Journal 5- Grendel as narrator

Why do you think Gardner made the decision to use Grendel as a narrator?  How does Grendel’s status as a monster affect the way he tells the story?

Grendel, the antagonist in the poem Beowulf, becomes the narrator in Grendel.   In Beowulf and Grendel the humans depict Grendel as an evil-being, something demonic, and not from the heavens; but as we see in the book Grendel, Grendel is shown to be kind-hearted and very naive. Most readers would have not even guessed this side of Grendel if it weren’t for the narration being by him in his self titled book; Gardner may have done this one purpose in his book.  Using Grendel as the narrator was a very good move on Gardner’s part, by using Grendel as narrator he let the readers enter a new world; the world in Grendel’s head, Gardner’s choice is one of the best ways to get into character, and get to know a character in a story without having to go through a second party.  Throughout the story-line we see the growth of Grendel as a narrator and monstrous- human, towards the beginning we see his fears and insecurities; the ram, his cries to the sky and animals around the forest.  We also see his reasoning for his random murders, his belief that humans that do not appreciate the life they’ve been given can be given a different alternative as dinner.  We really get to see behind the scenes in Grendel’s life, we get to view his philosophies and life.  We question why Gardner uses Grendel as the narrator and not some other character in the story, but who else can tell the story of Grendel, then Grendel himself.  Nobody but Grendel would know the emotional and psychological parts of Grendel, therefore making Grendel the narrator creates a greater advantage to understanding the story and the reasons. 

Grendel being a monster affects the way he speaks to us greatly; in the beginning we see his inexperience.  He yells and moans words he does not quite understand, he copies the language of the humans not knowing that nobody understands him but himself.  We also see the way he kills and preys on human life, as mentioned in the beginning we know his reasons for his killing sprees and mockeries.  Yet towards the end we see how he spares life instead of taking them all as he did in the beginning, now that he has understanding and has grown as not only a narrator but as a “person” he begins to put thought into his raids.  He kills all those who “pretend” to be heroic yet spares Unferth whose only desire is to be a hero and then we see how much Grendel has grown when he spares Unferth’s life as mockery to the term hero; Grendel now understands Unferth’s true wants and to fool with him more he does not let Unferth when battles, he defeats Unferth mentally as opposed to physically knowing that Unferth just wants the title of hero.  We also see how he spares Wealtheow’s life only because after his pep-talk with the dragon he gains knowledge of the significance people and things have to life and the earth.  He sees Wealtheow as a “creator,” someone who brings life into the world, just as his mother did and chooses to spare her life as well knowing that if he were to end her life he would be ending more than one.  Grendel’s being a monster of course changes the way the book is written, instead of being written in the eyes and mind of a human it is written in the mind of something/someone mimicking a human.  Someone who is trying to adapt to the styles, habits, ways of a human; making the way the story is told and written much different then a reader is intended to know and/or understand.