Grendel and the Wild Things

After reading the first few chapters of Grendel by John Gardner and then looking into the art on the novel’s cover, I was distinctly reminded of some lost part of my childhood that had recently been re-imprinted on my mind- Where The Wild Things Are. The creatures from the short children’s book, Where the Wild Things Are are ferocious and fearsome. They’re given multiple, more adult dimensions in the recent film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are. Fluffy, surreal monsters are rife with human insecurities (difficultly with emotional expression and low confidence among other eccentricities) that are revealed as Max, the little boy who wants to be a monster invades their midst and crowns himself their king (and it is interesting to note that the monsters put up very little argument). Max, juxtaposed against Grendel, the monster who pities his own lot as an outcast from human society, provides an interesting contrast and makes me question if it is possible to truly “fit in” where one is supposed to.

Max is a little human boy who, try as he might, cannot really feel comfortable with the people and society surrounding him. He clearly suffers from some psychological disorders, as evidenced by his raving, flailing, and other destructive tendencies. When I examine these characteristics of Max and compare them to Grendel’s personality, the similarities are striking. Neither creature fits in with society. Max believes that he doesn’t want to fit in among people and Grendel just longs for an end to his loneliness, whether by death or acceptance. After comparing the two, I get the feeling that Gardner’s Grendel can be described as a characterization of mental disease- the chaotic thoughts, emotional turmoil, and separateness from society that identify such disorders are all basic parts of Grendel’s being.

Max leaves the humans and is embraced (mostly) by monsters (“We’ll eat you up we love you so”) who, funnily, in the book Where the Wild Things Are express the same sort of simple animalistic feelings that Grendel’s mother shows to Grendel through her wailing and scratching. Grendel doesn’t fit in amongst man or beast: “There was nothing, or, rather, there was everything but my mother.” Both characters are raised by single mothers (in the movie version of Where the Wild Things Are, that is) and I get the feeling that this concept of a broken family is significant in the way that Grendel’s and Max’s personalities were shaped. The fact that Max’s own loving mother was unable to get through to him, to find the boy beneath the monster, makes it sadder that Grendel’s mother is incapable of even attempting the same for her son- Max has a future, he has hope for improvement and integration into society, as his reconciliation with his mother at the end of his story suggests. Grendel, on the other hand, has no one to possibly form a meaningful bond with. His angry existence is doomed to continue like before until he meets his sudden and violent death.