Grendel

In Grendel, the ideas that reflect what many assume to be “known” in the world, whether by religion or tradition, are challenged. The notions of fate and free will are thought of in terms of the purpose of living by Grendel. A monster-like creature who seems to spend the majority of his time reveling in his human-eating glory, often reflects on his own purpose in the world. He wonders whether someone has a plan for him or if he is in control of his own life. Grendel continues to question his existence at the end of the novel. This most likely occurs because the answer to his question is not definite; it can only be explored and debated, as Grendel does in his own mind. His real struggle, however, lies in trying to find the truth in good and evil. Grendel kills, but he claims to have a decent reason. He ruthlessly murders the humans of Herot because he is trying to bring light to the idea that there is no purpose in the world – only being alive. In this sense, Grendel tries to be the Prometheus of Herot, ultimately making him the protagonist and the idea of God the antagonist in the story.
Grendel sees God as his enemy because he finds that the people are blind sighted by their belief in him. God is the one who prevents Grendel from bringing his light to Herot, showing people the truth of the world. The idea that God has a plan for each and every one of his creations is absurd to Grendel. Though all of Herot sees Grendel as evil, Grendel himself does not. He believes that no one has a predetermined plan for him and professes that he has created a plan for himself – teaching the humans that they have no purpose. Grendel does not see himself as evil because in his mind, there is no evil. The idea of “evil” is relative to each person. What the Geats and the Danes find evil, Grendel does not. In fact, his opinion of what is evil is the exact opposite of theirs. The Geats and the Danes see Grendel as evil and God as the ultimate good. Grendel sees God as his enemy, and the Geats and the Danes are his pointless servants.
In the end, Grendel continues to question his purpose in the world. However, the reader can say that part of his self-proclaimed purpose has been found and met. Grendel acts upon his own free will to try to teach the Hrothgar and his kingdom what he already believes to be fact. Rather than shying away from his efforts when he knows Hrothgar wants him dead, Grendel returns to the castle to continue to mercilessly murder the people of the meadhall in order to prove his point. His perseverance is depicted by the relentlessness of his attacks. Even in death, Grendel proves that he has been the decider of his fate. If he had not gone to the meadhall to confront Grendel, he would not have died. Therefore, it can be said that Grendel, as the protagonist, wins.

The Problem of Evil

With Christianity as the core explanation of how the world was both originally created and exists today, evil should not exist. If God is “love” as the Bible says, why is it that such an influx of hate and immorality exists? Christians and the Bible claim that God created the Universe, from start to finish, in the book of Genesis. The Devil is often blamed for tempting sinners, but if God created the universe, He must have created the Devil as well. Even if God did create the Devil, He is supposedly the most powerful being in the world. So why is it that the Devil is able to tempt humans, but God cannot dissuade them from surrendering themselves to these temptations?
There are multiple supposed explanations for this, but none of them display God in a flawless, amorous manner, the way that Christians and the Bible do. It is not likely that God would have created the Devil to be just as powerful as He. The Bible claims that nothing in the world existed before God, so it cannot be possible that the Devil simply existed next to God. God must have created the Devil. Therefore, God created evil. This portrays God as partially malevolent. Therefore, He is imperfect. With this notion, God must have created both Beowulf and Grendel. Beowulf, a God-like warrior, kills to defend his people. Evil can be seen in this as well, depending on the perspective it is viewed from. Grendel is considered evil for barbarically killing the Danes, but Beowulf is seen as evil to Grendel’s mother after the defeat of the so-called monster. There is evil in both Beowulf and Grendel – both of them being God’s creations.
A flawed God is not what comes to mind when most Christians think of who they believe to be their creator. Of course, this was most likely not the intended idea. Could it be that God is not flawed, but instead, Christianity in general? Ideas conveyed with little to no explanation make this likely. The Christian religion often alters concepts they believe to be true when proven wrong by science or other outside forces. Of course, they are usually philosophies created in earlier times, used to explain some unknown phenomena in the world. But the idea that God is somewhat evil does not only change the religion, it drastically ruptures the image of the God that Christians are devoted to. Could it be possible that the Christians have been wrong about their God all along? Or does he not exist at all? There may be other explanations, but as always, they are derived from matters of both faith and opinion.

Imperial Adam

In Imperial Adam, A.D. Hope portrays a woman as a seductive creature when he writes, “She promised the turf of Paradise/ Delicious pulp of the forbidden fruit; / Sly as the snake she loosed her sinuous thighs (L22-23).” By this description, Hope seems to be saying that the woman has been placed upon the Earth by God to seduce the man; she is his temptress. In this case, the man exists to be tempted into committing what seems to be a sin, but is actually surrendering himself to an act that serves as the window to procreation. This can also be seen as the woman being portrayed as an evil being, similarly to the devil. The devil, in both the Bible and modern literature, is known to tempt his subjects into selling their souls to him. Similarly, in this passage, the woman is trying to seduce Adam, causing him to long for the “delicious pulp of the forbidden fruit” that is her body. Like the devil, the woman is sly and knows the object of her game of arousing the man. She is aware that he yearns for the lusciousness of her body and encourages him to fulfill his desires by the relentlessness of her seduction.

Invisible Man Essay

The primary conclusion that the Invisible Man comes to by the end of the novel is that the majority of groups in society do not genuinely want the best for one another. One group spends much of their time trying to convince the other that they are on the same side, when in reality, this is not so. Because of the racial, economic, and other social differences between societal groups, they find that they cannot be honest with one another because their ideas may not be “politically correct.” Therefore, the whites in New York try to convince the blacks that they are working toward the common good of the entire community, when in reality, they are only trying to better themselves.

The Invisible Man also sees the truth in his grandfather’s words that repeatedly resonate in his head. He begins to understand that his grandfather was correct – the blacks serve the whites and “yes them to death,” and as a man who went against the grain in the riots toward the end of the novel, the Invisible Man can be seen as a “traitor” just like his grandfather. The narrator also realizes that the whites do the same to the blacks. In the Brotherhood, the white members constantly told their black “brothers” that they were on their side. They claimed to want equality in society through nonviolence. Though we find out that they were actually trying to produce riots amongst the black members of society, they spent the majority of their time telling the black men that they were working for the common good. This idea could be seen as the white man’s “yes” to the black man.

With all of his experiences throughout the North and South, the Invisible Man has every right to see society the way that he does. He was constantly lied to by Dr. Bledsoe in the South and Brother Jack in the North. It is no wonder that he would feel betrayed by not only the blacks of power, but also the whites who claimed to be on his side. The truth of the matter is that the Invisible Man originally wanted to be a strong black man of power in society who earnestly did want equality for all societal groups. Formerly believing that the rest of his professors and “brothers” wanted the same, his disappointment thoroughly justifies his views of society.