Curiosity in Grendel by John Gardner and Beowulf and Grendel, by Sturla Gunnarsson

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The book Grendel by John Gardner and the movie Beowulf and Grendel directed by Sturla Gunnarsson both portray the theme of curiosity. In both the book and the movie there are characters that have the trait of intellectual curiosity, and there are also those who lack this trait. In the book, Grendel’s personality contains this trait and Beowulf’s character does not, but in the movie Beowulf is the one with this trait, not Grendel. Grendel’s character in the book and Beowulf’s character in the movie both have an intellectual curiosity which seems to drive them to find out the truth.

The difference between Grendel’s intellectual curiosity in the book and movie is drastic. In the book Grendel is always questioning why certain situations and events happen, and why people act the way they do. Grendel is very curios about humans and he wants to find out the truth behind their actions and motives. In the book, Grendel finds a way into the human world and explores. He goes through the town trying to figure out how the people interact with one another and the world (16-45). Throughout this section Grendel is watching and learning. He is learning about how and why the humans do the things they do. Grendel is interested and curious about the humans, and he satisfies his inquisitiveness by watching the humans and eventually trying to interact with them. In the movie, Grendel’s character has a significant difference in his level of intelligence, which makes him not as curious about the outside world. In the movie Grendel is just torturing the Danes out of revenge, because they killed his father. He does not try to learn about the people, he does not question anything that they do, and he does not try to figure out the reason behind the Danes ...

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...r part of the actions and decisions the characters take and the way the audience views the characters. The story of Beowulf and Grendel would probably be very prominent in Anglo-Saxon culture today. This story is about the non-fictional history of the Anglo-Saxons, so they probably would want to study this story because it is part of their history. In the book Grendel and the movie Beowulf and Grendel the values of curiosity and intelligence are two major themes that both the book and the movie support. They both help to teach the true value that asking questions helps to raise personal awareness about the worldwide events throughout the society.

Works Cited

Beowulf and Grendel. Dir. Sturla Gunnarsson. Perf. Gerard Butler, Sarah Polley, and Stellan Skarsgard. Roundstone Communications, 2006. Film.

Gardner, John. Grendel. New York: Vintage, 1989. Print.

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