"Grendel": A Monster Fighting His Inevitable Nihilism.

John Gardner's literary masterpiece "Grendel" was created as a critique on modern philosophy. Nowhere was this more present than in Grendel's encounter with the Dragon in Chapter Five. During this particularly one sided conversation, the Dragon became an amalgam of many of modern philosophy's greatest minds. It was through this rather bleak encounter, that "Grendel" was pushed from trying to accept a mere existentialist philosophy to becoming an absolute nihilist. Existentialism is an "I" based philosophy. It is spawned from man's wish to seek out the meaning of existence and is almos…