Readers often depend on imagery, a literary technique that uses clear descriptions and directs characters to their senses, in storytelling to indicate the critical elements in a narrative. It helps our readers visualize the scene and comprehend the importance of the situation. In my own opinion, a well-written scene can be extremely consequential and thought-provoking with the use of imagery, possibly even more so than a picture. In literature, this method is no different. Authors will depict characters and scenarios in specific detail when they believe that it is essential to the narrative. John Gardner uses imagery to point out a characteristic feature, themes, motifs, and symbols. A creative author paints the reader a picture so that we can visualize the setting, expressions, mood, with crisp details. In Grendel, imagery is used as a …show more content…
The three animals of the novel come to embody Grendel’s comprehension of nature as unconcerned and mechanical. At the beginning of the novel, the ram annoys Grendel because of how it mindlessly succumbs to its meaningless and mechanical urges. Next comes the bull who can’t do any real pain to Grendel, since he can simply dodge the bulls horns, but it constantly tries to storm at Grendel without adjusting its method in any way. Grendel finds the bull’s ignorance and inability to think entertaining, laughing mockingly at the creature. Yet, many times in the novel he criticizes himself for being as “mechanical as anything else.” We witness his drastic irritation expressed during his confrontation with the goat, which clearly and distortedly regards the plight of the machine. These types of imagery represent part of the character that is Grendel. Unlike the ram, which vexes Grendel, and the dumb bull, which entertains him, the goat torments him with its idiotic persistence that finally pushed him over the
...n very human feelings of resentment and jealousy. Grendel was an unstable and saddened figure because of his outcast status. Though Grendel had many animal attributes and a grotesque, monstrous appearance, he seemed to be guided by vaguely human emotions and impulses. He truthfully showed more of an interior life than one might expect. Exiled to the swamplands outside the boundaries of human society, Grendel’s depiction as an outcast is a symbol of the jealousy and hate that seeks to destroy others' happiness and can ultimately cripple a civilization. This take on the outcast archetype ultimately exposes the Anglo Saxon people’s weaknesses, their doubts and anxieties towards the traditional values that bounded nearly every aspect of their life.
“ The horizon was the color of milk. Cold and fresh. Poured out among the bodies” (Zusak 175). The device is used in the evidence of the quote by using descriptives words that create a mental image. The text gives the reader that opportunity to use their senses when reading the story. “Somehow, between the sadness and loss, Max Vandenburg, who was now a teenager with hard hands, blackened eyes, and a sore tooth, was also a little disappointed” (Zusak 188). This quote demonstrates how the author uses descriptive words to create a mental image which gives the text more of an appeal to the reader's sense such as vision. “She could see his face now, in the tired light. His mouth was open and his skin was the color of eggshells. Whisker coated his jaw and chin, and his ears were hard and flat. He had a small but misshapen nose” (Zusak 201). The quotes allows the reader to visualize what the characters facial features looked like through the use of descriptive words. Imagery helps bring the story to life and to make the text more exciting. The reader's senses can be used to determine the observations that the author is making about its characters. The literary device changes the text by letting the reader interact with the text by using their observation skills. The author is using imagery by creating images that engages the reader to know exactly what's going on in the story which allows them to
In the first chapter of the novel, Grendel uses mechanical imagery, perhaps the most noteworthy instance of the many mechanical images and character traits that appear throughout this narration. This starts the beginning of a theme with a major use of imagery that travels throughout the story. In Chapter 1 on page 9, Grendel begins to recount the cycle of the seasons as “cold mechanics of the stars”, a cold and unfeeling progression that puts him into a routine, infinite loop. Grendel even describes himself as a mechanical beast at the same time. “When my soul can no longer resist, I go up, as mechanical as anything else, fists clenched against my lack of will...”. All of his senses are seen as calculated, all except for three specific instances
Grendel as a character is very intelligent, he is capable of rational thought at all times. Because of this, at sometimes during the story I would forget Grendel is a monster, the way he acts in his thoughts and actions I would mistake him for a human; at times I was even feeling bad for Grendel because he is a very lonely person who tries to understand all of the meaningless of the world around him. Grendel can never get to close to
No. Compared to the humans, Grendel is also an intelligent being, capable of thinking, speaking, and rationalizing. An animal is therefore, not what he is. He murmurs stuff to himself constantly and even when he talked to humans they were able to somewhat comprehend that he was speaking, and could understand what he was saying. “’Come, come,’ I said. ‘Let me tell them I was sent by Sideways-Walker’” (Gardner 83). Grendel is also capable of thought; “Strange thoughts come over me. I think of the pastness of the past” (Gardner 146). When Grendel’s leg was caught between two trees and was sustaining continuous attacks from a bull, who was charging at him, he was able to think, and rationalized that the bull would always strike low. “He struck too low, and even in my terror I understood that he would always strike too low…” (Gardner 21). Control over one’s action is one of the few perks intelligent being have in their nature. As we have deciphered in the previous paragraphs, Grendel is considered an intelligent being, but still he chooses to do harm to others at his own will. As mentioned, animals lack the ability to rationalize or even think, so they kill, because they need to. But Grendel on the other hand is intelligent, so he killed with purpose, whether they are foul or honest “I settled my soul on destroying him—slowly and cruelly” (Gardner 30). This proves that even with the presence of free
T.S. Eliot, a poet, playwright, and literary critic, once stated, “People exercise an unconscious selection in being influenced.” Naturally, every experience people have and every person they meet leaves an impact on their lives. Whether positive or negative, outside influences can alter the way one thinks, acts, and even views the world. In John Gardner’s novel, Grendel, Grendel encounters numerous characters who play vital roles in the shaping and development of his overall persona. Though much of Grendel’s time was spent in his cave or spying in the woods, what minimal public contact he actually shared spurred major lasting impressions. He learned from each individual character and was exposed to their different ideas and ways of life. With each short encounter and new observation, Grendel was significantly influenced through his relationships with the other creatures, the humans, and his own family.
In the book, Grendel, by John Gardner, the author describes Grendel as more human than a monster. For instance, Grendel claims that, “it is a matter of fact that I have never killed a deer in all my life, and never will” (Gardner 8). This shows that Grendel is a kind person who would never hunt animals. This also means that Grendel cares about the animals and he know that they are scared of him. He also goes on and explains that these animals don’t know what is going on around them and they are like an innocent people.
Imagery is when the author uses detail to paint a picture of what’s happening. This is shown when Kendra is looking out of the window, “...fixed her gaze on a particular tree, following it as it slowly approached, streaked past, and then gradually receded behind her..” (1). This is imagery because you can imagine the tree flying past. These literary devices help deepen the plot of the
Grendel comes to this idea when he has his first existential crisis in the scene where a bull continuously tries to attack him in the same fashion over and over again. This is when Grendel comes to the realization that only he exists. He says, “I understood that, finally and absolutely, I alone exist. All the rest, I saw, is merely what pushes me, or what I push against, blindly-as blindly as all that is not me pushes back” (22). Grendel is referring to the mechanical and instinctual way that the bull attacks, it is the same way the bull would attack against any threat, be it an earthquake or a bird. Grendel feels that he is the only truly sentient being in the whole world at this point, making him feel isolated, and in a way superior to every other being in the forest. He believes that he is the creator of the whole world, everything and every being in the world is simply driven by “...casual, brute enmity…” (22), and only he is the aberration to this state of mindlessness. This existential crisis sets the stage for Grendel’s later musings about life and meaning by setting up his feelings of isolation from others and his loneliness because of this
Imagery is when the author presents a mental image through descriptive words. One prime example of imagery that the author uses is in paragraph 3; where she tells of a moment between a man and a woman. In this narration she states the time, year, outfit of each character described, and what the female character was doing. These details might come across as irrelevant, or unnecessary, but this is Didions way of showing what the blueprint of notebook it. Using imagery reinforces the foundation of the essay, and what the essay’s mission was.
The writer uses imagery, because he wants to let the readers into his mind. By describing the scene for the readers, makes the readers fell like they were there. Therefore, it gives us a better ability to emphasize with him.
Grendel’s point of view as a narrator adds an added sense of violence to the scene, which suggests that absurdism is useless, as absurdism ultimately decay into nihilism due to the chaotic nature of life.
The presence of a bull prompts a shift in Grendel’s purpose in life from remaining obedient to his mother as a young child to being the creator of the world as he transitions into adulthood. As a young monster, Grendel motive’s coincide with his mother since she is the only person who Grendel is able to communicate with. He feels “Of all the creatures I knew, only my mother really looked at me...We were one thing, like the wall and the rock growing out from it… ‘Please, Mama!’ I sobbed as if heartbroken” (Gardner 17-19). His emotions demonstrate that as a child, he doesn’t consider himself as an individual but rather as embodying the same identity as his mother, which is further emphasized by the use of the simile. Additionally, Grendel’s use
Grendel feels like an outcast in the society he lives in causing him to have a hard time finding himself in the chaotic world. He struggles because the lack of communication between he and his mother. The lack of communication puts Grendel in a state of depression. However, Grendel comes in contact with several characters with different philosophical beliefs, which allows his to see his significance in life. Their views on life influence Grendel to see the world in a meaningful way.
In chapter two, while innocently adventuring, Grendel traps his foot in a crack between two old trees and, suddenly, a bull defending a calf begins to attack Grendel. After one successful stab at his knee, Grendel finds an easy way to avoid nearly all of the bull’s lunges. Before long, the repetitive, mechanical bull hardly even phases Grendel. The bull, unlike Hrothgar and his men, incompetently flings itself at Grendel’s tree the same way it would fight anything Like the ram, the bull’s stupidity contrasts Grendel from the common beast that doesn’t “even know that the calves they defend are theirs.” (20) The bull’s “brute enmity” (22) is compared to mankind’s competence when Hrothgar and his men attack Grendel. Although the men are smaller and less physically capable than the bull, Grendel calls them “the most dangerous things [he]’d ever met” (26) simply because of the...