Essay on "John Gardner's Grendel and Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon"

Essay 4 pages (1199 words) Sources: 1

[EXCERPT] . . . .

John Gardner's Grendel & Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

John Gardner's Grendel

The Ancient epic poem of Beowulf has a Geatish hero as its protagonist and follows him as he goes to Denmark to fight of a beast by the name of Grendel. In response to the English legend, John Gardner has written a parallel novel describing the life of Grendel, from his early days and until his death. One cannot actually claim that there are differences between the character in the epic poem and the one in Gardner's novel. Gardner has apparently attempted to present the public with the true nature of Grendel, reminding people of how shallow they can be when they label someone. As presented by Gardner, Grendel is an authentic hero that goes through a series of challenges which help him in discovering himself.

By presenting the audience with another representation of Grendel, Gardner has virtually done something which a great number of readers had thought of. A lot of people have gotten tired of reading archetypal legends relating to a hero coming to save people by killing a monster. In spite of the fact that Grendel had been described as being an evil monster in the legend of Beowulf, people have disregarded that fact that the creature did not get the chance of explaining itself, with the general public having already categorized it on the basis of its appearance. On the whole, Gardner puts forward a classical motive present in human society: hatred because of differentiation. When Grendel wants to join people in the hall, they respond violently, attempting to kill it because they do not understand him.

Grendel initially thinks of it and its mother as being one and the same, the thought of them ever separating being far from him. Even with that, at the moment when it gets stuck in a tree, it realizes that it is on his own in this world, with no one being willing to help it when it comes across difficult times. This event makes Grendel understand that it has separated from its mother, being left with no other option than to embrace life in solitude.

Its attempt to join Hrothgar's band is part of his initiation, as he learns that people cannot consider him their equal, even with the fact that he believes that he is very similar to them. This rejection contributed in building his character, influencing Grendel's repulsion towards humans. Even when he is certain that people could never accept its presence it partially feels compassion for them, unwilling to impose his power over them.

In spite of its monstrous appearance, Grendel is very emotional and cannot simply accept that it will never be part of the human community. Thus, it constantly attempts to understand what it is that has humans accept one another, wanting to integrate society by learning its laws. Grendel receives instructions from various sources all across its evolution from the time that it enters the world of humans and until the final scene where it fights Beowulf.

The dragon generally appears to be well-intended when concerning its advices for Grendel, even with the fact that its perception of life has a rather nihilistic character. While the counseling that it receives from the dragon sheds light on Grendel's understanding of life, it appears to ignore the creature's belief that there is no actual reason for living. In contrast to the dragon, the Shaper presents life in a much better light, giving Grendel reasons to believe that everything happens for a reason, and not randomly, as the dragon had said.… READ MORE

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