Comparing Grendel and Cyberbullies: Modern Monsters

Modern Day Monsters Overcoming Today’s Society

“...A powerful monster, living down/ In the darkness…” (Beowulf, lines 2-3). Throughout the epic poem Beowulf, Grendel was portrayed as a malicious creature with characteristics of an Anglo-Saxon monster. Grendel is envious, angry, and resentful toward mankind. Grendel is the main monster in this epic, which many of the people in Herot feared. By killing many people at once Grendel created a fear that lived in people because of his cowardice, greedy, and inhumane attacks, much like social media and cyberbullying. Many people who sit behind their computer or phone screen posses many of the same traits as Grendel.

The monster, Grendel, and cyberbullies have many things in common. They both have

There are many different instances where he explains his hunger for death. No matter how many people he killed he was never satisfied as described in lines 52-53 of Beowulf, “No savage assault quench his lust / For evil.” Although he had already killed more people that he could count, he always craved more. His greediness also continues to display itself in lines 80- 81, “Killing as often as he could, coming / Alone, bloodthirsty and horrible.” When Grendel would set out to attack the sleeping people he was relentless, and had no cares for the outcome of his actions. As soon as he finished one assault, he would already planning his next one. In lines 278-280 Beowulf states, “Grendel’s plan, I think, will be / What it has been before, to invade this hall / And gorge his belly with our bodies.” This shows how he was willing to kill anyone he could get his hands on--which ultimately reveals his greed. An online attack by a cyberbully is similar to an attack by Grendel in the sense that the attacker is unknown and careless of the victim’s outcome. I feel that cyberbullies are greedy because they do not think of how they are negatively impacting one's self-image or confidence. After being bullied either online or in person you could be affected in many ways. Children traumatized by abuse and victimization have higher rates of all negative psychological and sociological aspects of the human condition ranging from alcohol & drug abuse,

He kills without remorse, “Grendel will carry our bloody / Flesh to the moors, crunch on our bones, / And smear torn scraps of our skin on the walls / Of his den” (Beowulf, lines 283- 286). When Grendel would set out to attack he never thought of the damage that he was doing, nor did he care. Unlike Beowulf, Grendel would kill for pleasure. Similar to Grendel, a cyber bully attacks their target knowing what will come of it. When a comment or image is posted on the internet it is available for anyone to see, “a characteristic of cyberbullying is the possible infinite audience that can witness the evaluations posted online” (Kofoed and Ringrose). A cyber bully has no compassion for the ones they are hurting, which in turn gives them the characteristic of being