Grendel vs. Grendel

A detailed Summary of Grendel vs. Grendel

In the epic poem Beowulf, Grendel is seen as pure evil and nothing more. He brings bad things and he kills loved ones. The epic poem just shows him as a monster who needs to be killed. In John Gardner's novel, Grendel, the monster is showed as bringing good things through his evil, like art and poetry. Grendel is also depressed and confused. He is confused about how he should view life. In the end it doesn't matter because he is still confused and the humans kill him.

Grendel, as shown in John Gardner's novel, is a story of the struggle of good versus evil. John Gardner shows that neither good can not exist without evil. Just like beauty and ugliness, good and evil are only definitely in contrast of one another. If there was nothing that was beautiful then nothing could be ugly. So, having no such thing as good would make evil non-existent. In Grendel, Gardner describes this concept with a confused and depressed monster and the society of humans he terrorizes.

Also, Grendel could not survive without the good humans. He thrives off of killing people, not because he is hateful, but because it gives him a purpose in life. The songs of the Shaper drive him to do evil things. Grendel understands that the songs are important to him and his life, but he still doesn't like them.

The novel, Grendel, and the epic poem, Beowulf, in my opinion aren't really talking about the same Grendel. It is still the same story, but not the same character. In the novel we understand Grendel and we understand why he did the evil things that he did. We find out that he is confused about his life. The story is really about the struggle between good and evil and how one can't exist without the other. Grendel is evil and good and so are the humans. They both do bad things and they both do good things. The epic poem is just a story about a hero, Beowulf, that comes from another land to save the day. The poem doesn't show anything about what Grendel was feeling. Maybe, in the poem, he was

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Approximate Word count = 687
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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Grendel vs. Grendel

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