, he became consumed with his own loneliness, depression, and

This book review covered the viewpoint of Truth and Perception on the book “Grendel”. From the book, I learned that people who do not feel who fit into the society want to practice such activities because they feel as though they do not fit, though this is just a perception. I believe a perception is a way of seeing society and your surroundings. Grendel underestimates himself thinking that because his reputation is a monster, he has to bring out his monstrous character to defend himself from people because they believe they do not fit in. This also relates to civil rights because like white people did not accept dark-skinned, Grendel was facing the same situation in another aspect. His perception of himself brings out the truth about himself,

In the beginning of the book when Grendel was a small child, he was incredibly lonely but due to the nievnuss of his youth fills his world with imaginary friends. In chapter @#$ he states “Crafty-eyed, wicked as an elderly wolf, I would scheme with or stalk my imaginary friends, projecting the self I meant to become into every dark corner of the cave and the woods above”. This illustrates the alienation that Grendel feels by giving insight to the companionship that he so greatly desires. Imaginary friends can serve a very important role in a social world such as the world Grendel lives in and even the world we live in. As an example a quote by “Psychology Today” states “ Alienated young children often in boarding schools have a tendency to develop imaginary friends to cope with extreme stress or separation. Another quote from chapter one of Grendel states “Not, of course, that I fool myself with thoughts that I'm more noble. Pointless, ridiculous monster crouched in the shadows, stinking of dead men, murdered children, martyred cows. (I am neither proud nor ashamed, understand. One more dull victim, leering at seasons that were never meant to be observed.) "Ah, sad one, poor old freak!" In this moment Grendel shows his firm internal view of himself that he is and always will be an outsider, he's a freak of nature, a creature that has no business existing at all, and therefore does not deserve to be part of the

When looking at monsters, most everyone immediately assumes that it is that of something evil. But, looking into the novel, we see how what most people would judge as a “monster”; how he thinks and feels. Reading and thinking deeper, it truly shows that all assumptions are put to questioning. In the novel “Grendel” , written John Gardner, We really start to look into the personal thoughts of what most of us would consider a monster. It shows the constant battle of thoughts and feeling going on in his head and hows those thought ties to how he observes the “wasteful, greedy, and brutal creatures” of which we would know as mankind. In looking at the bigger picture, Grendel is more human like than monster because of how he thinks, sees,

This passage helps to develop the character of Grendel at the beginning of the novel to show his mental state at the beginning of the book as well as his character as a whole. This quote is used to show that Grendel is alone and he recognizes his only true companion is his shadow because it can never leave him. This allows the reader to get a grasp of how Grendel is as a character and shows his mental thought processes to lead him to the thoughts he does have. This passage contributes to the theme of finding one’s purpose in the world by showing that Grendel has no purpose in the world at the moment and he hasn’t found anything to keep him grounded therefore he is alone and lost.

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

He is depressed about what he experience, only to conclude that humanity will fade away. Despite the fate of man to die, the narrator depended on his faith that God will rescue him from the natural world; he envision the natural world will soon fade. With these two references, it embodies a worldview that life here on Earth is never guaranteed. In modernism, people today search the question about what happens after death, what is the meaning of life, and why I exist. These questions develop the minds of people to rationalize the facts and to experience the true reality themselves. In essence, they are looking for the real reality, only to find a purpose to live here on Earth. Even though Ork’s priests didn’t believe him that he spoke with Grendel, he fully knows the truth about Grendel that most of the Danes don’t know. As a result, they are left in the cave, wondering and pondering about life without having the audacity to look at life. Instead, their mere existence is futile on Earth. John Gardner implemented modernism to show that people’s worldviews are influenced, only to search for the true meaning of

Like a puppy nipping, playfully growling preparing to battle with wolves." [Page 16] In his early years, Grendel shares the naivete of all things youthful, unchained by the perceptions and limitations the mature mind places on reality in its attempt to instill order to a disorganized world. He has, at this point in his life, no rational concept of reality as a whole, he sees it in vague shadow-shapes and imaginary cohorts. In this condition he finds a certain playful joy. While it is an admittedly childish state of mind, he is quite happy at play, as are most children. When the change and growth comes, it brings him down from the ignorant bliss he feels in his immaturity.

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

When Grendel becomes stuck in the tree, the reader plays witness to a more profound aspect of Grendel’s flow of conscious. Grendel says “I understood that the world was nothing: a mechanical chaos of casual, enmity on which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears. I understand that, finally and absolutely, I alone exist... I create the whole universe, blink by blink” (Gardner, p.22). While this style of diction is nothing new for the character, the substance and its implications are most discernibly influenced by the “superego”. This influence is ironic though, as we meet the Dragon, representing the moral and principal based “superego”, after this situation. This gives further evidence to support the idea that Grendel carries these concepts with him, while the characters serve as amplification-like devices, for the benefit of the