Satire in John Gardners Grendel Essay - 597 Words

Satire in Grendel The state is an organization of violence, a monopoly in what it is pleased to call legitimate violence (Gardner, 119). This excerpt from John Gardners Grendel shows one of the many issues he deals with in his satire of man, and that is the issue of the use of violence in society. Gardner shows this throughout the book, but most prominently in chapter eight, in which we learn of the arrival of Hrothulf, Hrothgars nephew, at Herot. Hrothgar recognizes the evil in Hrothgars kingdom. He discusses the problems of the government with an old man known as Red Horse. The point made in the opening quote is that Mens violence is chained to good (i.e., to the king): legitimate force that chops off the†¦show more content†¦This is a satirical look at our sense of freedom. As a society, we often feel we are free. But are we? What is this freedom we think we have? Gardner shows us that the governments main objective is to satisfy the greed of the majority, the rest will do you no harm. Thats it. Youve still got your fiction of consent (Gardner, 118). And if things go wrong, the governments immediate reaction is to use force to gain their objective. Chapter eight states that when men quit work, the police move in. If the borders are threatened, the army rolls out (Gardner, 119). Therefore, the state is always in control. The people have freedom, but only to do what is acceptable to those in power. Is that true freedom? Gardner believes it is not. Public force is the life and soul of every state: not merely army and police but prisons, judges, tax collectors, every conceivable repression (Gardner, 119). So even though we believe we live in a free society, we are truly controlled and kept in line by the government at all times. For all of the pride humankind takes in its established government systems, they are flawed. And as for glorious revolutions that change the face of the government or replace one government with another, they are truly and simply the pitting of power against power, where the issue is freedom for the winners and enslavement ofShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Grendel And The Epic Of Beowulf 1294 Words   |  6 Pageswho does bad things. These definitions may not be so indubitable as John Gardner takes a hero and villain to a whole new level in his novel, Grendel. Throughout the years of novels and short stories, heroes and villains have been constructed as strictly good versus evil, but what if there is good in evil and evil in good? Grendel and the epic, Beowulf, revolve around this idea of heroes and villains and good versus evil. Gardner’s twist on the stereotypical hero leads to the true definition of a heroRead MoreThe Sonnet Form: William Shakespeare6305 Words   |  26 Pa gesimportant sonnet sequences of this period.) Sonnets were also written during the height of classical English verse, by Dryden and Pope, among others, and written again during the heyday of English Romanticism, when Wordsworth, Shelley, and particularly John Keats created wonderful sonnets. Today, the sonnet remains the most influential and important verse form in the history of English poetry. Two kinds of sonnets have been most common in English poetry, and they take their names from the greatest poets