How Does Beowulf Influence Grendel's Monster Image

Decent Essays
In John Gardner's, Grendel, the protagonist, Grendel goes through major changes about the way he views life and the way he views himself. Of course there are times where he comes to conclusions on his own due to his isolation from the real world, but there are antagonists in the story that do impact Grendel’s image like his mother, the dragon, and beowulf.
Grendel is an evil, selfish, pitiful, cynical monster. He tends to put himself on a higher pedestal than the the rest, but the reader puts Grendel on a lower pedestal than others because he thinks too highly of himself. When Grendel talks about his mom or cries for her help, the evil monster image goes away for a while; this is only a temporary change in Grendel’s attitude. For example,

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