Jerry Su, Period 1, 2/6/24

Jerry Su

Pd 1
03/12/24
Modern Mythology 2024

Literacy & Learning

When a reader first flips through the book “Grendel” by John Gardner, they would instantly be greeted by Gardner’s vivid and poetic language. His unique narrative style is written from the perspective of the antagonist from the epic poem “Beowulf.” The way Garner fluently evokes the reader with curiosity has a dramatic effect on the way the reader interprets the novel throughout the novel.

As a reader slowly gains insight into the mind of Grendel, the sense of curiosity is overwritten with empathy and pity. Due to his monstrous nature, even though Grendel’s actions are often very violent and inhumane, it represents his existential struggles to search for a meaning and purpose to life. His actions and thought processes can become all too predictable considering Grendel does not have the mind like a human.

However, through the application of the psychoanalytic critical theory, it becomes clearer that there was more to Grendel than what Gardner wrote about, about him displaying human reactions, adaptations, and thinking despite being a monster. Throughout his time living hundreds to thousands of years, Grendel has never been able to interact with a being that fully understands his feelings. The animals he meets along the way come and go, not paying him any mind and carrying on with their duties. The humans he meets reject him for having a monstrous opinion, and cannot understand his words due to a language barrier. Even his own mother, who should be the only one to resonate with him, does not understand his intentions, as she cannot comprehend thoughts in a human-like manner.

Thus, his experiences of rejection and misunderstanding by the world around him can be interpreted as shaping his development and behavior. These experiences, contributing to isolation and a sense of being an outsider, explains Grendel’s constant striving for validation, to find a purpose in life where he could be on equal footing with everyone else. In a way, we could interpret these actions as an introduction to Grendel’s superego taking control, displaying a more human side to Grendel.

Grendel's feelings of isolation, rage, and existential crises also could have come from repressed emotions or traumas, such as his experiences of rejection and violence at the hands of humans. His attacks on the Danes and his relentless pursuit of meaning could be interpreted as manifestations of these repressed feelings. Due to all of this, a simple guide/gesture of understanding is more than enough to sway Grendel into believing what’s right is right, as when Grendel first met the Dragon. The dragon was the first being to understand Grendel, and it is very understandable why Grendel chose to follow his footsteps after being misunderstood for an incredibly long time.