Human begins drift through their lives with little to no knowledge of their true selves for they are so impressed upon by the restrictions of society that the boundary between the true, individual self and the societal self is rarely, if ever defined. In John Gardner's novel, "Grendel" the boundary between the society and the individual is made strikingly clear through Grendel's acts of rebellion aganist social acceptance (i.e. conformity). It is also through Grendel's knowledge of self that Hrothgar and this thanes are able to define themselves as the collective, or the accepted society. As Grendel declares war upon his foes, murdering them in a most grizzly fashion, he establishes himself as the individual, set apart form the thanes that become the embodimet of society as a whole. While Gardner illustrates this boundary, forged in the blood of those eaten by his monster, he also provides a great deal of socially relevant commentary that is applicable to modrn man as well as his predecesors.
As the final, yet bitter words of the dragon reverberate in Grendel's mishapen ears, a truth is realized for the first time within the text. Grendel is, and will forever be, an indiviaul, set apart from society by not only his apperance, but his basic nature as well. "You are, so to speak, the brute existence by which they [humanity]learn to difine themselves" (73). It would be these words that Grendel would lodge within his mind and heart, allowing them to erode the basic foundation upon which Grendel viewed life and his own being. Now, without soul or conscience, Grendel was free to raid and murder his human counter-parts, thusly establishing a seperate identiy by his refusal to conform to society's standards. It would be this boundary that truly established both Grendel as an individual and the thanes of the meadhall as the collective.
John Gardner created an epic tale wherein the past was once again vibrant and alive within the minds of modern men;however, embeded within this tale of struggle and woe, lies another more complex design. As the reader views the thoughts and actions of this unholy beast, he also views the establishment of a boundary between the societal self and the true individual. Although in the end, Grendel's death (or rather his own murder), serves as the reminder that the individual cannot surive apart from the society as a whole, for the brief strggle that proceeded this event, Grendle did prove that the establishment of a boundary between the self and the society is entirely possible. Perhaps this socially relevant commentary was a mere fluke, a chance coincidence by which the author unintensionally wrote of the issues facing modern society, yet agian maybe it was not. In the end all that is of importence is that the reader of this gastly tale recognize the embeded and social commentary that "Grendel" offers. Should one realize that they are themselves and avid reader of socially significant literature, then perhaps the sub-text wtihin "Grendel" is the ultimate read of the century.
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