CHANGING PERSPECTIVES
a look at the novel
Grendel by John Gardener
GRENDEL
ENGLISH III
MS. KUCINSKI
BEOWULF TO GRENDEL
Beowulf
• Little motivation for Grendel’s action
• Little background/history about Grendel
• Little perspective given from Grendel’s point of view
Grendel
• Fills in the gaps for us
•Grendel says he is a mammal and he thinks his mother has some
human in her
•Gives Grendel a voice- he talks, reasons, feels, and expresses
emotional pain
WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT
• Grendel is struggling to find
meaning for his existence
• He is also looking for
meaning of the men who he is
intimately connected with
(the Danes)
•The novel is an opposing
view to the Beowulf’s poet’s
admiring description of the
Geats and the Danes
HISTORICAL FACTORS
• Gardner wrote the novel around the time of
the Vietnam War (1955-1975)
• American’s vision of itself was noble, on the
side of freedom and democracy, and against
repression and communism
STRUCTURE
• 12 Chapters
- Five are the actual story (1, 9-12)
- The rest are backgrounds and flashbacks
• Background establishes
-Danish history
- Character
- The Feud between Grendel & Hrothgar
GRENDEL’S PERSPECTIVE
• Through the flashbacks:
- Older Grendel looks back at his younger self to understand
his motives
• A confession
- Grendel is confessing to the reader
- Refuses forgiveness because of his belief that everything is
an accident and nothing matters.
GRENDEL’S “ISMS”
• Solipsism:
- The belief in the self as the only reality
- The belief that the only thing somebody can be sure
of is that he/she exists
- The true knowledge of anything else is impossible
•Nihilism:
- The belief that life is pointless and human values
are worthless
- The belief that there is no objective truth
THEMES
• The nature of language (and stories)
and its power to create and destroy
worlds
• The struggle between good and evil is
often an oversimplification (more
behind the story)
• The consequences of isolation
• How we define “Hero” or good
• How we judge the “Villain” or evil
POSTMODERNISM
• Post Modernism in literature has developed since the
1960’s
• A literary movement that accepts the fragmented
nature of human existence
• The recognition of Me over We
• Challenges the traditional and accepts views of the
truth, ethics, and beauty
• The view considers that truth, ethics, and beauty are
rooted in the individual
THE ANTIHERO
• A post-modern archetype
• They are not a set character like the
Hero or the Villain
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
ANTIHERO
• The Antihero is complex and fractured, often mirroring the society
they live in
• The Antihero is someone with some of the qualities of a villain (such
as brutality, cynicism, ruthlessness) but the soul or motivations of a
conventional hero
• Generally feels helpless in a world which they have no control over
• While sometimes they might be courageous or strong, it is on their
own terms and is inconsistent
CHARACTERISTICS
CONTINUED…
• Usually accepts and sometimes celebrates
their position as an outcast
• For the Antihero there is no clean resolution of
conflict
• Often, they ignore the rules/consequences
imposed by society
CHARACTERISTICS
CONTINUED…
• Rejects societal values, and is unconcerned
with political establishment
• Has their own codes of rules or ethics
• May be crude, a failure, dishonest, or angry
• Often feels “the end justifies the means”
• They are rarely pleasant, but they are
relatable
EXAMPLES OF THE ANTIHERO
AN ANTI-HERO IS TYPICALLY CLUMSY, UNSOLICITED,
AND UNSKILLED AND HAS BOTH GOOD AND BAD QUALITIES.
• Holden Caulfield
• Grendel
• Batman
• Sherlock Holmes
• Shrek
• Peter Griffin
• Dexter
• Catwoman
• Wolverine
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