Grendel's Argumentative Essay

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The novel Grendel, by John Gardner, revolves around Grendel’s thoughts and beliefs to what life truly means. Grendel’s mind is often pulled in conflicting directions due to the different philosophies of the Shaper and the Dragon. The Shaper tells Grendel how the people view him and it pulls Grendel in the direction of being nicer to people. The Dragon tells Grendel that humans are killing for sport and that Grendel should go out and kill people.The occurrence of the Dragon pulls Grendel in the direction that he shouldn’t be nice to people because of what the humans do for fun. Grendel’s view on the idea of life is torn in different directions due to the Shaper and Dragon’s different, but inspirational philosophies.

Grendel’s mind is often …show more content…

In the novel Grendel is an evil character that attacks and kills multiple humans. Later in the book, Grendel meets the Shaper, and they have a meeting together. The Shaper talks to Grendel about how the people view him and he tries to change Grendel for the better. “ The man had changed the world, had turn up the past by its thick, gnarled roots and had transmitted it his way- and so did I” (Garnder 43). The Shaper talks to Grendel and tries to convince Grendel that he should be nicer to people and people will maybe change how they see him and he will not be an outcast anymore. He tells Grendel that his past is his past and basically that he can have a fresh start with people if he starts to be nice to them. The quote , “It was a cold blooded lie that a god had lovingly made the world and set out the sun and moon as lights to to land-dwellers that brothers had fought, that one of the races was saved, the other cursed. Yet he, the old Shaper, might make it true, by the sweetness of his harp, his cunning trickery. It came to me with a fierce jolt that I wanted it. As they did too, though …show more content…

The Dragon tries to convince Grendel that the humans are bad people and that he should kill them because of their actions. He attempts to persuade Grendel that he shouldn’t be what the Shaper says. “ Ah, Grendel” he said. He seemed that instant almost rise to pity. “ You improve them, my boy! Can’t you see that yourself? You stimulate them! You make them think and scheme. You drive them to poetry, science, religion, all that makes them what they are for as long as they last. You are, so to speak, the brute existent by which they learn to define themselves” (Gardner 72). This specific quotation proves the idea of the negative influence the Dragon has on Grendel because it states that Grendel is the force which humans must kill to destroy him and prove who they are. It is basically stating that the humans are out to get Grendel and it brings Grendel in the direction of being mean. “ I discovered that the Dragon had put a charm on me: no weapon could cut me. I could walk up to the mead hall whenever i pleased, and they were powerless. My heart became darker because of that. Though I scorned them, sometimes hated them, there had been something between myself and men where we could fight. Now, invulnerable, I was as solitary as one live tree in a vast landscape of coal” (Gardner 75-76). Grendel talks

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