Beowulf And Grendel Relationship

John Gardner’s novel, Grendel, is about the development of Grendel’s character before his encounter with Beowulf. The novel starts out with Grendel in his childhood years feeling strongly connected to his mother. It wasn’t until his first encounter with humans that the bond between him and his mother was completely severed. Following this encounter with humans, Grendel was faced with the challenge of being accepted into society. He is constantly trying to refrain from being socially disconnected with humans. Grendel throughout the novel is trying to connect to society on both a social and philosophical level. After countless tries of trying to fit in, he ultimately fails at the end. Grendel being isolated is driven by loss of connection between

At the beginning of the novel Grendel says, “Why are we here? I used to ask her. ‘Why do we stand putrid, stinking hole?’ she trembles at my words. Her fat lips shake. ‘Don’t ask!’ It must be some terrible secret, I used to think” (Gardner 11). Basically, Grendel is very upset about why his mother won’t tell him about his past. Later, we find out Grendel is related to Cain, and we can infer that Grendel’s Mother didn’t want him to find out about his past. Before Grendel cuts off his mother Grendel states “She loved me, in some mysterious sense I understood without her speaking it. I was her creation” (Grendel 17). In other words, Grendel is realizing that his mother and him still have a bond without communicating with each other. After Grendel got stuck in a tree, he screams “Mama! Waa! Waaa!” (Grendel 18) shortly after he realizes no one is going to come. After Grendel gets back to the cave, he comprehends that him and his mother are completely different, but in his childhood years he thought they were the same. Grendel realizes that he is isolated when no one comes to rescue him. His connection with his mother is broken. However, throughout the novel Grendel’s Mother tries to communicate with Grendel by saying “Dool, Dool” (Grendel 145). In other words, Grendel’s Mother is trying to communicate with him but she lacks the intelligence. Also, Gardner is trying to suggest to us that Grendel’s Mother is trying to reach out to Grendel to reconnected. In the end his connection with his mother will never be like it was in his early years of his