Journal 5

The villain, Grendel, from Beowulf retells his story from his point of view in the modern novel Grendel. Grendel is highly intellectual and observant, but he is misunderstood by many and is “neither proud nor ashamed” of himself. (Gardner 6) If we look closely at his actions, Grendel kills animals but he doesn’t do it for a sport. He lives of off these animals that he hunts. Grendel constantly questions and cries like a young child would, which lets us see his immaturity to an extent. Grendel is also a very curious creature, in that he believes that this was a spell he cursed with when he was younger, though he is steady like a wild animal and observant of the dealings that go around him. He is ungrateful and has an extreme dislike for humans because they are the reason for his immense hatred of the world. Grendel is a simplistic creature whom does not have many motives for his actions. Grendel’s craving to discover the world around him has gotten his mind entangled in a series of mazes. In the novel he constantly asks “why not” as if expecting to get some type of reply back from the background, which makes him even more frustrated. He possesses many characteristics that can make him similar to humans; they both seek knowledge of the world around them. Very often the ignorance of a creature’s or person’s background will make others more hostile towards it, which generates large conflicts between the two. Grendel also is desperate for some company seeking a friend, seeking somebody to talk to, just someone to keep him company.

Grendel is a very sarcastic, deep, emotional, and self-conscious creature. He constantly judges his persona by calling himself a “poor old freak” (Gardner 6). He is a very pessimistic person, always looking at the negativity of situations and never finding the “bright side” of things. Grendel can’t be blamed for this fact since he has never had the opportunity to really experience the positive aspects of life, or life itself for that matter. The people Grendel meets and the things Grendel does make his outlook on life even more pessimistic and harsh. People usually freak out, attempt to attack him, or even attempt to kill him. The most common immediate reaction when someone sees Grendel is disgust quickly followed by running away. Grendel lives during the same time period as Beowulf in the epic poem Beowulf. Grendel also lives in Denmark since that is the setting of his battle with Beowulf. More specifically Grendel lives at home with his mom in an underwater cave in a forest next to Hrothgar’s kingdom. Grendel spends most of his life in the forest and his cave. He only watches the outer world of men hanging from trees and looking at events as a spectator. Grendel is the symbol of various concepts throughout the narrative. The most prominent of these symbols are evil, human curiosity, and the quest for knowledge. Grendel is known as the son of Cain and is also described as being hideous. These facts show that Grendel himself is an evil monster. Throughout the novel Grendel is on a quest for knowledge. He evolves and learns which is apparent in the varying structures of the text. Grendel shows his curiosity because he watches the humans and is just simply curious during the duration of the novel.