Grendel Chapter 1

What were your impressions of the First Chapter from Grendel? Why does Grendel describe his life as "the deadly progression of moon and stars" (p. 8) , "depressed" (p.10), " and "life's curse" (p.11). How does he describe his mother? Can you think of anyone in our society that might describe their own life in the same way? Why?

In Chapter 1 of Grendel by John Gardner, Grendel's feelings are immediately shown through his first person perspective. Grendel seems tired of his ordinary life. His life is one big cycle and he is well aware of it. Grendel understands that he kills men and even is used to their funeral rituals. The first animal zodiac in Chapter 1 is the ram. Cycles are continually shown: "spinning a web of words, pale walls of dreams, between myself and all I see" (8). Grendel describes his life as "the deadly progression of moon and stars" (8) because he feels as though he is trapped in his life and he has no hope for a different future. Loneliness is eminent through his constant repetition of his awareness of his same old life. Grendel describes life as "grim," and describes his house as "under the ground where I live, where no light breaks but the red of my fires and nothing stirs but the flickering shadows on my wet rock walls" (9). He has a very pessimistic view of life and that seems fitting, since he has nothing to look forward to, but the same old routine day by day.

Grendel describes his mother on page 9: "or my mother's fat, foul bulk rolling over, restless again- molested by nightmares, old memories- I am aware in my chest of tuberstirrings in the blacksweet duff of the forest overhead." In the following sentence Grendel describes his mother in disgust. He says, "I feel anger coming back, building up like invisible fire, and at last, when my soul can no longer resist, I go up- as mechanical as anything else- fists clenched against my lack of will, my belly growling, mindless as wind, for blood." Therefore, Grendel grows tired with his life with his mother down under the ground, so he angrily rejects that by going above ground to kill. His need for blood reflects his inner struggle for something better in life. Grendel knows that his mother is not going to get anything for him and will just remain down underground, so he goes off in search of something to satisfy himself. However, his quest for blood never really does satisfy his needs.

Someone in today's society, who might describe their life in the same way would be any murderer, who has ever had a bad relationship with their mother. This is because if children are not nurtured to a certain extent by family, then they will not be motivated to be "good" members of society. Therefore, they are more likely to commit criminal acts, since they have nothing better in life to look forward to. They simply subject themselves to the life that society expects them to live, even when it is a bad one.