Grendel & Existentialism Essay Example for Free

Grendel Existentialism EssayI mute that the world was nobody a mechanical chaos of casual, brute enmity on which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears. I understood that, finally and absolutely, I alone exist. All the rest, I saw, is just what pushes me, or what I push against, blindly-as blindly as all that is not myself pushes back. Existentialism is a philosophy that I, personally, was unfamiliar with until we talked about it in class. The race between Grendel and existentialism was profound to me not only in the way that it drew lines of symmetry, except in the way that it helped me to interpret the concepts behind the philosophy. This quote spoke to me because it demonstrates how Grendel is pressured into living an existential philosopher lifestyle by the really forces that he says push upon him. Grendel delves into the psyche of a man-beast whose only choice is to react to the world as an existentialist the world (specifically mankind) exemplifies all of existentia lisms concepts, proving Grendels niche to be that of an existentialist. Dark chasms I wawl from the cliff-edge, seize me Seize me to your foul black bowels and crush my bones I am terrified at the sound of my own huge voice in the darkness At the same time, I am secretly un cleared. The uproar is only my own shriek, and chasms are, like all things vast, inanimate. They will not snatch me in a thousand years, unless, in a lunatic fit of religion, I jump. Grendel, pg. 10 Grendel knows that he is alone, despite his attempts to fool himself. This is ratified by his mothers inability to speak to him, the fear animals have of him, and the rejection he receives from mankind. He has no explanation for anything in existence due to his inability to communicate with anyone, until the dragon comes along. My knowledge of the next does not cause the future.It merely sees it, exactly as creatures at your low level recall things past. And stock-still if, say, I interfere even then I do not change the future, I merely do what I saw from the beginning. Thats obvious, surely. Lets say its settled then. So much for free will and intercession Grendel, pg. 63 Lack of free will is another concept of existentialism. Grendels previously mentioned lack of communication makes him eager to soak up any idea that the dragon shares with him, and in conclusion he takes this to mean that his war on the mead hall was not done of his own free will, but because it was his future as the dragon foresaw it.