Imagery In Grendel

The sign “Aries” is a sign that gives Grendel both aggressive and impulsive actions. Aries is the sign of chapter 1, and it introduces Grendel and his known ability to lose his temper. Aries is cleverly shown in this chapter by a ram approaching Grendel nonchalantly. Grendel, with no real reason, gets very angry at the ram and throws stones at it. Similar, Grendel also shows his repressed rage with his confusing anger towards the sky. Grendel “asks the sky [a question]. The sky says nothing, predictably.

Grendel discovers and begins to gain the understanding/knowledge of different concepts such as power, etc. In addition, he observes how humans interact with one another throughout the twelve years of war; Yet, his attempt to communicate with humans gives him the title horrific monster. This leads to his loneliness and isolation from everyone. Furthermore, Grendel is left without any companion. Grendel can be best described as a monster who has human qualities but can be both rational and irrational. In Chapter 1, Grendel has an outburst because of the ram that appears.. “I stamp. I hammer the ground with my fists. I hurl and skull-size stone at him. He will not budge. I shake my two hairy fists at the sky and let out a howl so unspeakable that the water at my feet turns sudden ice and even I myself am I left uneasy.” This demonstrates how Grendel is hostile and belligerent. His emotions get the best of him and blinds his consciousness and awareness of how harmful he can be towards

In the novel, Grendel by John Gardener, Grendel is a human-like creature capable of rational thought as well as feeling emotions. Early on in the story Gardener depicts Grendel as being very observant, critical and somewhat spiteful of the world around him. He describes himself as a murderous monster who smells of death and crouches in the shadows. Grendel watches the humans from the shadows of the trees and at first it seems as though they are the real monsters, slaughtering and pillaging all for the sake of their leaders and for power. This light that the humans are put in gives Grendel a certain charisma about him, making him seem like the one to side with in this novel. Later in the story, however, things change. Grendel seeks out the

Grendel exhibits human feelings and characteristics in many ways. Although Grendel is a monster “forced into isolation by his bestial appearance and limited imagination” (Butts) he yearns to be a part of society; he craves

He never found companionship with his mother, so when he did not receive acceptance from the humans, he became very angry. Grendel began to attack the humans, and his reign of terror against them lasted for 12 winters. Grendel desired friendship with the humans, but his outrage led to the war against them. Grendel describes himself and says, “I’m a machine, like you. Like all of you. Blood-lust and rage are my character (chapter 8, p. 123).” Grendel terrorizes the humans by feasting on their flesh and bones, and he declares that his killing is in his character, and it cannot be

In the novel, Grendel, the images of isolation and darkness enhanced the character development of Grendel as he encountered loneliness, developed hatred, and became evil. Isolation and darkness were two important images used throughout the novel. In the beginning, baby Grendel was an innocent being. Initially, he did not kill humans for fun, and he only killed animals for food. With each image of isolation and darkness being portrayed, Grendel began to transform into a lonely, depressed, hateful, and ultimately evil character. The primary burden that Grendel had to endure was that he had nobody to develop a relationship with and nobody to love him in return. Therefore, he became consumed with his own loneliness, depression, and

In John Gardner’s Grendel, his theme can be interpreted in several manners. I see it as the author is trying to have the reader sympathize with Grendel. Others may think that Gardner is trying to make Grendel seem more monstrous; more evil. The author’s intentions are portrayed by explaining Grendel’s experiences prior to facing off Beowulf.

Grendel in a situation where he is feeling different emotions that make him act a certain way. Every time Grendel terrorizes human beings, it seems vile and full of hate, but that is not the intention. People fail to acknowledge why the relationship between Grendel and humans is full of hate. The awful relationship started off when they started off with a negative impression due to the lack of communication. Grendel became scared of the humans and the only thing the humans can do is defend themselves when they see an enormous monster. While Grendel knows of his evil deeds he is still confused about what his true identity is. This failure to figure out his identity is what Grendel seems to try and achieve throughout the novel. It is not easy for him because of the position he has in life. Grendel does not truly know his place in the world and he strives throughout his life to find the answer.

Anxiety is portrayed throughout “Grendel” is multiple parts of the novel, Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard once stated “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” This means that you feel anxiety because you recognize that you and you alone are responsible for your actions. This produces the two-sided feeling of simultaneous dread and exhilaration. The most noticeable view of this portrays itself at the end of chapter nine with Grendel feeling immense dread as he stumbles through the forest. In this moment, Grendel wants to go through time to see the dragon. Everything alive is asleep or dying. He is waiting for winter to move on, so everything can be alive again. Grendel yearns for life to show itself again come spring due to that his life

“An evil person is like a dirty window, they never let the light shine through.” Stated by William Makepeace Thackeray, this idea of “never letting the light shine through” aptly portrays Grendel’s evil and monstrous figure even though Grendel himself is not a person. Living in a world of loneliness, Grendel searches for the meaning of his own life, attempting to discover the “good” aspects that life brings instead of focusing on the evil individual he was predestined to be. Grendel manages to discover and gain knowledge about life’s various “good” qualities from his enemies, the humans. Although Grendel is exposed to these qualities by the humans, he never changes his approach to life, continuing to behave evilly like

"The mountains are what I define them as.... What I see I inspire with usefulness... and all that I do not see is useless, a void." [28-29] Grendel then sees that the world is how he views it, and his senses make up everything: reality is dynamic. This important conclusion leads him to begin to look around him and form thoughts and opinions on all that he sees, as well as placing him at the first step down the road of the cynical death he suffers. His first impressions

Grendel, is thus seen as the descendant of an individual who epitomizes resentment and malice in Beowulf. The author states Grendel lives in exile and is seen as “mankind’s enemy”(Raffel, 22). Grendel is the representation of all that is evil and he is declared to be the “shepherd of evil and the “guardian of crime”(Raffel, 33) by the Danes in Beowulf. The author describes Grendel to be an evil, cruel, apathetic creature who’s pleasure lies in attacking and devouring Hrothgar’s men. The author describes Grendel’s malice by painting a gruesome picture of Grendel’s countless attacks on the mead hall in which he exhibits Grendel as a heartless, greedy, and violent being who mercilessly murders the men at the mead hall by tearing them apart, cutting their body into bits and drinking the blood from their veins. The author describes Grendel’s greed by stating Grendel’s thoughts were as “quick as his greed or his claws”(Raffel, 21). He describes Grendel’s as having eyes that “gleamed in the darkness and burned with a gruesome light”, swift hard claws and great sharp teeth which paints a picture of Grendel’s frightening appearance in the reader’s mind. In contrast to the traditional story of Beowulf, Grendel in John Gardner’s novel, Grendel is not depicted as a monster but as an intelligent creature capable of human thought, feelings and speech. John Gardner portrays Grendel as an outcast

Grendel is a very complex book as in there are many symbolism’s, comparisons, and themes. The chapters in Grendel compare to many Zodiac signs. In chapter seven it compares to the Zodiac sign of Libra, which mean scales. The meaning of these scales is balancing the scales of life. These could include man v. man, Grendel v. man, and Grendel v. Grendel.

When I am thinking of my novel, “The leveller”, I think that my author uses imagery to paint a setting pretty well. I say she uses imagery to paint a picture pretty well because on page 62 it says, “ I usually encounter: clothes on the floor,empty soda cans,burrito wrappers,posters of teams or that TARDIS on the wall (depending),and an oversized computer monitor,extra smudged.” This example made me image a Wyn’s room since she is not a typical teenage boy. And my thought on this is he can’t take care of himself well because he has to be hooked up to a machine so he can’t clean up after himself that well. Another example is on page 60 the author explains an older women sitting in Wyn’s room sitting next to Wyn. The author says, “ she wears

Our first character, Grendel, is an exceptionally diverse character. It is implied that in both book and poem, Grendel is a blood-thirsty monster. All Grendel does is go through