Loneliness That Kills: Grendel Vs. Cho

Paden Browning

Mrs. Fields

English 4/ Period 4

25 September 2014

Loneliness That Kills In Grendel, John Gardener tells the story of the monster who is known for his act of violence against the Danes and epically fighting Beowulf. Grendel, who was exiled from communities because of the Cain Curse, wreak havoc on the Danes by eating innocent men, women, and children. Grendel’s feelings of being exiled from the community and loneliness led him to these ludicrous acts of violence. Like Grendel, modern day mass shooters are different from everyone else, are ostracized from the outside world, and have a love for violence. Adam Lanza and Seung- Hui Cho are two mass murderers who lashed out their feelings committing a horrible crime. Adam Lanza

One of those victims was his mother and then he late shot himself. Seung- Hui Cho was another young man who created a massacre at Virginia Tech by shooting thirty two people and then himself. These two shooters compare to Grendel in their stories of exile from their communities and the way the handle their feelings towards the people that exclude them. Lanza and Cho were very different from everyone else, they both were mentally handicapped and were socially awkward. A doctor diagnosed Adam with “sensory- integration disorger” when he was in kindergarden(Solomon). Sensory- Integration Disorder is a disease in which the brain has trouble processing and responding to information through the five senses. Adam also had to go to speech therapy and occupational therapy at the ages five and six. Going to different therapies and different doctors at such a young age can be confusing and cause many

Lanza and Cho’s incidents could have been prevented. Secluding anyone from the outside world will hurt them more than help them and maybe the secludes themselves. In their cases, they felt that they were alone as did Grendel. We need to reach out to those people and make them feel loved so we can prevent actions like these. Lanza and Cho were two people who were different form the outside world and they knew that. All they wanted was to feel accepted but they couldn’t because they were simply just different. Lanza and Cho were both two young men who were lost in life and needed help to guid them back on the right