January.15.2019
Q: How does Grendel's self-concept change from the beginning of the novel to the end?
The story Grendel tells about the process that how Grendel find his meaning of exist and his changing in self-concept. In the story, he lived with his indifferent mom and a group of people called Danes who want to kill him. This environment changed Grendel a lot, not only his thought, but also his self-concept. In the beginning of the story, he was just like a baby who is naive and dependent. But as he grew up, he gradually became evil and even a real independent monster.
The experience that Grendel had in the woods is the beginning of his changing in self-concept. For example, he wanted help from others when he caught his foot in the crack. He called his mom and cried loudly when he thought he is going to die. goodThis indicates that he really needs someone during this period and he thinks he is fragile. But after waiting, things changed. For instance, he thought of the cool eyes from other animals and kept hinting that no one actually care about him. From this we can see that he began to doubt his own existence and almost gave up himself. These are all examples of Grendel's shift in self-awareness.
Shaper playing an important role in the story, he and his stories influenced Grendel a lot. For example, Grendel mentions more than once that he likes Shaper's stories. The reason behind is that he found the meaning of existence. However as we know, in Shaper's story, Grendel is an evil monster who live in the dark side. From this we see that Grendel was trying to imitate the Grendel in the story and inadvertently became independent, strong, and had his own ideas about what he should be in the future.
What's more, Beowulf's appearance made Grendel changed into the end of his personality. For instance, before Beowulf's appearance, Grendel seemed killing as a fun thing to do, because as the Dragon's curse he can't be hurted by any weapons. After he found that Beowulf is stronger than him, he firstly thought that Danes will failed if they fight with him. From this we can see that he developed a state of schadenfreude. But when he realized that Beowulf was his enemy, he scared. And in the end of the story, he died because of Beowulf. It demonstrated that Grendel changed from a confident existence, into a weak, vengeful mind strong monster.
Self-concepts can be influenced by many factors. But for Grendel, the biggest one is the environment around him. Actually, the reason that he changed from a dependent one to a world-weary monster is just what he had experienced, which the most significant is the betrayal from humans. Although he had been cursed by God, he still can change his fate. But he can't because what others did on him can't let him realize this point. Thus, Grendel is not only a bad guy, but also a poor one.
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