In Gardner’s Grendel the main character, Grendel, is the narrator. Grendel in Beowulf is the monster and that’s all he is. He is this mechanical and maniacal being of destruction; there is no story or dynamic behind him. His whole life he has been evil and the rest of his life he will be evil. However, in the novel Grendel the reader can see an emotional side to Grendel; he seems more like a “tortured soul.” Grendel the monster starts looking just as human as those he observes. But even with sharing lineage so close to humans, it still sets them so far apart. Using the monster to narrate the story will, by contrast, shows what it is like to be human. Even though he is grotesque and has disgusting eating habits he very similar to humans. Gardner will show, throughout the novel, that Grendel’s brutal nature is not unique to him; the humans are also violent and hate driven creatures.
With his unique viewpoint Grendel can put himself in others shoes. Since his is a sort of “loner” he is not impressed by peers, like the humans. The humans have the “mob mentality” that if one of them is angry about something the others will feed off of their stories and also be angry about it. Grendel does not have this problem. With his point of view the story can be told in many different ways. Grendel will give insight into his own emotions and will also tell the story through other character’s point of views.
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