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Examples Of Empiricism In Grendel

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One literary term I observed throughout the last two chapters of Grendel is empiricism. Empiricism is a philosophical idea that a person’s knowledge is gained through knowledge. Throughout this book, Grendel has experience knowledge through both mankind and nature. Grendel had viewed his life as meaningless, going to the Danes’ territory and killing everything in sight. The reason he done this is that he felt that their religion shaped into a false reality about God. However, the Shaper dies and are left with a nihilistic view or atheistic view of life. Now, here in the last forefront of Grendel’s last moments with the Danes, he experiences what he believed in mankind. He says, “Tedium is the worst pain. The mind laid out Earth in blocks, and …show more content…

This quote clearly exemplifies empiricism as an experience where Grendel has now found a contrast between knowledge from the world and from one’s individual mind. Throughout the book, Grendel has faced with mankind from the time he was stuck in a trap in Chapter 2 to the Shaper’s death in Chapter 10. Grendel had focused his knowledge on the humans to comprehend his purpose on Earth. Because mankind feared him, he claimed, “Yet I exist, I knew. Then I alone exist, I said” (Gardner, p. 158). Because he has not found their religion amusing, he uses his solipsistic outlook where he can only find meaning. This enforced destruction against Danes in order for them to understand what he had experienced. He found them wise in intelligent thinking, but foolish in claiming truth. Grendel now knows that human experience is failing to perceive the truth about God and life. Another example of Gardner’s use of empiricism is when Grendel fought with this man [we describe him as …show more content…

As this book ends, it questions about if there is life worth living. Mankind today has destroyed the idea of truth their ancestors had created. Without this truth, it becomes harder for people to experience what people went through to find meaning. For example, Dr. King’s legacy would not have influence people today if he had no purpose. His legacy cause today’s people to look at racism as a scar against all races. Grendel’s struggle to find truth had a sad ending where his truth led him to death. People cannot know if there is an afterlife. The living people have no clue on what to look for. The dead has lost its physical existence, but not its truth. Tremendously, there could be a true reality that many people has not experience; the reason is that people cannot look at people’s experiences and see why people believe in different outlooks of life. It is imperative that people start looking towards the glorious life, especially Christians. No matter how life is, there is truth out there waiting for us to experience. However, in order to learn this truth, people must learn from other people’s experience to put the pieces of the puzzle together. In the end, the truth will soon be shown to all people. The question is: will people go towards the light or stay in the

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In the book, Grendel many theories were introduced. These theories were introduced because of the author, John Gardner, who wanted to go through the main ideas of Western Civilization and because Gardner wanted to relate the book to faith and reason. The theories that Gardner introduced were existentialism, nihilism, anarchy, and modernism. Although the theory that was constantly used by many of the characters was nihilism. Nihilism is a theory that moral principles and beliefs are meaningless and that life is useless and meaningless.

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His violent nature grew so much that he became crazy with the need to kill the humans. Therefore, Grendel’s actions reflect that his existence has drifted away from its partially civilized nature and into the barbaric. Grendel had no choice in becoming more beast than human because external forces constantly push him towards that fate. Whether it was the dragon, the actions of the humans, or Grendel’s own unconscious tendencies, he never really had the opportunity to make a choice, human or beast. What Grendel said and thought always clashed with the situations he encountered until there was simply no possibility of becoming the good in the way

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John Gardner gave Grendel emotions that the reader was able to see and hear through his own words. Grendel told tales of his childhood causing the reader to become invested in Grendel’s past giving the feeling of a connection. As in the way he describes instances of his imaginative play, “I use to play games when I was young…explored our far-flung underground world in an endless wargame of leaps onto nothing…quick whispered plottings with invisible friends” (Gardner 15). Consequently, this information gives the feeling of sympathy for Grendel, for his lonely childhood and circumstance. Gardner continues to play on the sympathies of the reader after Grendel’s first interaction with the Danes.

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