The world is full of different philosophical views on life. Nihilism and existentialism and the two viewpoints discussed in the novel Grendel by John Gardner. Both viewpoints have origins tied with philosopher Soren Kierkgaard, but to say that nihilism and existentialism are the same thing would be incorrect. Existentialism posits that the individual takes ultimate responsibility for his/her existence, and that their actions determine their fate. On the other hand a nihilistic person would say that there is no point whatsoever in existence, and that we are just here. In Gardner’s novel, the character Grendel is an existentialist with a fear that equals his yearning for nihilism. Kierkgaard created three stages of existentialism, the aesthetic,
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The dragon is the ultimate nihilist, knowing “the beginning, the present, the end” (62). After Grendel’s conversation with the dragon, he becomes even more depressed about life. He tries to not fall into nihilism by thinking that his purpose in life was to battle the humans, but after a while he doesn’t even see the purpose in that. Everything he does becomes redundant as time goes on. But Grendel never becomes a true nihilist. He shows all the signs, and there are multiple times where he almost falls into it, but never does. One example of this is when he says “Tedium is the worst pain” (138). As Grendel grows more towards nihilism he gets extremely bored; but instead of letting his boredom overcome him, as most nihilists would, he has to find something to relieve himself of this pain. Another example of him avoiding nihilism is that he never kills the queen. Grendel states that killing the queen would be the “ultimate form of nihilism” (93). Killing the Queen would be the ultimate act of nihilism because it is destructive, yet serves no real purpose. But Grendel could not do it. This shows that Grendel hasn’t become a true nihilist at his point. He is still looking for a purpose, even though he slowly believes more and more that he has no purpose. Grendel becomes hopelessly stuck. Nihilism would be the easy way out of his conundrum, but he still has hope left. Hope of finding his purpose, hope of having a
The dragon is the ultimate nihilist, knowing “the beginning, the present, the end” (62). After Grendel’s conversation with the dragon, he becomes even more depressed about life. He tries to not fall into nihilism by thinking that his purpose in life was to battle the humans, but after a while he doesn’t even see the purpose in that. Everything he does becomes redundant as time goes on. But Grendel never becomes a true nihilist. He shows all the signs, and there are multiple times where he almost falls into it, but never does. One example of this is when he says “Tedium is the worst pain” (138). As Grendel grows more towards nihilism he gets extremely bored; but instead of letting his boredom overcome him, as most nihilists would, he has to find something to relieve himself of this pain. Another example of him avoiding nihilism is that he never kills the queen. Grendel states that killing the queen would be the “ultimate form of nihilism” (93). Killing the Queen would be the ultimate act of nihilism because it is destructive, yet serves no real purpose. But Grendel could not do it. This shows that Grendel hasn’t become a true nihilist at his point. He is still looking for a purpose, even though he slowly believes more and more that he has no purpose. Grendel becomes hopelessly stuck. Nihilism would be the easy way out of his conundrum, but he still has hope left. Hope of finding his purpose, hope of having a