The following essay shows how the central character in Gardner's novel, Grendel, moves away from a nihilistic sense of self
and toward what eastern philosophies describe as a sense of enlightenment. From the paper: "In his very early days, even the evil, man-eating Grendel was an innocent
creature. "I lived those years, as do all young things, in a spell. Like a puppy nipping, playfully growling preparing for battle with wolves" (Gardner 16). It is only when he ventures into the world and gets caught in a tree from which he is unable to escape, that he experiences his first fears that the world is not as he had previously conceived it to be. With his foot stuck in the tree and a bull repeatedly charging, but missing him, Grendel comes to a realization. "I understood that, finally and absolutely, I alone exist. All the rest, I saw, is merely what pushes me or what I push against, blindly . . ." (Gardner 22). It is also during this particular scene that Grendel first comes into contact with men."