“There is nothing insignificant in the world. It all depends on the point of view” - Johann wolfgang von goethe.The point of view of a single story is never relevant. What is told is the cold hard truth of what happened. But if a single story is told from another perspective the story always changes. John Gardner's Grendel is an enchanting novel that gives an interesting point of view from a monster, tells a flamiler story, and lets the reader know what happened before the original story began. Grendel tells his own side of the epic story of beowulf viewing himself as the victim to a horrible life instead of the monster everyone thinks he is.
The character Grendel gives a pretty interesting point of view from a villain. The whole book is organized as the narrative of Grendel telling the audience how he sees the world that he lives in. Three elements from the
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Beowulf is one of the oldest stories in literature, the reader knows who Grendel is and the end of the story before they even read the novel. The author uses three tricks to remind the reader of the original story. For example, The author makes a reference to the fire snake pit leading to Grendel’s cave. The reader knew how Unferth felt when he was out of breath and very near death. Another example is that Grendel mentions how he meet king Hrothgar from the original story. Grendel talks about how king Hrothgar grew to power from a young ruler to an old wise king. Grendel explanes “The king snached an axe from the man beside him and, without any warning, he hurled it at me.”- chapter 2 page 27. The righter don't mention the king from that quote was king hrothgar but he did imply it was him. The best example that shows the audience they are reading a flamiler story is the foreshadowing of the fight with beowulf. The famous fight is the part of the story the audience relates to the most, recognizing and anticipating it until it
John Gardner's revolutionary style is not encompassed by a single genre; instead, he mixes first-person narrative and several different literary styles to give the "Ruiner of Meadhalls" a unique voice. The use of first-person narrative is essential to convey Grendel's spiritual growth. Were it not for Grendel's often self-deprecatory tone, which varies from mocking - "big shaggy monster intense and earnest, bent like a priest at his prayers" (72) - to bitter and cynical - "I, Grendel, was the dark side. The terrible race that God cursed" (51) - Grendel would be impossible to relate to. Even Grendel's bouts of insanity - (whispering, whispering. Grendel has it occurred to you my dear that you are crazy?)" are easily understood.
John Gardner’s Grendel brings a new perspective to the the way the story of Beowulf is told and interpreted. (Grendel’s ability to be influenced by the multiple sources around him changes his outlook on life. It also changes the reader’s ideas of who Grendel is as a character as he develops and changes in the book.) Grendel’s ability to be influenced with ease by multiple characters throughout the book shows his true adolescence and nature to follow others. These multiple characters such as the Dragon, the Shaper, and Wealtheow all are able to use their propaganda to instill into Grendel a new value or trait. Grendel’s adolescence therefore results in multiple sources of propaganda being so influential on him as a character. (is the reason why propaganda from many different sources influences him so heavily.)
Throughout John Gardner’s Grendel, the audience bears witness to a creature who has been ostracized by the world around him. Throughout his journey, the stories protagonist tries to live out his own life the way he wants to, despite being labeled as evil by those around him. Due to this constant criticism by his peers, he develops an inferiority complex that he desperately tries to make up for as the story progresses. Throughout his development, Grendel very rapidly moves past his existentialist beginning, through a brief phase of forced skepticism, and into a severely nihilistic point of view.
Authors often have to choose between concentrating on either plot or social commentary when writing their novels; in John Gardener's Grendel, the plot becomes is a secondary consideration. Grendel's exploits provide the reader with a clear understanding of the strong opinions the author carries and can be seen clearly as a narrative supporting nihilism in its many forms. The reader easily perceives the blatant religious subtext in the guise of corrupt priests and the foolish faithful. The notion of the old being wise is unacceptable to Gardener along with any notion of hero idolization. Within his novel, Gardner expresses his views concerning religion, wisdom and nature.
Most authors, occasionally uses their characters to guide their personal views they want to emphasize to their audience. In the novel, Grendel written by John Gardner, Gardner uses Grendel as an agent to portray his perspective of the evil and corrupt world of humans and their place in the universe. Gardner not only uses Grendel as a vehicle, but also uses the Dragon as another source to express his opinions of people in the world. Gardner can be considered as an isolated human being, who is kept away from the affection of others; Grendel and Gardner can be closely related due to the fact that Gardner is embodied as Grendel in a more dimensional aspect. They both seem to contain repugnant thoughts towards the world they are “forced” to live in. The Dragon supports Gardner’s statement by going against the Shaper’s stories, by telling Grendel that life seems to possess no meaning and every story the Shaper tells is to alter the people’s attitudes. While Grendel is conversing with the Dragon, the Dragon mocks the Shaper, “[He] provides an illusion of reality- puts together all their facts with gluey whine of connectedness. [...] But he spins it all together with harp runs and hoots, and they think what they think is alive, think Heaven loves them” (Pg. 65). This proves that humans are weak-minded and are easily persuaded into faulty stories; this puts humans into a low ranking scale of morality. Through Grendel’s observation of Hrothgar’s kingdom, is also considered a source of perspective. Grendel witnesses Wealtheow being used as a balance of harmony between the two rivaling families, the Danes and the Helmings. As Grendel spies on them he thinks to himself, “But she was beautiful and she surrendered herself with the dignity of a s...
In times before printed books were common, stories and poems were passed from generation to generation by word of mouth. From such oral traditions come great epics such as England’s heroic epic, Beowulf. In Beowulf, the monster Grendel serves as the evil character acting against the poem’s hero, as shown by his unnatural strength, beast-like qualities, and alienation from society.
No one knows who wrote Beowulf but we do know who wrote Grendel. John Gardner took the epic Beowulf and added more to the brilliant story. Grendel takes on the same story as Beowulf but from the perspective of Grendel, the beast in Beowulf. The story of Grendel is very interesting because from reading Beowulf it is completely uninspected. In Beowulf Grendel is said to be a disgusting monster that’s only job is to kill. In Grendel we really see him as very nice but turns to be evil because he is pushed into that direction.
Grendel is a classic hero versus villain story, but it’s written through the perspective of the “villain.” In Grendel, a novel by John Gardner, The main character and narrator Grendel watches and gives his input as society advances in many different ways such as divisions of class and war. The book Grendel can also be seen as a first-hand account of the ruinous effects of labels on a malleable-minded individual such as Grendel. In the novel Grendel, John Gardner uses characterization by using the villain archetype to convey the central idea that heavily enforced labels in society can be detrimental on an individual's natural and unique persona.
There are many characters that are involved in the novel, Grendel by John Gardner, which have meaning and we can identify ourselves with them. For example, Grendel is the main character. I will be writing about Grendel because I think he is the most important character of this novel. I like Grendel because he seems like if he was human but, is really an intelligent monster who eats people. What I dislike about Grendel is that he observes people. I don’t like the fact that Grendel basically spies humans. Since, the author identifies the three stages in his live being: childhood, adulthood, and his battle with Beowulf. Grendel is characterized as innocence but, in the other hand as a monster. Grendel was big in size, and had the strength of many. But he was not brave at all. He is described as a large figure with the strength to pick up the weight of a grown man and consume him whole. 1 But, Grendel is shown as somewhat of a
Grendel, written by John Gardner, is a novel based off the early epic poem, Beowulf. Gardner tells the tale in the perspective of the monster, Grendel, who is struggling to understand the purpose of life and his place in the world. In Gardner’s novel, Grendel terrorizes the kingdom of Hrothgar for 12 years, killing men in the night relentlessly. With the descriptions of battles and heroic deeds, Gardener conveys to the reader, the ideals of Anglo-Saxon heroes as courageous, self-righteous, humble, and loyal beings that are humanly flawless. The book Grendel tears down all these fundamental ideologies of Anglo-Saxon heroism by giving Grendel the monster a nihilist perspective that makes heroism sound stupid and meaningless.
John Gardener’s Grendel is another version of the epic Beowulf, except in a differing perspective. This story is retold from the viewpoint of Grendel. Gardener wants us to empathize with Grendel through his own thoughts and emotions. The way one sees the monster in Beowulf is completely different than how one would think of him in Grendel. One is forced to view someone else’s opinion versus getting to form an opinion for oneself.
...owards Grendel. Gardner’s retelling of Beowulf reinforces the universal idea that there are two, if not more, sides to every story. It is prudent to remember that what is monstrous to some may be perfectly normal to others and recognizing all viewpoints can help bring about a truth: good and evil are not always clear-cut.
John Gardner’s Grendel portrays a monster searching for his purpose in life. The characters know the meaning of their lives, but Grendel tries to discover his role and what life has to offer him. Grendel discovers his identity through other characters’ actions and beliefs. In Grendel, John Gardner illustrates the contrasting views of each character to show their view of society and the influence they have on Grendel.
Humans look for some key equation through which they might tie all of the experiences of life and feel the satisfaction of action toward a goal, rather than the emptiness of which sometimes consumes the activities of our existence. However, humans may never find some great pure meaning beyond their mundane existences, because there is none. What there is to be found, however, is the life itself. Humans seek to find meaning so that emptiness will not pervade every thought, every deed, with the coldness of reality as seen by an unemotional eye. Without color, without joy, without future, reality untouched by hope is nothing more than an empty void. Man’s search for meaning is depicted in John Gardner’s Grendel, as Grendel’s perspective and philosophy
The story of Beowulf is a heroic epic chronicling the illustrious deeds of the great Geatish warrior Beowulf, who voyages across the seas to rid the Danes of an evil monster, Grendel, who has been wreaking havoc and terrorizing the kingdom. Beowulf is glorified for his heroic deeds of ridding the land of a fiendish monster and halting its scourge of evil while the monster is portrayed as a repugnant creature who deserves to die because of its evil actions. In the epic poem, Beowulf the authors portrays Grendel as a cold-hearted beast who thrives on the pain of others. 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 set 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 the perceived terrible evil fiend who is Grendel into a lonely but intelligent outcast who bears a striking resemblance to his human adversaries. In Grendel, John Gardner portrays Grendel as an intelligent being capable of rational thought as well as displaying outbursts of emotion. He portrays Grendel as a hurt individual and as a victim of oppression ostracized from civilization. The author of Beowulf portrays Grendel as the typical monster archetype as compared to John Gardner’s representation of Grendel as an outcast archetype.