Afternoon of Alterity - Nazareth College

murderer that he once was. He has become a student who believesin having an ethical code. Grendel is now modern. Farrell statesthat “the language spoken to Grendel from the dragon is simple,yet the language speaks to the post modern age. Conformity mustbe rebelled against. Simple portrayals of good and evil are not to betrusted” (938). Gardner “plays with polar extremes and tweaks hisnovel in order to create a more sympathetic Grendel” (938). Gardneris changing the paradigm and exposing truths about human culture.The reader is seeing Grendel as a victim of a corrupt society. Heis not the predator any longer; he is the sympathetic victim. Thecontext in which Grendel was once viewed has been overturned,and Grendel is now a character capable of more rational thoughtthan any Dane or Geat in Beowulf. The audience feels for Grendelbecause his emotions make him identifiable. Gardner demonstrateshis emotions when Grendel says, “why can’t I have someone to talkto?” I said. The stars said nothing, but I pretended to ignore therudeness. ‘The Shaper has people to talk to,’ I said. I wrung myfingers. ‘Hrothgar has people to talk to” (Gardner 53). This line isimportant because it shows how introspective Grendel’s thoughts areand it is the epitome of Gardner’s paradigm shift. That line breaksthe readers’ hearts and erases the images of Grendel the killer andreplaces them with Grendel the lonely victim. Farrell believes thatGardner is exposing Grendel as a victim to a corrupt society when shewrites, “some read Grendel as a Christian mirror reflecting the darkside of human nature back onto the Danes” (Farrell 937). Gardnerfurther creates a paradigm shift when Grendel questions the actionsof the Danes. Farrell describes that “the Danes reveal themselvesto be murderers within their own society. ‘I stepped on somethingfleshy, and jerked away. It was a man. They cut his throat. His clotheshad been stolen. I stared up at the hall, baffled, beginning to shake.’This random violence confuses Grendel even as he is guilty of similarviolence” (940). Gardner’s reversal of monstrosity is the beginning ofemily mastrobattisto 73