The Perspective Of Nature In John Gardner's Grendel

The meaning to one’s existence is a constant search for mankind. In their lifetimes they experience various events that transform their views on the world. In turn changing their view of their very own existence. In John Gardner’s Grendel, Grendel’s perspective of himself in a mindless and mechanical natural world, illustrates the idea that one’s perspective on existence stems from experience. Grendel’s surroundings and various encounters help shape his view of an indifferent and unsympathetic natural world. From birth Grendel has always been alone and misunderstood. He turned to the stoic and peaceful nature that he thought would accept him as kin. Only to find out that the world he knows is but a very mindless and mechanical world. This …show more content…
While Grendel’s overall perspective of nature is that of mindless and mechanical machine, he believes that he is a separate entity from this machine. Yet his only companion, the omniscient Dragon, says otherwise. In fact the Dragon only sees Grendel as a mere unimportant pebble. This idea of unimportance is further displayed in Grendel’s vision, “I recall something. A void boundless as a nether sky. I hand by the twisted roots of an oak, looking down into immensity…I pause in my tracks, puzzled” (Gardner 157). This vision symbolizes Grendel’s unimportant life, which was expressed by the Dragon. Despite being conscious of the void of eternity that renders his life meaningless, he still clings to the idea of individuality from this abyss and nature itself. While the vision illustrates Grendel’s unimportance, it can also be perceived as his own mortality. Like all beings within nature, are constantly propelling themselves unto their deaths, making Grendel no different. He is reminded of this fact when he witnesses the death of a deer, “Suddenly time is a rush for the hart: head flicks, he jerks, his front legs buckling, and he’s dead. He lies as still as the snow hurtling outward around him to the hushed world’s rim. The image clings to my mind like a growth. I sense some riddle in it” (Gardner 127). The sight of the dying hart, male deer, mainly symbolizes the …show more content…
Thus far, Grendel has concluded nature as a mindless machine that propels itself until its demise and has learned of his very own demise. In comparison to this limited scope of life and experience, the Dragon who is omniscient, seeing all past, present, and future, sees this perspective of nature as laughable. While the Dragon finds Grendel’s perspective of existence laughable, he finds the Danes even more so, as they are limited by their lack of experience and short lifetimes. While the Dragon’s unlimited view describes existence as, “A swirl in the stream of time. A temporary gathering of bits a few random dust specks, so to speak-pure metaphor, you understand-then by chance a vast floating cloud of dusk speck, an expanding universe-” (Gardner 70). This quote by the Dragon nicely outlines his view of the universe. He finds individuals’ lives unimportant and meaningless in the context of the eternity that is his life. Seen through his description, as he calls existence a temporary gathering of few random dust specks. His word choices of few, dust specks, and temporary emphasize the idea of unimportance of existence other than his own. The Dragon particularly despises the Dane’s idea of existence seen through his rant, “‘Games, games, games!’ He snorted fire, ‘they only think they think. No total vision, total system, merely schemes with vague